The Importance of Accepting and Obeying Apostles' Teaching

[Mary Naeem]

The Importance of Accepting and Obeying Apostles' Teaching

Many people realize that great blessings come from accepting and obeying Jesus' teaching, and serious consequences follow from rejecting it. Do the same consequences accompany the apostles' teaching?
A. The Importance of Accepting and Obeying Jesus' Teaching

John 14:6 - No one can come to the Father except through Jesus.

John 6:63,68 - His words give eternal life. [Acts 4:12]

John 12:48 - We will be judged by His words at the last day.

Acts 3:20-23 - We must hearken to all things He speaks or be destroyed.

[John 14:15,21-24; 12:50; Matthew 7:24-27; 28:18]

The only way to please God and have eternal life is by believing and obeying Jesus' teaching. If we reject His teachings, we do so at the peril of destruction. This is true, because His teachings are the will of God. We can please God only by accepting those teachings, and we reject the will of God Himself if we reject His teachings.
B. The Importance of Accepting and Obeying the Apostles' Teaching

Acts 2:42 - The first disciples "continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine." The teaching of the apostles was their standard of authority, because it was the word of God.

Luke 10:16 - If we accept the teaching of inspired prophets, we are listening to Jesus (because they taught His will). If we reject them, we reject Jesus and His Father, because Jesus and the Father guided them in what they taught. [This refers in context to the teaching of the 70, but the same would be true of the apostles' teaching.]

1 John 4:6 - Jesus called and sent the apostles to teach. They taught what God through the Holy Spirit guided them to teach. If we hear what they say, we are of God. Otherwise, we are not.

2 Corinthians 5:18-20 - Apostles and prophets were "ambassadors for Christ." They carried His message to the world instructing and urging men to be reconciled to God. As when a country sends an ambassador to another country, insulting an officially commissioned ambassador is insulting the one who sent him.

So the consequences that follow from accepting or rejecting the apostles' teaching are the same consequences as follow from accepting or rejecting Jesus' teaching, because they are the same teachings from the same source. Hence, we must respect the teachings of the apostles just as we do those of Jesus.

[2 Peter 3:2; James 2:10; Revelation 22:18,19; 2 Timothy 3:16,17]
C. The Importance of Accepting and Obeying Paul's Teaching

What about Paul's teaching? Are the same consequences associated with accepting or rejecting his teaching as compared to the teaching of Jesus and other apostles?

Galatians 1:6-12 - The gospel Paul preached came from Jesus, not from man. Therefore, anyone who preaches a different gospel is accursed.

2 Thessalonians 2:13-15 - Men must hold fast the gospel as preached by Paul, because it is the means by which God calls people to salvation and to the glory Jesus offers. This includes holding fast Paul's written epistles.

2 Peter 3:15,16 - Paul's epistles are classified by Peter as "Scripture," right along with "other scripture." Those who twist and pervert it, do so to their own destruction. But we have already seen that "Scripture" is inspired by God and provides to all good works - 2 Timothy 3:16,17.

Again, the teachings of Paul carry as much weight as those of other apostles and as those of Jesus, because they are the teachings of Jesus. To reject them is to be lost. We can be saved only if we accept and obey them.

[2 Thessalonians 3:4,6,12,14; 1 Corinthians 15:1-4; Romans 2:16]]