Teaching and Accountability

James 3:1 My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. 
 
Every pastor and Bible teacher should consider carefully God’s warning in James 3:1. He will require a strict accounting of how we have presented Him and His word to the world.  That actually applies to everyone who claims to be speaking for God.  Consider the Lord’s words to Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar; the men who counseled Job during the time of his testing. 
 
Job 42:7 & 8 And so it was, after the Lord had spoken these words to Job, that the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is aroused against you and your two friends, for you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has.   Now therefore, take for yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, go to My servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and My servant Job shall pray for you. For I will accept him, lest I deal with you according to your folly; because you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has.”       
 
I fear much of what those 3 men said would find acceptance in many churches today while some of Job’s words would not.  Think about that.  Better yet read Job for yourself and see if I’m right.  Job’s 3 friend’s comments sound good, they seem rational even sensible.  And they were still wrong.  God is nothing at all like us.  Which is why Paul urges us to renew our minds.  Adopt a Biblical mindset by letting the word of God abide in us.  
 
Isaiah 55:8 & 9 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. 9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.
 
So, take the Apostle John’s advice and test what you hear against the word of God.  The Holy Spirit’s leading will never be inconsistent with what God has revealed in the Bible.
 
1 John 4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
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