For Wednesday, May 28, 2025:
Luke 11:52 NLT, Jesus speaking: “What sorrow awaits you experts in religious law! For you remove the key to knowledge from the people. You don’t enter the Kingdom yourselves, and you prevent others from entering.”
We are advised in James 3:1: “Not many of you should become teachers in the church, for we who teach will be judged more strictly.” The problem here was that the teachers of religion in Jesus’ day were leading people down the wrong path. If the leader doesn’t know the way to the Kingdom, it follows that those they counsel would be led astray. That explains why religious teachers would be examined more closely. Not only are they headed in the wrong direction, they’re dragging others down with them!
We have been given a textbook to use in our religion class – the Bible! We can’t go wrong teaching from the Bible, but we must also understand the times and the context. My favorite example is when Job’s wife told him he might as well curse God and then die! The Bible is truth! But at that point, Mrs. Job was fed up with God’s lack of protection, and she said horrible things. Knowing the context, I believe the Bible, but none of us should act on her advice. That would involve giving up on God, and Job’s challenge was to NOT give up on God. By the way, Job succeeded!
Jesus sees sorrow in the future of a bad religious teacher, while a good teacher, one who furthers the Kingdom, will hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant!”
Pastor Norton Lawellin
Jesus In the City Fellowship
