And He Himself gave some to be apostles,
some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the
equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body
of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of
the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness
of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried
about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning
craftiness of deceitful plotting… (Ephesians 4:11-14)
Jesus
said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No man can come to the Father
except through me” (Jn. 14:6). One of the names of Jesus is “the Truth.” Many
times, the Holy Spirit is called “the spirit of Truth” (Jn. 14:26).
In
our post-modern society, the idea of relativism has so permeated every area of
our culture that it has replaced the idea of absolute truth. It has even crept
into the church. The idea that there is more than one way to God has become a
dominating premise in the whole of society.
The
truth of the Gospel is absolutely opposed to any other way to God except through
Jesus Christ. However, even in the early church, men were being persuaded to
the right or left because of false doctrines that were infiltrating the church
(Gal. 1, II Cor. 11:4).
Paul
said in Ephesians 4:11-16 that the role of pastors, prophets, apostles,
teachers, and evangelists was for equipping the saints into the work of
ministry AND for bringing them into the fullness of the knowledge of Christ.
The reason was so that they would not be tossed around by every whim of false doctrine.
There
is a huge lack in the body of Christ of having discernment. Many people cannot
discern truth from lies, and they cannot distinguish between soul and spirit.
This is because they do not know the Word of God.
Although
the Lord has raised up all those in the five-fold ministry to bring the Church
into the fullness of Christ. I believe one of the main roles of the teacher is
to teach the true, accurate Word of God to believers and to equip them with
discernment.
Many
times, the apostles exhorted the church to test all things and to hold fast to true
doctrine (I Thess. 5: 21, I John 4: 1-6). The role of the teacher in the body
of Christ is to systematically teach true doctrine to the church and to equip
the body to search out the knowledge of God for themselves.
I
believe that one of the spiritual gifts of a teacher is discerning of spirits,
because they need to be able to see the lies infiltrating the body of Christ
and correctly teach the Truth.
One
of the names of Jesus is “The Truth” and when we look at Him, we will be able
to discern all things that are false. God is restoring the Five-Fold Ministry
back to the Church to train the saints in the truth of His Word, bringing them
into the fullness of the knowledge of Christ, so that they will not be tossed
about by every whim of false doctrine.
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