Highways To Zion

Highways to Zion is a weekly devotional message on WVMC designed to encourage you in your daily walk with Christ through lessons from everyday life. See what Judy has to encourage you this week...

Teaching

   I am not a teacher, so I cannot speak authoritatively about what it takes to be a good teacher. A few of the basics would seem to be a thorough knowledge of your subject matter, the ability to communicate it well, a genuine concern for the students, and boatloads of patience. These characteristics are also necessary for those who would teach God's precepts, but they are not all that's needed. The Scripture provides a few more requirements.

    For those who would teach God's word, a thorough knowledge of the Bible is an absolute necessity but it is not nearly enough. We've all heard about people who bash unbelievers over the head with Bible truth, but succeed only in offending and alienating them. I've not only heard of them, I have, unfortunately, been one of them.

    Paul speaks to this issue in Romans, where he says that if you are "confident that you are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature . . . you who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that one shall not steal, do you steal?" (Rom. 2:19-21). A life of obedience is necessary to validate what we say. "Do as I say, not as I do" doesn't work in parenting, and it doesn't work in preaching, either. The one who would teach God's word must live a life that is compatible with his message. "Actions speak louder than words" is another old adage, but this one rings true. If people don't see the love of Jesus and the grace of God in our lives, then our message will be hollow.

    An Old Testament saint who embodies this principle is Ezra. Ezra was a priest who returned to Jerusalem from Babylon at the end of the exile. God blessed and prospered him because he "had set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel" (Ezra 7:10). Ezra knew that teaching could not come before practicing.

    Jesus was equally adamant on this point. In the sermon on the mount He condemned those who by their actions annulled even the least of the commandments and let their example teach others to do the same. But He said, "Whoever keeps and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 5:19).

    People are all different. Some students are more oriented toward math and logic; others toward literature and music. Still others are spatial and mechanical. Some students learn best by seeing; others by hearing, and still others by doing or touching. A good teacher is creative in the method of communicating the lesson, tailoring it to how the students learn and why it is relevant to their particular orientation. Creativity in communicating the message is not, however, parallel to creating the substance of the lesson. The math facts are constant; the laws of physics don't change. Grammar and spelling are either correct or incorrect.

    In the scientific fields, research leads to speculation, which leads to theories. Further research tests the theories to see if they are true. The Scripture is the Truth, and while we can never fully understand it all, just as we can never fully comprehend God, we are not free to speculate or propose alternate theological theories. Paul calls this "turning aside to fruitless discussion" (1 Tim. 1:7), and says those who do so don't know what they're talking about, even though they "make confident assertions" (ibid.). Scripture often raises as many questions as it answers, and scholars have grappled with those questions for centuries. But on the whole, the Scripture is clear on many topics, and those can and should be taught with confidence.

    In the classroom the goal of teaching is to communicate information and how to apply it. Achievement is gauged by completing tests or successfully conducting a project or experiment. The goal of teaching God's word is more than retaining information. It may be likened to conducting an experiment, in that it is meant to be applied. But it really goes even deeper than that.

    Paul told Timothy that the goal of instruction is "love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith" (1 Tim. 1:5). We can learn from Scripture what love looks like and we can try to emulate that in our lives. But learning to love is not something that happens in a classroom. It only happens as God changes our hearts. We all have impure hearts and mixed motives because we are fallen creatures. Having our hearts purified in order to love like Jesus loves is something only God can do. No amount of teaching, no matter how creative, can change our hearts.

    Likewise, a good conscience requires more than just being obedient and shunning overt sin. We may walk the straight and narrow, but take impure thoughts along the whole way. Only the cleansing that comes through the atoning work of Christ can give us that peace of mind. And sincere faith is not something that can be lectured into existence.

    My husband the math teacher learned in one of his classes that if all there is to know about math could be represented by a mile, then all we have learned to date about math would be represented by an inch. Teaching God's precepts is like that only more so. God's truth encompasses every area of life, touches every other subject matter, and addresses the thorniest philosophical questions and deepest personal needs. God Himself is incomprehensible in His essence. To adequately teach in this arena is an impossible task, one that can never be fully done apart from the grace and anointing of the Lord. Jesus said, "Do not be called Rabbi, for One is your Teacher, and you are all brothers" (Matt. 23:8). There is no pride in teaching God's word, only the terrifying knowledge that teachers will incur a stricter judgment (James 3:1), and the comfort of knowing that "everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his Teacher" (Luke 6:40).

    That is the goal for both teacher and student: to be like Jesus, the Teacher who perfectly demonstrated humility, obedience, love from a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith. Who we are is a much more powerful teaching than anything we say.