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The first four books of the New Testament (NT), the gospels, are a record of Jesus life. In them we find many wonderful teachings of Jesus. These teachings tell us about life and death, heaven and hell, good and evil and the kingdom to come. As wonderful as these teachings are, however, we must still carefully examine the context to determine to whom it was that Jesus was speaking. There were times when He was clearly speaking to the Jews. Other times he spoke to the particular needs of specific individuals. We must carefully examine the scriptures to determine to whom He was speaking and the circumstances under which He spoke. The determination of audience and context are cardinal rules in rightly dividing the word of truth. For example, when Jesus was asked by the rich young ruler what he must do to inherit eternal life, Jesus in essence told the rich young ruler to follow the Ten Commandments (Mt 19:16,17). Similarly Jesus some-times told His hearers to keep all the law of Moses (Mt 23:1-3). As Christians we do not do either of these things Jesus commanded and many other similar things that Jesus told His hearers that they must do. This study is directed at a better understanding of how we should regard the teaching of Jesus.
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