The Teachings of Jesus
By Pastor Cornelius R. Stam
In the controversy over “Pauline Truth”, not a few Fundamentalists have joined Modernists in attempting to exalt “the teachings of Jesus” (on earth) above the Word of God through Paul. “Which,” they ask, “should bear the greater weight with us, the words of Jesus, or the words of Paul?”
But do they ask this because they truly desire to obey these “words of Jesus” and to see them obeyed? No, for they flagrantly disregard and disobey them, from the Sermon on the Mount to the Great Commission.
With regard to the Sermon on the Mount, they do not subject themselves to the law of Moses (Matt 5:17-
And while professing obedience to the so-
They set “the teachings of Jesus” (on earth) over against “the teachings of Paul”, not because they are determined to obey Jesus, but because they are determined to minimize that which God has “magnified” -
They seek to exalt the teachings of the earthly Jesus above those of Paul because they have closed their ears to the oft-
They have forgotten the stern rebuke the Galatians received for failing to recognize Paul’s teachings as a message from the risen, exalted Christ (Gal 1:6-
“... If I come again I will not spare: since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me…” (2 Cor 13:2,3)
They have distorted Paul’s inspired admonition as to his own writings:
“If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; he is proud, knowing nothing…from such withdraw thyself” (1 Tim 6:3-