Being Taught by God

“14 But when it was now the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and began to teach. 15 The Jews then were astonished, saying, ‘How has this man become learned, having never been educated?’ 16 So Jesus answered them and said, ‘My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me. 17 ‘If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself. 18 ‘He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.’"                 John 7:14-18 

In John 6:45, Jesus quoted from Isaiah 54:13 saying, “And they shall be taught of God”. When the Jews asked Jesus where He got His learning, they were shocked at His response. Normally, religious learning came either from a traditional school or having been self-taught. But Jesus was saying He had been given the teaching (Greek word “didache” meaning the thing taught, precept, doctrine) by God. In fact, in John 8:28, He said, “I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me”.  Jesus is introducing a new concept that new covenant believers will be taught by God, just as Jeremiah 31:34 prophesied: “They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them”.

He goes on to say that there is a direct link between knowing the teaching and a willingness to do it, to obey it. He is speaking of understanding from the heart. New covenant faith comes from believing the teaching from the heart, knowing that it comes from God and not some contrived notion or private interpretation of Scripture by man. Knowing God comes from being taught by God and being taught by God requires humility (Psalm 25:9). In Psalm 25:4-5, “Make me know Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; for You I wait all the day”.  David understood the need for God to do the teaching. David’s heart to be taught by God is an example to all new covenant believers.

Creation of the Mishnah

So much of learning is in the form of an academic pursuit of a subject, whether it be secular or sacred, and requires no heart to be engaged. Jesus sited this issue in Matthew 15 when quoting from Isaiah 29:13: “Then the Lord said, ‘Because this people draw near with their words and honor Me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from Me, and their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote’”. The idea being communicated is that the Jews were interested in learning the traditions or precepts of man, by rote, meaning by repetition, mechanical, in a sense memorizing the rules that man has created rather than focusing on the priorities of God (see also Matthew 23:23). The precepts of man is a reference to the laws the rabbis and other Jewish leaders created to complement the 613 Laws of Moses given at Mount Sinai. 

After the Jews were allowed to return to Jerusalem following the Babylonian captivity, Jewish leaders came together to come up with a strategy that would help the nation avoid breaking the Law of Moses and end up with similar or even worse punishment. They had also seen the number of Jews dwindle dramatically as a result of various uprisings. As a result of these concerns, the Mishnah was created, led by Rabbi Judah the Prince so as to record in written form the Oral Law, that is the laws that men of faith had created over the years to properly implement and administrate the 613 Laws of Moses. In the process, more than 5,000 laws were written down and now enforced by Jewish leadership as a “fence” around Moses’ Laws, the idea being that so long as the Mishnah was more stringent than God’s Laws, breaking the Mishnah would not create the same response from God as previously. In the process, the Jews created a man-made system that took men’s hearts away from God. 

In Matthew 15:1-11, Jesus refers to the Mishnah (tradition of the elders) and its requirements that went far beyond the Law of Moses related to the laws of cleanliness and the commandments dealing with honor of father and mother in Exodus 20:12 and Exodus 21:17. Jesus was specifically addressing this problem created by literal and strong enforcement of the Mishnah on the Jewish people. The Mishnah had gone so far as to invalidate the Word of God (“And by this you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition” - verse 6), all in the name of making the Jews more holy! In Matthew 23, Jesus said that this man-made system, even in the name of God was “because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves” (verse 15). Jesus was exposing the principle that altering the Word of God by adding to, taking away from, or privately interpreting Scripture is a grave mistake. Revelations 22:18-19 says, “I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book”. And in 2Peter 1:20, “But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation”. The Word of God is pure unto itself (Psalm 119:140) and requires no alterations by man.

Willing

Getting back to John 7, Jesus addresses an important principle in relation to receiving the teaching of God in verse 17. “If anyone is willing [Greek word “thelee” meaning minded] to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself”. To receive and properly understand the teaching, one must be willing to obey it. And if you receive it in this way, with an open heart, you will know that it came from God; there will be no confusion. The Holy Spirit brings discernment about that which comes from God and what does not. In 1John 4:1, the Word of God says, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world”.

The one who lives by and proclaims the pure teaching of God brings glory to God while the one who alters it for his own interest seeks his own glory. He continues in verses 22-24 to site a situation where the Jews have made a lesser law, like circumcision, more important than healing a man completely on the Sabbath. This reference may be related to the man Jesus healed on the Sabbath at the gate of Bethesda in John 5. Being motivated by the heart of God will always allow the believer to discern the right response to the circumstances at hand. 

Overcoming shortcomings

If we are to speak as God’s representative, we must be taught by God and not by man-made precepts. God promises to fill our mouths through His teaching. A great example of this is Moses, who was insecure about his ability to speak to Pharaoh as God had commanded. In Exodus 4:10-17, Moses pleads with the Lord not to have to speak since he has never been able to speak eloquently (some scholars suggest he had a speech impediment). The Lord assured him that whatever shortcomings Moses had with his speaking abilities would be no problem to overcome. He promised Moses that “I, even I, will be with your mouth, and teach you what you are to say”. When Moses doubts continued, the Lord reminded Moses that his brother, Aaron would be there also and the Lord would speak through Aaron as well. In verse 15, “You are to speak to him and put the words in his mouth; and I, even I, will be with your mouth and his mouth, and I will teach you what you are to do”. God was promising to teach Moses and Moses was to teach Aaron what to say. And to reveal the authority of Moses and Aaron, the Lord would perform three signs or miracles. A similar issue existed with the Apostle Paul and he wrote about it in his first letter to the Corinthians. 

Paul most likely recognized that he had shortcomings related to being able to speak with eloquence, but he did not let that deter him from being God’s spokesman to establish the New Testament church in the gentile world. In fact, he states in 1 Corinthians 2:4-5, that his weakness in this area was to manifest the power of God over the giftedness of man which would point men’s faith toward God and away from man. The key statement is found in verse 2, “For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified”. The significant point is that Paul placed importance not on anything he knew, but the mysteries that God would reveal through him as he focused his attention on Jesus Christ, the person, and Him crucified, the message of the gospel. In this way, Paul was emphasizing that God would give him everything he needed for each situation he faced. God wants to use His people as His mouthpiece, that the work of Christ would continue throughout the New Testament age. God will use anyone who agrees to be taught by God.

Continue in the teaching

9 Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting; 11 for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds.             2 John 9-11 

The apostle John goes on in his second letter to explain that being taught by God is not a one-time event, but something that becomes a way of life. He uses the Greek word “meno” which is translated abide, remain, or continue in. When the believer allows himself to be taught by God as a lifestyle, he “has the Father and the Son”. Anyone who comes to you in the name of the Lord yet is not speaking only from God as having been taught by God, one should not receive such a one into his house. There were many false teachers in the days when John wrote this letter and that condition is also prevalent today. 

False teaching in the name of the Lord takes on many forms and Paul identifies them as “philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world” in Colossians 2:8. They are intended to take you captive, removing you from the power that God manifests through believers who are personally connected to Christ in mind (teaching) and spirit. When Christ is our all in all, we are made complete and therefore need nothing else. It reminds us of David’s statement in Psalm 23, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want”. When believers are circumcised to Christ, they are fully satisfied.