Colossians 3:16a
Teach One Another
Prepared by Dr. John E. Marshall
Col. 3:16a Let the message about the Messiah dwell richly among you,
teaching. . .
After the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C., synagogues became the most important institution in Jewish life. During the Babylonian captivity, the Jews were separated from their temple, priests, and holy city. To save their heritage they let any village, wherever located, that had at least ten Jewish men in it establish a synagogue. These small gathering places became the centers and preservers of Jewish culture. They served as schools where children learned to read and write, and were taught Israel's history and heritage. Synagogues were meetinghouses where adults socialized and discussed theology and religion.
Their worship services were very informal, and followed a simple agenda: prayers, Scripture readings, a lecture, and discussion. (Sounds a lot like a typical small group in any Baptist church.) Any approved layman wishing to speak could give the lecture. Jesus, Stephen, and Paul used this to their advantage.
The religious leaders in first century Israel failed in the synagogues. Their words carried no clout. They refused to express an opinion without bolstering every claim by quoting famous teachers of the past. They spoke as those who had not mastered what they preached. Their lectures contained no power, no punch.
Then came Jesus. He captivated and took over the synagogue crowds, speaking in thunderbolts, as a king voicing edicts, a judge passing sentence. The religious leaders quoted ancient authorities; Jesus was authority. He taught as if He were God, possessing the inherent authority to determine right and wrong, and the innate right to be heard and obeyed. He spoke with majesty, as one above the ordinary lot, more than a man, superhuman. Jesus taught as one who knew what He was talking about – no ifs, buts, or maybes, no hedging, no avoiding the issues.
The synagogues were so highly successful that after the temple was rebuilt, they continued to be used. By New Testament times, synagogues were everywhere in the Roman world--480 in Jerusalem alone--as if God had been preparing the world for an army of people who would serve as teachers. Teaching was to be the heart and soul of a new movement that would be based on history. The story would have to be told and explained, over and over and over again.
Thus, it should come as no surprise that every Christ-follower is expected in some way to be a teacher, to be verbalizing spiritual truth with others. The writer of Hebrews referenced all his readers when he wrote, "By this time you ought to be teachers" (5:12). He did not say they all "could" be teachers. He said they all "ought" to be teachers. Speaking truth was expected of all of them as their duty.
Don't misunderstand. Not all Christians are meant to be public teachers in front of large crowds. We do a terrible disservice to the role of teaching if we limit it to the pulpit or classroom. There is much more to teaching. All believers are expected to share in diverse settings what they learn from the Word. People near us at home, school, and work need spiritual truth, and each of us must teach them.
We are not to hoard what we know, but must share it with others. No gift of God is ever given to a person so that he or she would be a dead-end street. We ought to see ourselves as conveyors, not containers. We must listen to the Word not only to help us, but also to help others by passing it on.
To prove He meant for all of us to teach in some way, Jesus commanded us to do so in His Great Commission. "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you" (Matthew 28:19-20 NAS). We are to go, make disciples, baptize, and teach. The latter is as much of a command as the first three are.
We are all to teach somewhere somehow this wonderful story of history. It is good for us to be able to give our lives to a cause worth living and dying for.
Jesus not only assigned us the task of teaching; He has prepared each of us to do it. First, He showed us how to do it by His own example while here on Earth.
The crowds loved His teaching. "The common people heard Him gladly" (Mark 12:37b KJV). Teachers, Jesus is your perfect role model. His use of props, parables, homespun stories, rhetorical questions, and piercing application made Him the greatest teacher of all time. Jesus, 2000 years later, still holds the world spellbound. He remains a force to be reckoned with, whether the listeners like Him or not. We cannot see His face, hear the inflection of His voice, or feel His touch, but even in cold, dry ink on paper, we feel the sway of His spellbinding authority.
Second, Jesus prepared us to teach by sending Someone to help us do it. For three years Jesus was the disciples' Teacher. After He ascended, this role was given to Another. Jesus' words continued to be the disciples' curriculum, but the Spirit became their main Teacher. He reminded, enlightened, and enabled them.
The Holy Spirit aided the disciples' memories, reminding them of Jesus' words. The Spirit then enlightened them, clarifying concepts they had previously found hard to understand. This reminding and enlightening work by the Holy Spirit made our New Testament possible. The Bible is reliable because the Holy Spirit helped the disciples precisely remember and better understand Christ's words.
The New Testament is the Holy Spirit's book. We agree with Paul; all Scripture is God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16). What the Bible says, God says. What the heathen superstitiously believed they had in oracles, believers do have in the Bible. It is the mouthpiece of God, through which He speaks directly to us.
The Spirit reminded and enlightened the disciples; He also enabled them to teach effectively. They went out to tell the story they wrote, and did so with power.
And now, what the Holy Spirit did for the disciples, He does for us, due to His presence in us. One, He helps us remember by prompting us to take the New Testament in our hands, to read in it daily. Two, He enlightens us with wisdom to help us to understand what we read. Three, He enables us to have the will to obey, and to teach with authority. When we put all this together, what do we have? The ability to do what Jesus did—to teach Scripture effectively.
This was the kernel, the innermost essence, of Jesus' teaching ministry. In synagogues and in people's everyday life, the Old Testament was Israel's textbook.
Jesus sought to convince people and stir their intellects by interpreting, explaining, and applying their own Scriptures. This is what we should be doing.
Sensing time is always short, Jesus felt compelled to run through His home area as quickly as possible to find as many lost sheep to teach as He could (Mark 1:38). In a desperate time, getting the word out was important to Jesus. It still is.
We live in another desperate time. Unbelievers are in many cases becoming more hostile and hardened to the Gospel message. Believers are being challenged in their faith, and a whole younger generation is teetering on a spiritual precipice.
As our culture sinks farther from the truth, and as it tries to woo our own people from the truth, don't despair. Instead, determine to rescue as many as we can as fast as we can. Time is short. Not all will be salvaged, but all should at least have access to hearing somewhere somehow the Bible's story about the Gospel.
Unbelievers have only one hope—the truth as taught in the Bible. Believers, ever in danger of learning error from a heathen world, must be protected by Bible teaching. It is no coincidence that all four church offices mentioned in Ephesians 4—apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastor-teachers—highlight the importance of teaching. The main ongoing, in-house, work of the Church is teaching. Nothing is more needed to build up believers.
This is why we include Bible teaching in our M28 one-on-one discipleship method. Our church motto is, "We exist to glorify God by making disciples through the Bible and relationships." We form relationships not just to fellowship and have a good time. We come together to spend time in teaching truth as taught in the Bible. We will not love God and each other, pray, or evangelize as we ought for very long without proper teaching.
Thus, find your spot. Where is it; a large class, a small class, discipleship, adults, youth, children, marrieds, singles? Wherever it is, find it and fill it. Teach one another.
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