Who are you teaching?

Romans 1:7
To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Sometimes when I read the Bible, specifically the New Testament, more specifically Romans through Philemon, I think to myself, “Wow, that Paul was a pompous know-it-all.” Perhaps you’ve felt the same way at times. Paul, though full of the Spirit, has a unique way of boldly pointing out where you have really gone astray.

Paul is a very straight forward, “tell it like it is” kind of guy. There were no gray areas in the relationships Paul had with the people he loved. He wrote his letters and spelled out to his friends and brothers exactly what they were doing wrong and what they needed to do to fix it. Sometimes he hurt their feelings. (Sometimes he hurts my feelings!) Perhaps he was considered by some of the church leaders to whom he wrote as not “bought in”. Maybe he just didn’t understand the mission and direction the church was going in her quest to reach the unchurched. Maybe, instead of writing letters, he should have just moved on because he wasn’t part of that church anymore.

We, today’s church, get sermon series and Biblical fix-its from Paul’s letters that we accost the people with on Sunday mornings. We attempt to force-feed the entire congregation (believers and non-believers alike) the corrections that Paul intended for the church leadership. Paul wasn’t writing to the entire congregation of the church. He was writing specifically to the leaders. The Spirit of God stirred up Paul and used his tell-it-like-it-is personality to lay it all out for the church leaders because they had strayed away from the Gospel message.

The churches were beginning to teach life lessons, fix-it programs, and religion. They had forgotten the most important part of the message, that is, the grace and love of Jesus Christ. There are many lessons to be learned from Paul’s letters to the churches, but the most important one is this: Stay true the gospel that you were teaching from the beginning. Hold fast to the grace and love of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Proclaim His name, His forgiveness, and His salvation throughout the land.

In Acts 1:14 and 2:1 the Bible tells us that they (the disciples-about 120) were all “with one accord”. This means they were all teaching and believing and discussing the SAME thing. They weren’t talking about whether pigs were okay to eat. They weren’t talking about what translation of the Bible was more correct. They weren’t talking about whether or not the professionalism of the praise band was adequate. They were all talking and teaching one thing: Jesus Christ came, He died, He was raised from the dead, and He sits at the right hand of the Father. ALL sins are forgiven through Him and salvation is through His Grace.

Paul prefaces every one of his letters with some statement of blessing. He tells each church, “Grace to you.........and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” He opens his letter with the exact message that the church needs to get back to teaching. He’s telling them, “Hey guys, stop acting like that. You know that the Grace of Jesus Christ is the only thing that’s going to change people’s lives. Stop teaching all of this religion and start teaching Grace again.”