No one person can be an expert in all fields. True, there was Solomon. However we are told his wisdom was vast like the sands of the sea (1 Kings 4:29), but not eternal, like the One who granted him his wisdom in the first place, (3:9-12). Throughout our lives there is much time, and our brains can contain indefinite amounts of knowledge, but life is short and our experience limited. But thankfully no human was meant to be totally independent, for we live in large communities, and as Christians we share the bond of brotherhood all connected by the Lord we love (1 Corinthians 12:12-31).
One of those mentioned in verse 28 of 1 Corinthians 12 was teachers. These among the others had the important role of guiding the church. Today we have scholars, historians, and theologians to teach us things about the text of the Bible. However too many seem biased, too many flatter and stretch the truth in order to please a certain crowd for praise and prestige. What a good exegete should be doing is reporting the facts, not giving glossy lies or “Biblically” decorated American, modern, or postmodern doctrines of thought, or self-preferred “probably's” and “most likely's”.
The reason we often lament of truth is that there is so little trust. If we want truth we need honest people. We need a bond between teachers and learners. We need teachers who will act as envoys of God's message no matter hard it is for them and the people to hear, like the prophet Jeremiah, realizing that before God they are learners too. And we need good hearers, unlike the stubborn people on whose ears the prophet's message fell, learners who are willing to realize their understanding is limited, who will listen to and ponder over the message, offer up their confusion to God in prayer, wait patiently, and never give up, for to those who wait for the Lord, sooner or later the meaning will dawn on them in a new light which they could not before have imagined (compare 2 Peter 1:16-21).
Rather than allowing God's people to fall into the turmoils that beset the modern Christian, especially if they are young, which attack and batter them, breaking their faith to pieces every time they start to grow a little in the knowledge of Christ, we need to provide an environment where followers of Jesus can grow and develop in their walk with him, getting to know him one-on-one through the Scriptures, and mirroring him faithfully in their lives, for which there is great reward more than just spiritually in this life, even they can't yet see it, and eternal life to come. And for such an environment to exist we can't have useless wordy opinions about policy, hateful finger-pointing, self-justifications, worthless rules and regulations, or weak 12-step programs, but faithful, honest people who are willing to give up everything for the sake of Christ, and model the true Gospel in the lives they live and the acts they commit as much as the words they speak.
May God bless his people and restore us once again to knowledge of the truth and the richness of his grace.
