Proverbs 23:3
Don’t be greedy for his fine foods, because that food might be a trick. [NCV]
This verse made me think of the importance of not being occupied and focused with externals, with people’s words [esp. flattery] or appearances, but to always be looking deeper, at what is behind the “mask.”
As my friend Rex always says, “What is the thing behind the thing?”
What do people mean by what they say?
What do they need that they themselves may not even be aware of?
Matthew 23:8
Titles of significance. Seriously…
Mordecai would not bow down to any man, and neither should we by using these titles of teacher, father, or master. By calling someone master, you immediately put them on that pedestal on which they cannot stay for long. Only One can stand there & only One we should look up to. The rest of us are brothers and sisters who we look across to, not up or down.
The gift of teaching, or any talent, is given by YHWH Himself. Nobody has awesomeness in and of themselves. All they have done is open themselves up to God’s awesomeness, what He is willing and doing at every moment in the Eternal Now, to power that is available to every human being. So if you do anything great- La De Freakin’ Da, so can everyone else through the same power Source.
Therefore, no one is to be called “Teacher” because there is only one and He is in heaven.