In a time in which evangelical relativism is on the rise, telling us that there is no assurance of absolutes in the realm of morals, the disciple—the one who has met the conditions of discipleship—can smile and sing, for in a time of moral disarray, his heart is brimming with moral convictions. That’s right! Contrary to the wavering wanderers, whose doubtful opinions flood the gauzy pulpits, the disciple has, for moral compass, a resolute Teacher, One able to discern not only the difference between right and wrong, but also the difference between right and almost right, as C.H. Spurgeon puts it. That is why Jesus qualifies as a moral teacher. Not only does He know every nuance of morality, but He can also transmit His knowledge to His disciples efficiently. In other words, He can replace uncertainty with a full assurance of understanding (Col. 2:2). As it is written:

That I may make you know the certainty of the words of truth, that you may answer words of truth to those who send to you?” (Prov. 22:21)

That’s right. Jesus can make his disciples know, and know with certainty, what is true and what is false. That’s why the disciple doesn’t present his personal opinion when it comes to morals. As the prophets of old, his speech begins with: “Thus says the Lord.” Without this divine assurance, he would have no light to transmit. He would be a blind leader of the blind, groping for the walls in confusion and perplexity, as a growing number of preachers are doing nowadays.

The world doesn’t need human opinions; it needs divine direction. A.W. Tozer had it right when he wrote: “When we become so tolerant that we lead people into mental fog and spiritual darkness, we are not acting like Christians—we are acting like cowards.”

Jesus our example

It is rather amazing that even Jesus never gave His personal opinion. Here are His words:

I have many things to say and to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I heard from Him.” (John 8:26)

Jesus spoke only what He had heard from His Father, and He expects His disciples to speak only what they hear from Him.

Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops.” (Matt. 10:27)

The moral disorientation emanating from the relativists stems from a lack of hearing; they don’t hear what the disciples hear because they have never met the conditions of discipleship. “And the Father Himself, who sent Me, has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form” (John 5:37). This state of affairs has not died with the passing of the years. It is still prevalent nowadays.

Our focal point in the realm of learning

Writing to the Ephesians, Paul stresses that the subject of our learning must be Christ Himself, and the only way we can learn Christ is by hearing Him and being taught by Him.

But you have not so learned Christ,  if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus” (Eph. 4:20,21).

Notice that the Ephesians had never met Jesus during His earthly ministry, yet they could still hear Him because He continues to speak and teach. Therefore, the disciple doesn’t lean on his own understanding (Prov. 3:5), but rather on the understanding of the Logos.

The privilege of the disciple

One of the things often overlooked is that only a disciple can receive explicit teachings from the Master. This is what the Scriptures declare:

And with many such parables He spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it. But without a parable He did not speak to them. And when they were alone, He explained all things to His disciples” (Mark 4:33,34).

Based on Mark 4:1-2, you might point out that Jesus taught everybody, but He never did it explicitly; i.e., He gave explanations only to His disciples. Matthew presents the idea even more clearly:

And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” He answered and said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given” (Matt. 13:10,11).

So there was, and still is, a group that can know, and know with certainty, and a group that can’t. This difference between a disciple and a non-disciple is often brushed aside.
A person can frequent a Bible school for years and fill his head with theological data, but if he is not a disciple, Jesus will not explain anything to him. When this happens, one is left with mere human instructions void of revelational power.

Likewise, to read the explanations Jesus gave to His disciples more than two thousand years ago is one thing, but to hear Him giving them to us now is an utterly different story. The latter engenders revelations, the former doesn’t.

A summary

To resume, we can say, since the disciple is being taught, he doesn’t need to interpret anything. He only needs to keep his heart clean in order to hear the voice of the Teacher. To maintain that Jesus is unable to impart valid knowledge to His pupils in the realm of morals is to defrock Him as a Teacher, and by valid knowledge, I mean a knowledge ingrained in the Scriptures. In other words, when Jesus teaches a disciple, He does it as He did with the two disciples on the way to Emmaus. He opens scriptures.

Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32).

When this opening occurs, there is no need for interpretations since everything becomes explicit.

The problem with the moral relativists who are infiltrating our communities is that they have endorsed the philosophy of deconstruction advocated by Jacques Derrida. Like the French philosopher, they challenge universal truths and fixed interpretations as if there is no God who can speak understandably. Make no mistake, God can be understood—at least by those who have met the conditions of discipleship—for as A.W. Tozer wrote in his book, God Tells the Man Who Cares, “God has nothing to say to the frivolous man.” He speaks to those who are serious, attentive, and seeking Him genuinely, not to those caught up in superficialities or worldly distractions.

Jesus didn’t speak in vain when he said:

If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.  And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:31,32)

Only Jesus’ disciples can know moral truths at the point of certainty, that is, what is true in Him can become true in them, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining (1 John 2:8). It is this “shining” that brings the disciple beyond mere human interpretations.

If you think this post can help somebody, you can share it with the options presented below.