My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment.    James 3:1 NKJV

I believe that the two most important things we can do as Christians is to trust and obey. I know I talk about this often and you may even be tired of hearing me say this, but this is what we are called to do.

We have to trust because we know from Hebrews 11:6 that without faith it is impossible to please God. We also know from 1 Samuel 15:22 that God desires obedience over sacrifice.

In today’s world there are so many so-called teachers and preachers out there it may be hard to determine who we can trust and who we can’t. I can tell you as a baby Christian that I was so hungry and thirsty for God’s word when I first surrendered my life to Him, that I was like a sponge trying to soak it all in. This led me to false teachers. Through prayer and Bible study and listening to good bible teaching and preaching I was eventually able to discern when a teacher was a phony.

And sadly, I have listened and participated in Bible studies from some female teachers that I truly believe were good teachers but then the fame and fortune got hold of them and they began to stray. I’ll explain what I mean about that in a minute.

Teaching others is a huge responsibility when it comes to teaching God’s word. This is what James is explaining here. This doesn’t mean that those who are called to teach should not do it because of the heavy responsibility. It just means that they should take it very seriously and be careful to follow God’s word. They should be careful to rightly divide God’s word.

Matthew 12:36 tells us we will be held accountable for every word we speak. This includes all of us. But again from our Scripture passage, we know that teachers will be held to a higher standard.

So, how do we know if someone is a false teacher? The first thing we should do is always pray for wisdom and discernment. We know that if we pray for wisdom, God gives it liberally without reproach.

And the next and probably the most important thing we should do is stay in God’s word. We should always make sure that whatever any teacher says aligns with God’s word. Also look at how they live their life. Does this align with God’s word? With social media and the internet these days, it is so easy to know what people are up to. False teachers will become more and more popular because most of them have built a following based on telling people what they want to hear. We all want to hear that whatever we do is okay. We want encouragement and sadly some of these teachers are simply good motivational speakers. They are good at telling us that all is good and God understands our sin.

We are told in 2 Timothy 4:3 that there will come a time when people  will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables.

They don’t speak the truth because they understand that we don’t really want to hear the truth. The truth will set us free (John 8:32). Unfortunately, the truth often hurts. The truth often requires us to make some serious changes.

There are many big-name teachers out there that have gone astray or were just false teachers to begin with. Don’t get caught up in their teaching. Sadly, there were some really good female teachers who I believe started out well with good intentions, but they got caught up in this movement of women who seemed to succumb to fame and do things like preach and teach to men as well.

To avoid being misled, pray for wisdom, study your Bible and make sure that whoever is teaching you is aligning their teaching with God’s word. Don’t be afraid to question any inconsistencies.

Have a great day!