Tag: teacher

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2 TImothy

To be a good teacher

2 Timothy

As I look at this passage, I am challenged as to the kind of teacher I should be.

What does it take to be a good teacher of the Word of God?

1. Pass on what you know.

Especially pass it on to the next generation of teachers after you.

You won’t be here forever. So make sure that the wisdom and knowledge God has given you doesn’t die with you. (2 Timothy 2:2)

2. Be faithful in your life and your teaching.

Don’t compromise either in the face of persecution or suffering.

Remember who your commanding officer is. Remember who you are trying to please.

You cannot please God if you are trying to please people. Too often, when we try to please people, we end up compromising our lives and our message. (3-4)

3. Work hard at your preaching.

Know the rules of interpreting scripture. Know how to rightly interpret God’s word and then present it in a way that people can understand.

And know that if you do so, you will reap the fruit of that in the changed lives of the people you teach. (5-6, 15)

4. Ponder over the words of God.

Don’t just gloss over them, thinking you already know what they mean. Meditate on them. And God will give you insight that you didn’t expect. (7)

5. Remember Jesus Christ in your messages.

Remember to make him the center of all that you teach. Keep the gospel that changes lives central to all that you say. (8-9)

6. Seek the salvation of those you teach.

Don’t just seek to win arguments. Seek to win souls.

Show people that you genuinely care about them, and don’t simply want to win an argument.

Correct people when they’re wrong, but with gentleness, praying that God may grant them repentance.

They are not the enemy. They themselves have been captured by the Enemy and God wants to set them free. (10, 24-26)

7. Don’t get involved in pointless arguments.

There are some arguments that generate a great deal of heat and very little light. Avoid them. (14, 23)

8. Flee from the false teaching that infects many churches today, teaching that would deny the Word of God and all it stands for.

That kind of teaching will spread quickly and infect all who hear it, destroying them. And you will be held responsible. (16-17)

9. Finally, be sure that you yourself are a clean vessel that God can use.

Flee impurity. More, pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace. (20-22)

How about you? What kind of teacher are you?

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1 Timothy

Failing as a teacher

1 Timothy

James once said,

Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. (James 3:1)

Many Christians like the prestige that comes from being a Bible teacher. But there is real danger when they think they know what they’re talking about, and they don’t. That is only compounded when their motives become twisted.

Paul deals with both these issues when telling Timothy to deal with these false teachers. He said,

The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Some have wandered away from these and turned to meaningless talk. (1 Timothy 1:5)

In the NIV, it seems to say that the goal of Paul’s command to Timothy to warn these false teachers is that they would develop a heart of love, springing from a pure heart, good conscience, and a sincere faith.

It’s also possible, though, that Paul was contrasting the false teacher’s teaching with his, and he was telling Timothy that the goal of true teaching should be to produce love in its hearers, coming from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith.

Either way, it seems here that these false teachers were no longer operating out of love, and had furthermore abandoned a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith.

Many in fact seemed to preach out of a desire to gain money and ultimately, out of a love of the world. (6:3-10).

This ironically despite the fact that they were teaching a form of asceticism to their own people (4:2-3).

These men also seemed to take great delight in stirring up arguments and creating conflict, rather than promoting the love and unity of Christ that comes from the true gospel. (6:3-5)

And again, their teaching was corrupt, the reason being that they truly didn’t know what they were talking about. Paul said of them,

They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm. (7)

For these teachers, they seemed to be turning to the law of Moses and teaching it to the Ephesian church, while failing to understand the law’s purpose.

The law, Paul says, is not meant for those who are righteous, that is those who have been made righteous by God through faith. Rather, it is for those who are unrighteous, to point out their sin and turn them to God. (8-11)

These teachers didn’t understand this however, and were leading people astray as a result.

Many people today have the same problem as these teachers. They confidently affirm and teach a lot of things concerning the Bible.

But the truth is, they have no idea what they’re talking about and people are being led into astray by their false teaching.

How about you? Are you a pastor or teacher in the church? Do you lead a Bible study? A Sunday school? What kind of teacher are you?

What are your motives? Pride? Respect? Or love?

And are you putting the necessary time into your preparation.

More importantly, is the Word an important part of your day every day? Do you truly know the Bible well, or are you confidently teaching things you truly know nothing about?

Not everyone should be a teacher. Remember, you will be judged for what you teach.

What will Jesus say to you when you stand before him on the day of judgment?

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Mark Mark 4 Matthew Matthew 13

The qualities of a good teacher: What made Jesus the master teacher

The gospels

I have been teaching English for the last 19 years, and have been teaching the Bible in some way, shape, or form for the last 27, going back to my high school days.

But as long as I have been teaching, I doubt I’ll ever match the greatness of Jesus as a teacher. He was the true master teacher.

What made him so great? It was the way he taught. How did he teach?

According to this passage, he taught through parables. Why did he use parables?

I’ve mentioned this before, but one reason was to see who really wanted to learn. Those who did asked questions. Those who didn’t may have been entertained, but remained blind to the truth.

But for those who asked, the stories were something that people could easily understand and remember, because Jesus took stories from everyday life and applied them to spiritual truths.

That’s one of the marks of a good teacher. They take a spiritual truth and put it in a way that anyone can understand.

Some teachers are more interested in impressing their audience with their education or spiritual knowledge and use a number of theological words that no one understands.

Or they introduce all these Greek or Hebrew words that no one has heard of before.

At the end of the day, people are indeed impressed, but they end up saying things like, “That was a very deep message. Very scholarly. I wish I knew what it meant.”

But Jesus kept his language simple and basic so that anyone could understand it.

Because of this, and because of the stories he told, he did something else important that a good teacher does. He kept his audience interested.

There are few things more painful in a classroom than a teacher that bores his students to tears. Jesus never did that.

Jesus also understood his audience’s level. It says in Mark that Jesus spoke the word to them as much as they could understand. (Mark 4:33)

He didn’t give them more than they could handle.

In short, as the writer of Hebrews put it, you can’t give solid food to babies. You give them milk until they can handle solid food. Then when they are mature enough, you give them more. (Hebrews 5:11-14)

Finally, he answered questions. Again in Mark, it says that when he was alone with his disciples, he explained everything in more detail. (Mark 4:34)

You see in other passages that he generally did this in response to their questions. Unlike Jesus, we may not have all the answers. But it gives us the opportunity for us ourselves to learn more when we allow people to ask us questions.

You may or may not be a teacher in the church. But all of us have teaching opportunities, with our children especially, but also with the people God brings into our path.

So let us all strive to be teachers like our Master.