Matthew 23 has sort of changed the way I do life. Here’s why: In this chapter Jesus tells his apostles to not imitate the Pharisees, and this includes not being called “rabbi” or “instructor” because they have only “one instructor, the Christ” and they are all “brothers” (i.e. equals). This may not seem like fodder for transformation, but consider, what Jesus is trying to do is eliminate the middle men. Jesus is the rabbi and everyone is his disciple. There are no other teachers, instructors, or rabbis to mediate our learning. We are disciples of Jesus, alone.

Then I reflected on Matthew 28, where Jesus tells his apostles to “go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Are you ready to be honest with yourself? Have you ever taught someone to obey “all” that Jesus commanded? Why not? I now realize that I never taught anyone to obey everything that Jesus commanded because I thought I had a better way. I had become an illegitimate rabbi. Sure, I taught important things. I tried to communicate the gospel. I tried to teach about following Jesus. I even baptized people. However, I never actually obeyed Jesus by teaching everything he commanded.

I took it upon myself to edit the teachings of Jesus, and communicate what I thought was most important. Arrogant, I know. But don’t you do the same thing? In your own way, have you become a fake rabbi also. I am beginning to do things differently, and I’ll talk more about this change in the posts to come.