As a Bible teacher I would imagine one of your goals is to encourage your students to obey God. Yet, you may unwittingly be encouraging them to rebel against God’s commands by your comments and attitudes. While every situation is different, there are 12 things many Bible teachers do on a regular basis that may encourage their students to disobey God.
- Quoting rule breaking/rebellious platitudes like “Rules were made to be broken”, “You do you” and others. You may not mean they should disobey God, but encouraging a rebellious spirit can in turn encourage rebellion against God and His commands.
- Demonstrating a disrespectful attitude toward church elders. God placed elders in a position to teach and counsel church members and others. They are tasked with making difficult decisions. They make mistakes and not every elder should be in that position. Having an overall attitude of disrespect for church elders, however, can encourage young people to disrespect others in leadership positions and even God himself.
- Failing to differentiate between the Church and the people who attend church. God’s plan for the Church is perfect. The Christians who attend church sin. The problems in any congregation stem from these sins. That does not mean there is a problem with God’s plan for the Church. Young people don’t necessarily understand you are discussing the mistakes and sins of people when you complain about the “church”. They can take what they perceive as an institutional problem and reject the church God created because He knows it is what is best for their long term spiritual health – in spite of the various sins of the people there.
- Mocking older or deceased Christians and their beliefs. Mocking is never a Christian behavior. Beyond that it’s important to understand that older people had the Bible and what their preacher said and that was about it. They didn’t have easy access to books or documents that may have helped them understand things better. Then again, they may have been right all along and it is actually your beliefs that are incorrect somehow. Showing contempt and disrespect for other Christians can encourage young people to show that same contempt – first for other Christians and then towards God.
- Implying that attitudes and beliefs that are new and modern are always superior to those in the past. The underlying assumption is arrogant. Is someone today really more spiritual than Elijah or the Apostle John? Were the writers of the Bible – who were inspired by God – ignorant? New is not always better and making your students think it is can encourage a dangerous arrogance.
- Equating tech savvy with wisdom. Those little digs about adults who aren’t as tech savvy as your young Bible students encourages arrogance. The truth is that the least tech savvy person in your congregation may have the strongest faith and the best understanding of scripture and how to apply it to daily life. Having a world of knowledge at your fingertips is not the same as being wise.
- Questioning or being dismissive of God’s commands. If the Bible specifically says something is a sin, stop trying to play word soup and twisting a direct command into a pretzel where suddenly the behavior is acceptable to God. You’re playing with fire and it can burn your young Bible students.
- Minimizing sin. You don’t want students becoming suicidal because they have sinned or believing God no longer loves them. Sin is serious though and acting like even minor rebellion against God’s commands is no big deal, can lead your students to believe they can disobey God with no consequences.
- Failing to provide speakers who were faithful to God as teens and young adults. Youth ministries are famous for bringing in young adults who committed sins that caused havoc in their lives and created the need for the person to work hard to bring their life back to where it had been before the sin – spiritually and physically. We need to also bring in young adults who didn’t get drunk, do drugs or have premarital sex and are thankful they obeyed God in those areas. They weren’t perfect, but they found ways to be faithful in the areas that usually sidetrack young adults. They can share their strategies. (BTW there are “cool” adults who pulled it off. It’s important your Bible students understand you can be “cool” and obedient to God, too.)
- Quoting Christian authors more than scripture. Even the best Christian authors and speakers can become enmeshed in sin. Or preach false doctrine that sounds great on the surface. Pointing your students to scripture will never backfire.
- Being unenthusiastic about reading and studying the Bible or obeying God or acting as if you secretly think sinning is fun. If you act like reading the Bible is boring and obeying God is a chore, your students will pick up on your attitude and some may follow your lead. If you keep making sin sound more fun than obeying God, you may tempt your students to try new sins.
- Portraying Christians as legalistic, overly concerned with lists of rules or judgmental, etc. Once again, Christians sin. You don’t have to pretend Christians are perfect. Neither do you have to constantly complain about Christians who you believe are legalistic, overly concerned with lists of rules, judgmental, etc. Your students in rejecting these problematic behaviors may begin to believe all Christians are that way and eventually that God is only concerned with punishing them.
Your Bible students live in a culture that encourages rebellion in general. It is going to be difficult for them to avoid developing a rebellious attitude towards God and His commands. Don’t make it even more difficult by the things you say and do.