Jesus’ True Teaching
Not until halfway through the Feast did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach. The Jews were amazed and asked, “How did this man get such learning without having studied?” Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me. If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. He who speaks on his own does so to gain honour for himself, but he who works for the honour of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him.” John 7:14-18
Was Jesus who He said He was, or if not, was He the greatest deceiver this world has ever known? As far back as Deuteronomy 13 there were warnings that false prophets and teachers would arise within the nation, performing signs and wonders to lead Israel astray to worship foreign gods, to turn aside from the path marked out by YHWH. The penalty for this was death. And some of the Judeans thought that when Jesus told the paralysed man on the Sabbath to take up his bedding and walk, that this was a tell-tale sign that he was leading Israel away from the Law and so from God.
Another way of posing the same question about the truthfulness of Jesus’ words is presented in our text. What was the source of His teaching? Teachers in Judaism would normally have studied the Law with one or more rabbis. They would have spent years perfecting their knowledge of the finer points of interpretation. Jesus hadn’t done any of this yet He could expound the Scriptures both practically and vividly. Where did He learn this?
The two issues come together in the question: is Jesus from God or is He acting on His own authority? The Jewish leaders adamantly maintained that teaching without rabbinical authority was suspect and because Jesus’ teaching had no such authority that it was Jesus’ own teaching.
Knowing what they were saying, ‘Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me.” The teaching He gave came from the One who sent Him, God the Father Himself. To those who questioned His claim, Jesus then added, ‘If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.” So recognising the truth of Jesus’ teaching was not dependent on theological knowledge or intellectual ability; it depended on a person’s willingness to do the will of God. Those who close their minds off from what God really wants for them will find themselves on the outside looking in, unable to grasp Jesus’ teaching. Only by submitting to God with a real willingness to do His will, will we find ourselves in a position to grasp what Jesus is saying.
“He who speaks on his own does so to gain honour for himself, but he who works for the honour of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him.” Unlike other teachers who want honour for themselves, Jesus only wants honour for His Father who sent Him. He is “a man of truth; there is nothing false about him.” This last claim is especially noteworthy because generally, the holier a person truly is, the greater his or her sense of moral failure.
Are we speaking the truth with a right motive, or are we doing what we’re doing to boost our own status, prestige or wealth? Many over time have accused ministries of doing what they do for the wrong reasons. Sometimes, unfortunately, they’ve been proven right. Other times people have accused us of being in the wrong because they didn’t want to hear what God had to say. Blaming us was a convenient way of ignoring God’s costly and demanding call.
Like Jesus we must be people of truth with nothing false about us. This is what God demands of us. We mustn’t ever give Him less than this.
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