Mat 23:1 Then spake Jesus to the multitudes and to his disciples,
Mat 23:2 saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses seat:
Mat 23:3 all things therefore whatsoever they bid you, [these] do and observe: but do not ye after their works; for they say, and do not.
Mat 23:4 Yea, they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with their finger.
Mat 23:5 But all their works they do to be seen of men: for they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders [of their garments],
Mat 23:6 and love the chief place at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues,
Mat 23:7 and the salutations in the marketplaces, and to be called of men, Rabbi.
Mat 23:8 But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your teacher, and all ye are brethren.
Mat 23:9 And call no man your father on the earth: for one is your Father, [even] he who is in heaven.
Mat 23:10 Neither be ye called masters: for one is your master, [even] the Christ.
Mat 23:11 But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.
Mat 23:12 And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be humbled; and whosoever shall humble himself shall be exalted.
Mat 23:13 But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye shut the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye enter not in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering in to enter[.]
Mat 23:14 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, even while for a pretence ye make long prayers: therefore ye shall receive greater condemnation.
Mat 23:15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he is become so, ye make him twofold more a son of hell than yourselves.
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The Recovery Version has "instructors" in verse 10, and the footnote says it also can be translated guides, teachers, or directors. It seems to me that we can trample over the words of Christ in our hurry to be "biblical" and model our living after Paul. Paul writes to the Ephesians that God gave evangelists, prophets, shepherds, teachers, apostles to the assembly of the called out ones, for the building up of His corporate expression.
My question is, does our rush to delineate ourselves according to the "New Testament way" shown by Paul obviate the words of Christ, not to call anyone Rabbi, or Father, or guide? We were told upon entry into the Local Churches how the Catholics disregard the word of the Lord by calling the priests "Father", when there is only one Father, who is God. But we were happy to delineate ourselves by other words not expressly prohibited by Christ. But is this not the same thing? Are we not playing games, taking titles and giving "chief seats" to the elders up front?
My sense is that we were a little too smug, thinking we had laid hold...
I don't limit this criticism to the Local Churches, either. I have a dear christian friend who once in conversation said that we all need to be so delineated. I had told him that I was a "believer", but he said, "If you want to be used by God, to please Him, you need to be one of these things. So what are you?" He then listed all the qualifications for each position. Like in the army, you have to have some "rank". You can't be an undifferentiated soldier. You have to be a private, sergeant, lieutenant, corporal, or general. So I told him, "I am an apostle".
That calmed him down for a bit.
I know I am opening myself up to criticism here, for at least obliquely criticising Paul. It just seems to me to be at least potentially a conflict. Even we who were in the Local Churches, thinking ourselves so "scriptural", and translating verse 10 as "instructors", we ourselves had a full time instructor, our very own "Bible teacher", sitting up front training us, day after day, and now have a bevy of wannabe's following suit. Now they have decided "teacher" wasn't lofty enough, and have posthumously bestowed upon him the title "apostle of the age".
I am trying to put the discussions we are having about the Local Churches into what seems to me to be a better perspective. The problems did not arise when Constantine decided to be head of the fellowship of the believers, and the believers embraced a worldly and temporal king. No, the marriage to the world was set up long before that.
I merely ask the readers to go back to the words of Christ, and consider how deeply they cut. And I wonder, in
djohnson's estimable words, how much we
all have been "playing in the sandbox". Playing church, giving one another titles and chief seats and reverence, but and ignoring our teacher, Christ.
I hope this word is not too sharp. I myself am nothing, and have amounted to nearly nothing. But I have the words of Christ before me, and I cannot help but consider, what to do with these words? Hopefully I have not been impertinent for considering aloud. May God cover us all with bountiful grace to receive each other's sentiments on this forum, and elsewhere.