1 John 2:27 says…the anointing…abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you

The Holy Spirit is a gift to every believer. And the Holy Spirit helps the believer to be able to understand Scripture. But that doesn’t mean that you don’t need teachers. Teachers are also a gift to the Church.

Christians need to be taught, and they do need teachers. What you don’t need are spiritual goons who tell you that you don’t because you have some special power. Or spiritual gurus who tell you that they are the ones with some special power. Using 1 John 2:27 to say that you don’t need a teacher only proves that you do need one.

In the book of 1 John, the Apostle was condemning the notion of spiritual gurus who had secret knowledge, who were called the Gnostics. John was saying that scripture is able to be understood. He was not saying that you don’t need teachers at all. Think about the irony of someone teaching you that you don’t need to be taught. John wasn’t doing that. He was a teacher himself, and he was teaching people right then as he wrote those words.

The clarity of scripture is an important doctrine, but it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be, or don’t need to be, taught in the Word. It means that you don’t need to have enlightened masters to initiate you into secret truths. You just need to learn to interpret the Bible like anyone and everyone else can and should. The Bible isn’t a secret code to solve.

We all start out as students, and even scholars learn and glean from others. Teachers have to be taught. You don’t have to have a PhD to study and learn and know the Bible, but a teacher can help you understand it more fully.

The reason we use terms in Latin like “sola scriptura” and “ordo salutis” and the like, or phrases or big words that may not be initially understood is that they communicate concepts. They convey in a few words a whole lot of agreed on information, therefore you can discuss things without having to go over material that is already understood. When we say “justification”, for instance, we are using that word, a biblical word, to talk of right standing with God, how that is achieved, what it leads to, and so on.

For another example, by using the acronym TULIP, is understood to be a whole system of doctrine. It is the nomenclature, the vernacular, it is the “trade specific” language used by those in theological discussion. Liken this to an electrician, or plumber, or others who do the same things. Imagine if a team of builders had to explain all of the catch phrases to each other every time; that structure would never get finished!