What are we authorized to teach, as one who teaches the way of God?
“If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen,” 1 Peter 4:11.[1]
Here we are told that if we speak in His Name, we are to speak as the word which He has given to us, that is, as the Bible.
Jesus Himself has given us this very example, “For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak. I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me,” John 12:49-50. Jesus did not teach from Himself when He was here on earth; He taught as the word he was given to teach to us.
And why did He do this? “I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me.”
He also tells us this, “He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day,” John 12:48. The word that He delivered to us, is the same by which we will be judged in the last day.
We are told to speak as the word of God; we have the example of Jesus, who did this very thing, telling us that it is eternal life; and further, we will be judged by this word in the judgment. How then can we teach anything different?
We do well to listen to Jeremiah, who so long ago spoke to Israel, and now speaks to us, “’How long? Is there anything in the hearts of the prophets who prophesy falsehood, even these prophets of the deception of their own heart, who intend to make My people forget My name by their dreams which they relate to one another, just as their fathers forgot My name because of Baal?
‘The prophet who has a dream may relate his dream, but let him who has My word speak My word in truth. What does straw have in common with grain?’ declares the LORD. ‘Is not My word like fire?’ declares the LORD, ‘and like a hammer which shatters a rock?
‘Therefore behold, I am against the prophets,’ declares the LORD, ‘who steal My words from each other. Behold, I am against the prophets,’ declares the LORD, ‘who use their tongues and declare, “The Lord declares.” ‘Behold, I am against those who have prophesied false dreams,’ declares the LORD, ‘and related them and led My people astray by their falsehoods and reckless boasting; yet I did not send them or command them, nor do they furnish this people the slightest benefit,’ declares the LORD.”
[1] “[O]racles of God” is another way of saying “His word”; cf. Romans 3:1-2, “Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the benefit of circumcision? Great in every respect. First of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God,” that is, they were entrusted with the Law and the Prophets.