Day 135: Being Students

"Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious."  1 Peter 2:1-3

As Christians, we are devoted to living a life as a student.

We will forget that sometimes.  In school, there are usually some students who might understand concepts more easily than others, so those students can help those around them.  But, in the end, the teacher still has more knowledge than the students.  Perhaps later on in their lives, the students will have the same, if not more, knowledge and wisdom than their teachers.

As students, we are called to maintain certain disciplines.  I'm sure there are many teachers out there who wish to have students who are not judgmental, kind, patient, and, above all, willing to learn.  We are not supposed to be correcting our teacher, and we are definitely not supposed to be correcting our fellow students.  Think about this: we are students of the ultimate expression of wisdom (some would even say we are students of Wisdom herself); so how can we even know more than the teacher?

We are called to desire to continue in our learning and our application of our learning.  But the only way that will work is if we put aside all evils around us.  And, in this passage, evils are things that separate us from one another.  Being students requires us to make the classroom into a community of love, support, friendship, and help.   That's how we will be able to apply what we learn, as well.  We are learning how to live with one another to build up the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.  When we start to apply all the love, all the acceptance, all the understanding that Christ teaches us, we will grow into greater beings.

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.