authority

our current postmodern age is one that hates all authority and would rather do without any of it. it would rather have everyone make up their own standard so that everyone can do what ever it is that they want to do. as a person of the Word, we are to be people of authority. this is actually to pastors. pastors are to teach with authority, similarly to what Christ did, though slightly different. Christ preached with His own authority, while we are to teach with his authority and not our own. we get our authority from Christ. with this authority, we must know what we are teaching and the only way to know that is to study the Word. so we must study to Word to know what it says so that we may teach with the authority of Christ. we can do nothing until we know what the Scriptures says and if we don't know, then we should say that and then get help so that we can know what it says so that we can have the authority of Christ so that we may teach those that are under us. this is no small matter. Christ condemns the scribes for this for they taught with no authority but would rather make the text of scripture say what ever it is that they wanted it to say. this is terribly wrong. however, i am sure that no one who is going to read this would dare make stuff up with scripture, so i won't say any more on this :)

study the Word, everyone, so that even if you are not teaching, you may know if the teacher is actually teaching the right stuff. teachers, study and then teach. you have a holy occupation that is of the greatest of importance and it should not be taken lightly.