HAVING set forth the high office of the teachers of the law and the Pharisees, Jesus goes on to tell people how they must relate to them. The Pharisees and teachers of the law are appointed and set apart by due process and their office must be held in respect. This is also true concerning ordination to the ministry in the church today whatever the denomination of the church may be. The Pharisees and teachers of the law were set apart to sit in Moses seat. They were to teach people the truth of God. There is not higher office than this. It is an office given by God for the eternal and spiritual welfare of people.

Because of this setting apart, ordained men and women should not be despised but listened to with obedient minds and hearts. Jesus puts it in verse 3 “so you must obey them in everything they tell you”. This is a very sweeping statement and it is given by Jesus in order to defend the authority of the ordained minister, which is a spiritual authority to set forth the word of God. We may well ask how such an injunction can be faithfully carried out. Do we have to believe everything that ministers teach whatever they say? As soon as we ask this question the words of Jesus sound more clearly. Jesus speaks about obeying the minister's words. By this is indicated that the office of the one who sits in Moses seat is one to be reverenced and received with an obedient heart. Such are given the authority by God, and for a very good reason which has to be recognized. The reason is that the minister speaks from God. This was the role of the Pharisees and teachers of the law. This is for the good of souls.

What Jesus is doing here is guarding against the throwing out the baby with the bathwater. When those who are ordained live and teach what is plainly contrary to the word of God, it is tempting to throw ordained ministry away and reject all such ministry as evil. This would be very wrong, and depriving Christians and the church of the means of grace which God has ordained. We need to be taught so we must not despise ministry when some ministers are not faithfully fulfilling their calling.

Having said this Jesus makes plain that the minister must be evaluated by the word of God, and if there is teaching and living which falls short of this responsibility then it is right to reject the teaching and behaviour of such a minister, but still uphold the dignity of the office. The way Jesus puts it is given in verse 3b. He says “But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach”.

It is plain that the Pharisees and teachers of the law claimed to be teaching what Moses taught, but were not. Together with this, these men required people to live by their rules while at the same time not abiding by those rules themselves. There is much we can learn from this.

Jesus is plainly teaching us that the teachers of his day were going wrong and had gone wrong, and from this Jesus implies that ministry, ordained by God, can go wrong. He implies that ministers can be teaching what is not the word of God, and can be living contrary to the word of God. Although the office of an ordained minister must not be despised, yet at the same time such ministers must not be followed blindly, but we must search the Scriptures to see whether what they teach, and how they live, are true to the word of God.

From this we see that though the ordained ministry must not be despised or rejected, and ministers should be treated with respect and honour on account of their office, we are not meant to follow or obey that which is contrary to the truth of God, nor follow behaviour which does not adorn the doctrine of Christ our Saviour.

Jesus says that if the behaviour of a minister does not conform to the word of God then we are not to follow such example. The concept of behaviour is wider than we might think at first. It does not just mean that evil practices should not be imitated. If a minister's doctrine is in error, then the power of the gospel to transform people's lives is not there. So if the minister's teaching is wrong it will show in the life. The life, like the life of the Pharisees, may be very moral and upright, but it will be marked by the attitudes and culture of the world. So ministers who don't abide by the truth as it is in Jesus will be noted by the world and its views creeping into preaching. One of the ways that this will be seen is readiness to change the truth of God by worldly wisdom. The Pharisees and the teachers of the law fell into this trap. They had placed upon the law of Moses the glosses and the changes that fitted the worldly culture that they espoused. We see Jesus addressing this in the sermon on the mount, where he says “You have heard it say.... but I tell you.” When we look at the morality of the world, it is always in terms of outward behaviour, but does not touch the heart. We also see that the world likes to change morality to fit its own desires.

In this verse 3 Jesus also lays great stress on the importance of the minister living the life which is preached. It is very evident that the Pharisees and teachers of the law taught the law of Moses, but at the same time they did not keep it themselves, and where possible watered it down, or altered it, to fit their own practices. Jesus exposes some of the way they did this in the rest of the chapter.