Isn't there a difference between being addressed personally and how such address might be applicable to others? Sure, some may be tough to apply more generally, but don't you think we can take this too far?
I think applicability is important, the Scriptures are applicable to us, they are for us. But application follows context. That is, what is being said, to whom, and for what reason--then we can see how it applies.
I think I saw you address Paul and Timothy, earlier. Cannot Paul's command to Timothy to be diligent to show oneself approved by God by cutting the word of truth in a straight line (interpreting and teaching it correctly) have a wider applicability than just Timothy? It's certainly applicable to other pastors and teachers.
That's a perfect example what I mean actually. The applicability here is in the context of the office and ministry of the Keys, i.e. the pastorate. Paul tells Timothy to "preach the Gospel in and out of season", that is pastoral instruction, from one pastor to another. Timothy, as a bishop--a pastor--was called to the ministry of Word and Sacrament, and thus preaching the Gospel is his vocation. Not that lay Christians can't preach the Gospel obviously, the proclamation of the Gospel is a universal thing for the Church; but it is the pastor's specific calling to be a preacher of the Gospel for the benefit of the body. That is why we come together, to hear and receive God's word. The duty of the pastor is to be the minister of Word and Sacrament in the context of the Church.
Why not every Christian who studies and discusses Scripture? And why would it not be applicable to every Christian to be evaluating to varying degrees what some "pastors and teachers" are teaching - kind of like the Bereans identified in Scripture?
We should. But Paul's point to Timothy is for him to be a faithful minister of the Gospel, to bear God's Word and Sacraments to the Faithful under his care.
Pastors are held accountable to the Church, or they should be; which is why in many ecclesiastical structures pastors/priests are held accountable to their parishioners as well as accountable to more senior clerics or governing bodies.
There are clearly two equally problematic pendulum extremes we can descend into that are very bad:
1) Where a "church leader" is given entirely too much power and authority, and is not held accountable to the Church, including the historic teaching and practice of the Church or to the Faithful on the whole. And they should be, indeed they must be. To preach heresy or to violate the trust between pastor and people is a grave problem that needs to be able to be addressed, rectified, and to bring discipline to such as these.
2) Where the individual Christian believes him or herself to be his or her own pope, and thus believe that whatever they believe the Bible says must be true; and thus they ignore the teaching of Scripture and the faithful preaching of the Church and insist on their own way. And so they prefer their own private interpretations and regard their personal opinions as though they were Christian dogma. Some go so far as to attribute their personal opinions and interpretations to the direct work of the Holy Spirit. In this way they make themselves their own personal pope, and often worse than that because they--at least implicitly--insist on the infallibility of their own pronouncements. So that any idle word that proceeds from their lips, or any stray thought in their minds, is held to be the infallible work of the Spirit in themselves. Such make themselves not only their own pope, but they make themselves their own church--a church of one.
So whether Authoritarianism or Egopapism, great error and trouble arises.
This is why it is essential for us to understand that the Church is a community of Faithful Christians, in which some have been called to the vocation of pastor, to minister Word and Sacrament; such duly appointed deputies of the Church's evangelical and ministerial mission are called and ordained for the sake of good order, and the Faithful should be able to avail themselves to these things. Because if the pastor is doing as they ought, then what they are preaching is in keeping with Scripture and two millennia of Christian teaching; and they are held accountable so as to hold their feet to the fire. So that rogue pastors do not endanger the spiritual life--or even the physical and mental life--of the Faithful. Wolves in sheep's clothing have no place here.
Sometimes pastors error, and thus need correction.
Sometimes laypersons error, and thus need correction.
This correction comes not from any one person claiming authority, but rather comes through the integrated whole of the people of faith--the Christian Church. Through the faithfully received faith, faithful adherence to the Scriptures, and our bold confession in the Creeds.
-CryptoLutheran