God is a great teacher ! (1)

25.08.2021

Wednesday 25 August 2021

“I will instruct you and show you the way you should go ; I will advise you, I will have my eyes on you.” Psalm 32.8

David Mathis writes : “Imagine it's back to school day. You just sit down in your place and suddenly enter the new teacher. A mixture of dread and excitement comes over you. He greets your class and introduces himself. Then without further preamble, he asks all the students to put their satchels on the floor, and to keep only a pen and a few sheets of copy. He then announces that you will be taking your end-of-year exam straight away. Your comrades look at each other dumbfounded. You hear a few whispers more of surprise than complaint. He's kidding, isn't he ? You don't even know the content of this year's course ! He hasn't taught you anything yet ! How can he ask you to take a final exam ?” What would you think of such a teacher ? "He's a nutcase !" or “Never seen such a bad teacher !” The apostle Paul, before leaving this earth sends a letter to his protégé to teach him how to be a good teacher. And what does he write ? “Preach the word, insist on all occasions, whether favorable or not, refute, take back with encouragement. Do everything with full patience and full concern to instruct” (2 Timothy 4.2). Notice the two words “instruct” and “patience”. The role of a good teacher is to teach his students what they do not yet know or to improve their knowledge, without criticizing them, humiliating them or putting them aside by calling them dunces or lazy. To accomplish this, patience is his most effective weapon. This mentality is reflected in the character of Aquilas and his wife Priscilla. When they made the acquaintance of Apollos, a Jew from Alexandria “eloquent and versed in the Scriptures”, and detect in his sermons a doctrinal error, far from criticizing him, they invited him to their home and “explained more exactly the the way of God” (Acts 18. 26). A fine example to follow, don't you think ?

Source (His Word for Today)