Of those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God, there are varied opinions about the weight of the apostles’ teachings. It is thought by some that the words of Jesus carry more weight than the words written by Paul, or Peter, or John. Some Bibles even have the words spoken directly by Jesus printed with red ink.

First, why would anyone want to discount the words of the apostles? Sometimes it is because the teaching is not in line with a person’s ideas, so an explanation is given that a particular teaching was not taught by Jesus Himself, but only one of His apostles. This way, parts of the New Testament can be rejected, it is supposed, without rejecting Jesus Himself. But this supposition is not correct! Here is why.

The fact is that all the teachings of the New Testament are of equal authority because the origin of the teachings is God Himself. In 1 Corinthians 14:23 Paul writes, “The things I write to you are the commandment of the Lord.” To the church at Thessalonica the apostle wrote “For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 4:2). The apostle Peter referred to the word which the apostles preached as the “living and enduring word of God” (1 Peter 1:23). The apostle John strongly put it this way, “We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” (1 John 4:6).

But how do we know that their claims about the words they spoke are true? Well, we must put our faith in Jesus and trust Him.

You see, the writers of the New Testament had no inherent authority - but as ambassadors of Christ their words were the words of the One who had sent them out. Jesus provided the writers with the Holy Spirit to guide them in all they taught. This way, they did not have to depend upon their own fallible opinions and judgments and memories. Having gathered His apostles together on the night before His death, Jesus made a promise to them: “These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.” (John 14:25-26). So, do we believe Jesus kept His promise?

Incidentally, the word “apostle” is a transliteration of the Greek word which means “one sent”. This means that their words, as well as Jesus’ own words, are all of God the Father. We learn how God wants us to live today in the pages of the New Testament… how He expects us to live, work, and worship.

In fact, we cannot reject any part of the New Testament teachings without rejecting Christ Himself. Jesus put it this way, as He spoke to His representatives whom He would send out to teach by inspiration; He said to them; “The one who listens to you listens to Me. The one who rejects you rejects Me. The one who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me.” (Luke 10:16). So, one cannot accept Jesus while rejecting those Jesus had handpicked and sent out. The Lord Jesus did not leave that option open to us.