Held to a Higher Standard

I had a wonderful time this week.

It was my privilege to teach an adult class on the life of a man of God who lived in the 1600’s.

This man devoted his life to improving education for children.

This man felt that education would help lift mankind out of the cycle of cruelty and war.

His methods were nothing short of revolutionary.

In his view, education should not be limited to boys born to elite families.

Rather, education should be for everyone including girls.

He reasoned that a child’s first teacher would be his mother.

Therefore, it was important that the mother be educated as well.

People resist change.

As a result, people would resist the changes he recommended.

Education in his day consisted of rote memorization.

Boys who could not recite the lesson verbatim were often punished and humiliated.

At this point one of my students reminded me of this verse from James.

James 3:1 (NET) - Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, because you know that we will be judged more strictly.

I agreed that a teacher who uses punishment and humiliation to motivate students should not teach.

I also shared with my class that this same verse made me consider teaching very carefully.

This applies to this class I teach one per year and the one I teach every Sunday morning.

After all, who in their right mind would be willing to teach knowing they would be held to a higher standard?

For me, the beginning of comfort was found in Romans 12 where Paul discusses gifts.

Romans 12:7 (NET) - If it is service, he must serve; if it is teaching, he must teach;

Paul reminds us that those of us given the gift of teaching must teach.

He does not say we should.

He said we must.

We must however do so with care.

We must give God the glory and we must present scripture as God has given it to us.

We must never take it out of context or pick out the parts we like while disregarding the rest.

If you are called to teach, then teach; even if it means being held to a higher standard.

Simply trust God and give Him the glory.

Blessings,

Jim Pokorny

The Other Brother Jim

Look for me at http://otherbrotherjim.blogspot.com/ on Friday, June 14, 2019.

I’ll be back here on Friday, June 21, 2019