To Teach, or not to Teach

One thing I have been puzzled about is the tension between James 3:1 and Hebrews 5:12

Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment. (James 3:1)

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. (Hebrews 5:12)

Well at first glance it seems that these two texts are contradicting one another. One says that not many should not aspire to teaching because there will be a stricter judgement. The other says that one thing that naturally comes with maturity is to be teachers. These people weren't ready to be teachers because of their spiritual immaturity, but they should have been teaching. So how do these fit together? The Greek word will not help. It is the same Greek word used in both verses. I will let you guys help me on this one too. I know there are some exegetical geniuses out there that read my blog, so let er rip!

Why memorize scripture?

This is from a devotional I prepared for our youth group. One of my resolutions is to memorize the fighter verses (used by John Piper @ Desiring God and Bethlehem Baptist church in Minneapolis) for the year 2006. If you following this program, you will have memorized one strategicly chosen passage of scripture each week to help you fight the fight of faith. It is my goal to do this. Here are some motivations for so doing:


1. To know specifics about God
2. To know specifics about His commands (1 John 5:2-3; 2 John 1:6)
3. To know the promises of God (2 Peter 1:1-4)
4. To be transformed by the renewing of your mind (Romans 12:1-2)
5. To avoid sinning against God (Psalm 119:9-11; Luke 4:1-13)
6. To be strong in times of adversity (Psalm 1:1-3)
7. To be a Christian sage (Proverbs 22:17-21)
Definition for sage: One venerated for experience, judgment, and wisdom.
8. To become what you think about (Proverbs 23:7)
9. To learn, support, and defend sound doctrines of the Christian faith
10. To promote Biblical prayers

Different types of verses to memorize:
a. Verses that tell about the attributes of God ("The Lord is gracious, slow to anger," etc.)
b. Verses that tell about the positive commands (i.e. "You shall love your neighbor...")
c. Verses that tell about the negative commands (i.e. "You shall have no other gods before Me")
d. Verses that aren't commands, but that help you be wise and live life and avoid pitfalls (Proverbs)
e. Verses that tell about the promises of God (i.e. "I will remember their sins no more")
f. Verses that teach solid doctrine and help us understand the gospel and our salvation (i.e. "By grace you have been saved through faith")
g. Verses that are models for good prayers (i.e. the Lord's prayer, Ephesians 1, Ephesians 3, etc.)

It is good for us to memorize all these different categories of scriptures in order to have our minds transformed into the mind of Christ. This, with the Holy Spirit's help will cause us to begin to not only think the way Christ thinks but also to feel the way He feels about things. We will begin to hate sin, love people, and most of all love God more and more. Let's resolve to memorize more scripture in 2006!