Quote:
Originally Posted by Unregistered
So why did Paul say God gave some as teachers, and no one says a word? Why did Paul refer to himself as a "begetting father" to the saints and everyone looks the other way?
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There is a difference between being a gifted teacher (which we so desperately need) and being put in the position of "Teacher". Witness Lee was put into both that position and that of "Father" i.e. spiritural father, by many in the LC. This is what Jesus was warning against.
Let's see if I can illustrate here (I'm awfully tired today so this may not work well)...
Say God gives a person.... "Joe" the gift of teaching (as outlined in Ephesians). If he works the gift God gave him for the building of the Church (as is intended), there are likely to be some who start to regard him as a great teacher. He may well BE a great teacher. However, at some point, the regard as a great teacher takes precedence over the fact that his teaching is a gift from God. People start to follow Joe, and after time, Joe gets a swollen head and thinks "I AM a great teacher". At this point, we see the danger of not following Jesus' words. Joe's followers are no longer following Christ, who is the true teacher. They are now following Joe, whose source of teachings had always been Christ. Joe at this time is also likely to toss off any sort of accountability to his brothers, as he thinks he is so much better than them, and they should be listening to him, he has no reason to listen to them...
Sound familiar?
The problem in this story is not that Joe was a gifted teacher. It was not that people recognized the gift in Joe and were willing to be taught by him. The problem was when they put him on a pedestal, and he started to accept the credit for God's work.
The problem (similarly) with recognizing others as your spiritual father is that that puts credit on the vessel God chose to do work in you, rather than on God himself. Yes, we are blessed by having those who are in fact our spiritual fathers to the extent that God used them to bring us to Him. However, once we start to give those spiritual fathers more credit than is due to them, we fall into the danger of following their every move, whether it is of God or not. The accountability is once again lost on the part of the "spiritual father", and he is able to manipulate you into doing anything.
This is why Jesus taught us (in the context of speaking of the Pharisees)
NOT to call another Rabbi (or master)... we are all brothers, all equal...
NOT to call another father... our only spiritual Father is God the Father...
NOT to call another teacher... our only teacher is to be Christ.
Later, Paul mentions that we are not to be "of Paul" or "of Peter" or "of Apollos" or "of Christ". We are to accept teaching from wherever it comes, as long as we check that it is truly from God. We should not be followers of any man.