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Over the centuries the Christian Church has been favored with a great many excellent teachers whose faithful and diligent labors have enlarged and nurtured the Church to realize more of her potential as the garden of the Lord. The names come easily: Paul, Polycarp, Origen, Athanasius, Augustine, Columbanus, Alcuin, Hildegard, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin, Cranmer, Edwards, Kuyper, Newman, Machen, Schaeffer, Colson – we could go on and on. Certainly every believer should thank and praise the Lord for so many excellent teachers, whose works continue to instruct and equip the saints unto our own day.
But these and others like them are not the only, and in many ways, not even the primary source of the Church’s witness and instruction in the world. Every believer in Jesus Christ is called to the task of teaching the Gospel of the Kingdom to people – nonChristians and Christians alike – in his or her own sphere of influence. We cannot rely merely on those who are called to the office of teacher to do the work of advancing the Kingdom by witness and instruction. Indeed, all those cited above would agree in a moment that their primary desire was to equip other believers to take up the calling to teach, for only in that way can the message of the Gospel and the Christian worldview continue to grow like leaven and glow like light through the sinful loaf of this dark and fallen world.
Need convincing? Consider: Jesus promised His followers that, once they had received the Holy Spirit, they would know power to be His witnesses (Acts 1:8). Certainly no small part of that witness, as we see in the Book of Acts, involves talking to others about the Lord, explaining to them the significance of the coming of the Kingdom, and teaching them how they, too, might enter with us into this glorious life of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14:17, 18). If the followers of Christ do not take up this teaching mandate and make it a central part of their earthly business to tell others the Good News of the Kingdom, then the progress of the Gospel will slow, stall, and even be set back.
Moreover, the Apostle Paul commands all believers to teach and admonish one another with the pure Word of Truth that is dwelling richly in their souls (Col. 3:16). Christians have abundant opportunities for contact and conversation with other Christians, but, so often, we waste these opportunities on frivolous, trivial, and mostly mundane things. How much stronger, more energetic, and more effective would the Church be in the world if every believer was equipped, alert, and capable of teaching the things of Christ to other believers with real power and effects?
Paul wrote that we must not miss such opportunities to bear witness and teach one another. The world is a spiritual wasteland; the powers of wickedness and deceit are active at all times. Every opportunity lost for advancing the Kingdom will be capitalized on by the devil and our secular, materialistic age. We must be always alert to these opportunities, always ready with a word of instruction or encouragement or witness, and always earnest in pressing the things of Christ and His Kingdom on anyone and everyone who will listen. To this end let us embrace the fact that, as the followers of Christ, we are all called to teach, and let us prepare ourselves accordingly.
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Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture references are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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Everyday Teaching
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