The Gift of Teaching

The gift of teaching is a divine enablement to clearly and effectively explain the truth of the Word of God so that others may make practical use and application of the truth in their lives.

I stress the words "divine enablement" here especially, even though all the gifts of the Holy Spirit are given only by divine enablement. The difference here is that many people are born with a "natural" talent to teach, but that does not mean that the Holy Spirit has determined that He will give them the "supernatural" talent to teach the truth of the Word of God. A teacher with "natural" abilities can teach on any subject effectively; a teacher with supernatural ability from God is given that ability specifically to effectively teach the truth of the Word and that ability changes lives, it doesn't just effectively relay information.

On the other hand, there is nothing that says the Holy Spirit might not, should he choose to do so, supernaturally enable a natural born teacher to also teach spiritual truths. Unfortunately, there are many teachers in Sunday schools and churches attempting to teach the Word of God without that divine enablement and who should not be in that position of teaching others because even though they are perhaps teachers in the natural realm, God has not ordained them to teach in the supernatural realm.

When one is supernaturally gifted to teach, what will be seen is the fruit of that teaching: those who hear it will not only understand it, but will know exactly what needs to be done to apply it practically and immediately in their lives. The distinguishing difference between being supernaturally gifted and being naturally gifted is the same common denominator found in all the gifts of the Spirit: lives are transformed. The gifted teacher will relay the truth of God's Word in such a way that the ones hearing it (with the exception of those who are resistant to receiving from the Lord) will not only understand the truth, perhaps for the first time, but will also takes steps necessary to incorporate that knowledge of the truth into their lives. The end result will be obedience to God in areas where obedience was lacking, usually because of ignorance. And once they have experienced the change in their lives, they are then able to "teach" others something in that area as well.

Spirit-enabled teachers often function in the prophetic gift as well, as they are both speaking gifts having to do with the Word of God and therefore closely related. But if the primary gifting is teaching, there will be an extraordinary desire to delve into the Word of God. When a gifted teacher reads the Word, a simple reading of it will generate much deeper study, as one word in a scripture perhaps will generate a curiosity to dig deeper into the Bible for related passages to strengthen or clarify the understanding. Teachers spend hours in the Word, and are joyful to be able to do so. But the motivation for these hours of studying is to teach others so that lives can be "transformed by the renewing" of minds by the knowledge of the truth of God's Word.

Teachers are master Bereans, even though we are all called to be Bereans (Acts 17:10-12).

But, as I have said before, we are to all function to some degree in all of the gifts, even though one will be our primary gifting. The writer of Hebrews rebuked the Jews that he was writing to telling them that while they should have been teachers by now, instead they were still in need of being taught themselves (Hebrews 5:12). The Great Commission that Jesus has given to the church involves teaching (communicating the Good News). Matthew 28:20: "Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you…"

We have seen that the elders are to be "apt" to teach (1 Timothy 3:2); this indicates being "gifted" to teach. Older women are to teach the younger women and children and should be always teachers "of good things" (2 Timothy 1:5; 3:14-15; Titus 2:3-5). Teaching is essential to the proper communicating of the truth of God as it is passed on from one to another: "The things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also" (2 Tim. 2:2). We should all be communicating the Good News whenever and wherever we have opportunity to do so.

But there is a also strong warnings given in James 3:1 and in 1 Timothy 4:1-3. The key to determining whether one is a true teacher of truth or a false teacher is to observe whether they practice what they teach, or whether, as the false teachers do, teach something that they themselves do not do. This is warning to us all. If we go about "teaching" what we ourselves have not learned and applied to our own lives, then we are "teaching" to be seen of men, not teaching the truth of the Word of God, and have shown ourselves to be false teachers. We teach others what we ourselves have learned, experienced and are witnesses of, and ALL according to the truth of the Word of God. To teach something based only on our experience is NOT to teach the truth, as all has to be founded upon the truth of God. Dr. John Stott, biblical scholar and teacher, said: "Experience without truth is the menace of a mindless Christianity."

If you have been primarily gifted by the Holy Spirit in the gift of teaching, you will have strongly identified with the descriptions given herein. If none of the postings so far have resonated with you, have no fear; there are more gifts to study.

Next, we will talk about the gift of mercy.