Day 109: Godly Teaching

"And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient."  2 Timothy 2:24

Here's something that gets ignored way too often.

As followers of Jesus, we are called to be teachers of the Gospel.  However, that teaching comes with certain responsibilities - patience and gentleness are just two.  What we might forget with these responsibilities is that we need to have them in order to teach.

Jesus was a very patient teacher and a very gentle one as well.  He allowed for people to come up to him with questions that were set up as traps.  He was willing to teach people from all walks of life.  He was patient with many of his students, even when it seemed that they were never going to learn.

Why is that so important?  How about the notion that God is love.  God loves us so much that God will be patient with us in our learning.  God teaches, corrects, and helps us all the time, and all of these things are done out of a pure love for all of us.  A teacher of the Lord has to be someone who is willing to show what the Lord has done for her to all of her students.  She has to live the Gospel that she teaches.  Jesus did that, and we must follow.

Jesus accomplished a great deal of teaching because he did not push away students.  He achieved this through his welcoming teaching.  He calls people to come to him.  He calls all of us to listen to every word he says.  If we do the same, perhaps we can maintain a full classroom.  If we teach the way that Jesus has taught us, then we will walk with our students closer to God.