In schools and colleges today there are a great many subjects being taught. Teachers are trained to specialise in their particular subjects. Suppose different teachers were to teach very different information about the same subject - what chaos that would cause! How would anyone ever know what was right, or be able to pass exams?
There is a subject that this does happen with! Different teachers often teach very different things about the particular subject that I have in mind - can you guess what it is? I'm thinking of the subject of religion, or of how to please God.
If you seriously want to please God, you need to be sure you are agreeing with what GOD thinks, and not just believing something that agrees with what you think is right, or that some religion thinks is right. (Isaiah 55:6-9. Matthew 15:8-9.) Let us learn from Jesus' teachings how to recognise what is reliable religious truth.
Anyone who followed Jesus, or who listened seriously to His teachings, would be left in no doubt about who He was and where He had come from. (John 3:2, 10:36-39. 20:29-31.) When Jesus said, "I have come down from Heaven not to do My own will but to do the will of Him who sent Me," this explained why His life and His teachings were so wonderful. (verse 38.) But even with all the evidence being in His favour the Jews still would not believe in Him. (John 1:11-18, 5:89-40. 6:36.)
Here's how Jesus explained God's purpose in sending Him: "That I shall lose none of all that He has given He, but raise them up at the last day. For My Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have Eternal Life, and I will raise him up at the last day." (verses 39-40,)
Still the Jews grumbled on about Him: "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can He now say, 'I came down from Heaven'?
"Stop grumbling among yourselves," Jesus answered. "No-one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets: 'They will all be taught by God'. Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from Him comes to Me." (verses 41-45. Matthew 16:15-17.)
So, you see, the Great Teacher is GOD, and of course God teaches us that we should trust in His Son whom He sent to be the Saviour of the world. (John 3:16-19. 1st John 4:14.) When a person who wants forgiveness chooses to trust in the words and actions of a fellow-man instead of trusting Jesus alone - that person is not accepting God as his/her teacher. That person will NOT receive the gift of Eternal Life that God offers through Jesus alone. (John 3:36. Acts 13:38-46.) Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life." (verse 47.)
It is very, very important that you should be willing to check all religious teachings with the Word of God, the Holy Bible. (Acts 17:11. John 12:48.)
Read in John's Gospel chapter 6, verses 37-47 of Jesus saying that we need to be taught by GOD.
John Nixon, Cork, Ireland. P31HD98. Contact: jnixonj@gmail.com
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