Search
Scripture Reading: 2 Tim. 3:16-17; John 6:63; Eph. 6:17
In this series of messages we will cover some important matters related to training teachers to serve with the young people in the Summer School of Truth. What we will consider here will be helpful not only to those who teach in our summer school but to all those who speak for the Lord.
We need to have the proper understanding of the words teacher, teaching, and school. Regarding these words, we all may have our own “lexicons.” Let us drop the different lexicons and come to the Scriptures as the unique lexicon. The word teaching is found in 2 Timothy 3:16, where we are told that “all Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching.” The only time the word school is used in the New Testament is in Acts 19:9. This verse tells us that when “some were hardened and would not be persuaded, speaking evil of the Way before the multitude,” Paul “withdrew from them and separated the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus.” Tyrannus might have been a teacher, and Paul might have rented his school and used it as a meeting hall to preach and teach the word of the Lord to both Jews and Gentiles for two years (v. 10). Paul alluded to some kind of school when he told us that he was “trained at the feet of Gamaliel” (22:3), a teacher of the law (5:34).
The reason we need to set aside our personal lexicons and study the words of the Scriptures is that the Scriptures teach us the things of God and the things concerning God. We may even say that the Scriptures teach us God Himself. When some hear this, they may ask, “Can we teach God? How can God be taught?” Today’s seminaries do not teach God; they merely teach about God. The Scriptures, on the contrary, teach us God and also teach us the things of God. There is a great difference between teaching about God and teaching God.
However, many Christians do not realize the significance of this difference. When they read the Bible, they read it in the same way as they read a secular book. This is absolutely wrong. The Bible, especially the New Testament, does not teach us to read the Scriptures in a common, secular way. Rather, Ephesians 6:17 and 18 tell us to receive the word of God by means of all prayer and petition. The reason we need to receive the word of God by prayer is that, according to 2 Timothy 3:16, the Scriptures are God-breathed. This indicates that the Scriptures are the breathing out of God. God has breathed Himself out in the Scriptures, and thus our reading of the Scriptures should be our receiving of God’s breath. When God breathes Himself out, He exhales Himself. When we read the Scriptures, or when we receive the Scriptures, we inhale God. Reading the Bible therefore involves both God’s exhaling and our inhaling. This is altogether different from reading a book in a secular way. Unfortunately, many believers read the Bible in the same way as they read a textbook or a newspaper. This is a serious mistake, and we must avoid it as we are taking care of the young people in the Summer School of Truth.
We should not conduct the Summer School of Truth in a secular way. Actually, I do not like the word school. Using this word may cause others to think that we intend to teach in a common, secular manner. Some may even have the concept that the ones who take care of the Summer School of Truth should be schoolteachers by profession. This concept is mistaken. Being a schoolteacher does not qualify one for serving in our summer school. Do not think that having been a schoolteacher for many years qualifies someone to teach in our summer school. Those who serve in the Summer School of Truth should not serve according to their natural ability or professional training. Our summer school does not deal with any secular matters, such as mathematics, history, geography, and science. Instead, our summer school is for the handling of the divine truth, that is, the reality of the Triune God. What we intend to teach our young people is the reality of the Triune God. Concerning this, our natural teaching ability does not avail.
My burden in this chapter is to point out what the nature of the Summer School of Truth is. Once we have a clear understanding of the nature of our summer school, we will know what to do and how to do it.
The nature of the Summer School of Truth actually is not a matter of teaching but of ministering or serving. The purpose of our summer school is to minister something to the young people. We may use a restaurant as an illustration. A restaurant is not for teaching about food but for serving food. Those who serve in a restaurant do not merely give people a menu and then teach them about food. Instead, the serving ones supply others with different courses of food for eating. The principle should be the same with what we call the Summer School of Truth. In a sense, our summer school is a kind of school, but actually, it should be a “restaurant.” Our intention is not to give the young people a “menu” and then teach them about God. Our intention is to serve, to minister, God as different “dishes” for eating. Thus, the nature of the Summer School of Truth is a matter of ministering, of serving, the Triune God to the young people.
The situation of today’s seminaries is very different from this. Seminary instructors pay very little attention, if any, to ministering spiritual food to the students. Instead of ministering God, these instructors mainly teach theology, the mere knowledge about God. They do not minister God Himself to the students. We do not want our summer school to resemble a theological school or seminary. Our school should actually be a “restaurant” serving the Triune God to the young saints.
In the Summer School of Truth our textbook is the Bible, and all our lesson books are based on the Bible. Our goal is to bring the young people not to the lesson books but to the Triune God through the lesson books. Our lesson books should be a channel through which the young people are brought to the Triune God. If you realize this, then you will also realize that it is not sufficient merely to teach your class with the lesson book as if you were teaching in a secular school. Everyone in your class should gain the Triune God. Do not bring the young people to the lesson book—bring them to the Triune God through the lesson book. The lesson book is a channel for those whom you are serving to be brought to God and to gain God. This means that your aim is not to teach the lesson book but to bring the young people to God through the channel of the lesson book. This is the nature of the Summer School of Truth.
Through your teaching, your serving, in the Summer School of Truth, everyone in your class should be brought to God. You need to pray and endeavor concerning this. You need to labor to bring every young person in your class to the Triune God so that by the time you have finished all the lessons, the students in your class will have gained the Triune God and will have been filled with God, not with mere knowledge about God in letters.
We have seen that our textbook is the Bible. Now we need to consider further what the Bible is. Apparently, the Bible is the same as any other book—a composition of words. Whereas all secular books are the same in nature, the Bible is different from other books. The Bible is unique.
I would like to point out again that 2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is God-breathed.” The Scriptures are the breath of God, or the breathing out of God, God’s breathing out of Himself. The Bible, therefore, is God’s breath, and God’s breath is the Spirit of God, for God is Spirit (John 4:24). The Greek word for Spirit is pneuma, which is also the word for breath. Thus, we may say that the Holy Spirit is the holy breath (cf. 20:22). God is Spirit, and the Spirit is the holy breath. To say that all Scripture is God-breathed is to say that the Bible is the breath, the breathing out, of the very God who is Spirit. God has breathed Himself out, and this breathing out of God is the Bible. This is what 2 Timothy 3:16 is saying when it tells us that the Scriptures are God-breathed.
In John 6:63 the Lord Jesus said, “It is the Spirit who gives life...the words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” The words that proceed out of the mouth of the Lord Jesus are spirit, pneuma. His words are the embodiment of the Spirit, who gives life. This indicates that the words that come out of the Lord’s mouth are His breath, the breathing out of Himself. This is a further indication that the words of the Scriptures are God-breathed.
In Ephesians 6:17 Paul charges us to receive “the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the word of God.” The antecedent of which is Spirit, not sword, indicating that the Spirit is the word of God. When we read the Bible, we must touch the word of God as the Spirit. Along with 2 Timothy 3:16 and John 6:63, this verse reveals that the Bible is God’s breathing out. Since God is Spirit, what He breathes out must also be Spirit. The words of the Bible, therefore, are the breathing out of God Himself as the Spirit.
Second Timothy 3:16 says not only that the Scriptures are God-breathed but also that the Scriptures are “profitable for teaching, for conviction, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” On God’s side the Bible is God’s breathing. On our side the Bible is for us to receive profit in four matters—teaching, conviction or reproof, correction, and instruction. The order here is significant. Why does teaching and not instruction come first? Why does correction come before instruction, and conviction before correction? And why does teaching come first? The order is first teaching and then conviction, correction, and instruction.
What is teaching? How do you understand the word teaching? We need to know the denotation of this word as it is used by Paul.
If we have the proper and adequate spiritual experience, we will realize that in verse 16 teaching equals revelation. Teaching is actually nothing less than a divine revelation. Since teaching equals revelation, as you are teaching the young people in your class in the Summer School of Truth, you must present a revelation to them.
A revelation is the opening of a veil. As you are teaching the young people, you should be taking away a veil so that they may see something of the Triune God. A certain matter may be hidden from view, but by your teaching you should gradually open the veil. This is teaching.
When you are serving in the Summer School of Truth, you should not allow the veil to remain over the eyes of the young people. Rather, as they are listening to you, the veil should be rolled away little by little. To teach is to roll away the veil. Go to the summer school for the purpose of rolling away the veil.
Now we can see that for the Bible to be profitable for teaching means that it is profitable for unveiling, for rolling away the veil. A veil cannot be taken away suddenly; it cannot be rolled away all at once. On the contrary, the veil is rolled away a little at a time. Time after time and in session after session, you need to gradually roll away the veil. If you do this, your way of teaching will be an unveiling. This kind of teaching always presents a revelation to others. Those who are under such teaching will be able to see something concerning the Triune God.
This understanding of teaching applies not only to those who teach in the Summer School of Truth but to all those who speak for the Lord. When you speak something in the church meeting, your speaking should be the rolling away of the veil. This means that your speaking should present a revelation.
It is significant that in verse 16 teaching is followed by conviction, or reproof. The reason for this is that no one can see something of God without being convicted by what he sees. Those who are under your teaching will see something, and what they see will convict, reprove, them.
Whenever we see something of God, we realize our mistakes, wrongdoings, shortcomings, and sins. The result is that we are convicted; we are rebuked. This conviction comes from the revelation we receive. However, often in our reading of the Scriptures, we read without receiving any revelation, and thus there is no conviction. But when in our reading of the Scriptures we receive a revelation, the revelation will convict us and rebuke us.
Conviction is followed by correction. Teaching, or revelation, brings us conviction, and conviction produces correction. Correction is a matter of setting right what is wrong, turning someone to the right way, and restoring to an upright state.
After we have been corrected, we will receive the proper instruction—the instruction in righteousness. Whereas Paul here does not use any modifiers for teaching, conviction, and correction, he does use a modifier for instruction and speaks of the instruction in righteousness. Righteousness is a matter of being right. Hence, the instruction here is for us to be right.
The reason we are convicted and rebuked is that we are wrong in many different ways and aspects. We may be wrong with God, with Christ, and with the Spirit. We may be wrong with the church, with the brothers and sisters, with our husband or wife, with our parents, with our children, with our neighbors, and even with ourselves. We may be wrong in the way we spend our money, in the way we spend our time, in the way we dress, or in the way we style our hair. Because we may be wrong in so many different things, we are rebuked by the revelation we receive when we read the Scriptures.
From our experience we know that often we are rebuked immediately after receiving a revelation. I can testify that time after time I have been rebuked by a revelation that came from reading the Bible or from a teaching. Have you not had such an experience? Because we are sinful and unrighteous, we need the rebuking that comes through teaching.
We may memorize Bible verses and recite them without experiencing any rebuking. But when we receive a revelation from the Word, that revelation exposes our sinfulness and rebukes us. We are not rebuked by man, nor are we rebuked directly by God—we are rebuked by the teaching of the Word. When we are rebuked in this way, we are spontaneously corrected, and when we are corrected, we have the instruction in righteousness. The result is that we are adjusted.
We may be adjusted in a particular matter and become right in this matter. However, we may not be right in this matter once for all. For example, suppose a brother is wrong with his wife. Under the revelation from the Word, he is rebuked and adjusted. He repents and then apologizes to his wife, and as a result, he is now right with her. But a few days later he may be wrong with her again, and once again he will need to be rebuked, corrected, and adjusted.
In verse 17 Paul goes on to say, “That the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work.” A man of God is a God-man, one who partakes of God’s life and nature (John 1:13; 2 Pet. 1:4), thus being one with God in His life and nature (1 Cor. 6:17) and thereby expressing Him. Such a God-man, such a man of God, is produced by God’s breathing out of Himself. God’s breathing produces God-men.
You may be a good man but not a God-man. This means that with you there is an extra o. You should have only one o, but instead of one you have two. The more you receive teaching, revelation, the more this extra o will be cut off. However, it is hard to get rid of the second o once for all, for it is like a man’s beard that appears again after it has been shaved or like the grass that grows again after the lawn has been mowed. From experience we know that the second o always comes back. Perhaps with you this extra o has only partially been cut off, and the part that has been shaved keeps coming back again. If this is our situation, then we are a man of God—a God-man—with an extra o. We need the teaching from the Scriptures to shave away this o again and again.
The word that at the beginning of 2 Timothy 3:17 indicates that this verse is an issue of the preceding verse. The issue of teaching, conviction, correction, and instruction in righteousness is that the man of God becomes complete.
In the Summer School of Truth you should present a teaching that is an unveiling, the rolling away of the veil. Then the young people in your class will see something of God, and what they see will rebuke them, correct them, and afford them the proper instruction in righteousness to make them right both with God and with man. The issue, the outcome, will be that the man of God becomes complete and equipped for every good work.
The purpose of the Summer School of Truth is not to give mental knowledge to the young people. The goal of our summer school is to present teaching after teaching, revelation after revelation, so that the young ones may see God, see themselves, and be convicted, corrected, and instructed to be right with God and man so that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work. Such a person will be a true man of God, a real God-man, continually inhaling the Triune God and thereby receiving revelation, conviction, correction, and instruction in righteousness.
