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Scripture Reading: 1 Tim. 1:3-4; 2 Tim. 1:6-7; 2:2, 22
In the books of 1 and 2 Timothy we can see the way that we should teach others. Regarding teaching, Paul charged Timothy, saying, “The things which you have heard from me through many witnesses, these commit to faithful men, who will be competent to teach others also” (2 Tim. 2:2). Let us consider what these two books tell us about teaching in an experiential way.
In 1 Timothy 1:3-4 Paul spoke to Timothy, one of his closest co-workers, saying, “Even as I exhorted you, when I was going into Macedonia, to remain in Ephesus in order that you might charge certain ones not to teach different things nor to give heed to myths and unending genealogies, which produce questionings rather than God’s economy, which is in faith.” This indicates that some were teaching differently from God’s economy, God’s dispensation.
The Greek word for economy means “household law” and implies distribution. This word denotes a household management, a household administration, a household government, and, derivatively, a dispensation, a plan, or an economy for administration (distribution); hence, it is also a household economy. God’s economy in faith is His household economy, His household administration, which is to dispense Himself in Christ into His chosen people that He may have a house to express Himself, which house is the church (3:15), the Body of Christ. Paul’s ministry was centered on this economy of God (Col. 1:25; 1 Cor. 9:17), whereas the different teachings of the dissenting ones were used by God’s enemy to distract His people from this economy.
The teaching in the New Testament is focused on God’s economy, His dispensation. However, during the centuries following the completion of the Bible, there have been many teachings that have not been on God’s economy. This should be a warning to us. We need to learn from history not to teach anything other than God’s dispensation.
In 1 Timothy 1 Paul presents God’s economy in opposition to different teachings. According to Paul’s word here, some were teaching the law and genealogies rather than God’s economy. In the Bible the law is a major subject. Judaism was built upon the law, and the Judaizers were zealous for the law and were wholly given to it. The Bible also contains many genealogies, such as the genealogy of Abraham and the genealogy of David. In verse 4 the word genealogies probably refers to Old Testament genealogies adorned with fables (Titus 3:9).
There are many other matters in the Bible, such as the history and the prophecies, which can become distractions to us. Some are distracted from God’s economy through their reading of the Psalms or Proverbs. If as we read the Bible we are not under the control of a clear vision of God’s economy, we may be distracted not by heresies but by various things found in the Bible. When you hear this, you may question whether biblical things can become distractions. It is a fact of history that throughout the centuries nearly all Christians have been distracted from God’s economy by different biblical things.
We must take heed to Paul’s charge not to teach differently from God’s economy. We believe that since the time of the apostles God’s economy has not been stressed as much as it has been stressed in the Lord’s recovery, especially in the past twenty years. God has a great plan—to dispense Himself in His Trinity into His chosen people. This is God’s economy. Our teaching must be governed by a clear view of God’s economy. Whatever we teach should be related to God’s economy.
As you teach in the Summer School of Truth, you should not have any burden, any view, or any vision other than God’s economy. You need to be not only burdened with God’s economy but also soaked and saturated with God’s economy. In your teaching you should know only one thing—God’s economy. You should be able to declare, “God’s economy is my burden, my view, and my vision. My entire being has been soaked in God’s economy, and I know nothing else.” To be sure, you will teach many different lessons, but every lesson will be structured with God’s economy. Only when you are clear concerning this basic matter will you know what we intend to do in the Summer School of Truth.
We have pointed out that in 2 Timothy 2:2 Paul charged Timothy to commit to faithful men the things which he had heard from Paul. These faithful men should be those who are competent to teach others. In order to fulfill this commission, Timothy himself had to be on fire. This is the reason Paul reminded him to “fan into flame the gift of God,” which was in him (1:6).
At this juncture we need to ask a question: What was the gift of God that Timothy was charged to fan into flame? The Pentecostal people might say that this was the gift of speaking in tongues, but this is doubtful, especially in view of the fact that in Paul’s latest writings the miraculous things are rarely mentioned. I believe that, first, the gift in verse 6 is the gift of eternal life. A gift, of course, must be given by someone. God surely has given us something, and the first thing that He has given us is the divine life. We all have received eternal life, the divine life. I also believe that, second, the gift here is the gift of the divine Spirit. The eternal life and the divine Spirit, or the eternal Spirit, are both God Himself.
This understanding of the gift in verse 6 raises another question: How is it possible for us to fan the Holy Spirit? Christians usually think that the Holy Spirit fans us, that the Holy Spirit fans our spirit. Do we fan the Spirit, or does the Spirit fan us? Concerning this matter of fanning into flame the gift of God, we may still be under the influence of traditional Christian teaching. According to traditional teaching, the believers are told to ask for the Spirit, not to fan the Spirit. To ask for something implies that we do not have that thing. Hence, to ask for the Spirit implies that we do not have the Spirit. To fan the Spirit, on the contrary, implies that we have the Spirit already. The “fire” of the Spirit is in us as the “stove,” but in order for the fire to burn, there is the need of a “draft.” To fan the flame is to bring in the needed draft. This illustration may give you an idea about what it means to fan the Spirit as the gift of God within us.
God has given us two precious things—His divine life and His divine Spirit. Now we need to fan the gift of God into flame. The first step in fanning the gift is not to exercise; the first step is to open all the “doors” and “windows.” We need to open our entire being. Open your mind, emotion, and will. Open your entire soul, open your heart, and open your spirit. Every morning we need to go to the Lord and open ourselves to Him. However, often we may spend time with the Lord without opening our being to Him. In such a situation the fire does not burn.
Those who teach in the Summer School of Truth must open their entire being—spirit, heart, soul, mind, emotion, and will—so that the “draft” may come in. The Spirit is in you already, but you need to fan the fire, the Spirit, into flame. I am somewhat concerned that when you go to teach a class in our summer school, you will be a shut-up person, a person whose being is closed to the draft. You have the Spirit and eternal life within you, but because you are closed, the draft cannot come in. If you are this kind of person, you will teach the young people merely according to your knowledge or according to what is printed in the lesson book. That kind of teaching is deadening. Before you go to teach, you must first fan the gift into flame. The more you open, the more the fire will burn. The draft from your fanning may cause the fire to burn for hours or even for the whole day.
In 2 Timothy 2:22 Paul told Timothy to “pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” If your being is closed, you need to call on the name of the Lord Jesus. As you call on the Lord, open not only your mouth but also your spirit and your heart. Then the draft will come in, and that will fan into flame the eternal life and the eternal Spirit within you. Fan into flame the gift that you have received from God. Let the gift become a flame. Then go to teach the young people not with an “ice-cold” mind but with a flame. If you are too sober in your mind, you will be cold ice when you go to teach. Do not be cold! Be “boiling hot” with the gift that has been fanned into flame!
Thus far, we have seen that we should teach God’s economy and that we should fan into flame the gift of God, opening our whole being and calling on the name of the Lord Jesus. In addition, we surely need to exercise our spirit. After charging Timothy to fan into flame the gift of God, Paul went on to say, “God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power and of love and of sobermindedness” (1:7). The spirit here denotes our spirit, regenerated and indwelt by the Holy Spirit (John 3:6; Rom. 8:16). To fan into flame the gift of God is thus related to our regenerated spirit. Of power refers to our will; of love, to our emotion; and of sobermindedness, to our mind. This indicates that having a strong will, a loving emotion, and a sober mind has very much to do with having a strong spirit for the exercise of the gift of God that is in us.
We all should be those who teach God’s economy, who fan the gift of God into flame, who call on the name of the Lord Jesus, and who exercise our spirit. At this point we need to consider another crucial matter—being persons of prayer.
I have no doubt that, as believers in Christ, you have received the eternal life and the divine Spirit, but I am concerned that you will go to your class with “ice water” instead of a flame. We have emphasized the fact that to have a flame you need to let the draft come in through opening up to the Lord. Every morning you need to bring in the draft by fanning the gift of God into flame. However, suppose that you have just had a most unpleasant situation with your spouse, and now it seems impossible for you to fan the flame. It may take several days for you to be able once again to fan the flame by yourself, but this will be much easier to do if you pray with a small group of saints. If you pray by yourself, you may keep thinking about the situation with your spouse and thus have no way to fan the flame. However, if you pray with others, they will fan the flame within you. Eventually, you also will be able to pray, and you will fan them. Then the draft will come in, and you will have a flame.
If you would go to your class in the Summer School of Truth with a flame, you must be a person of prayer. If you are such a person, you will bring a spirit of prayer to your class. You will then be able to stir up the praying spirit of the young people in your class. Everyone must be stirred up to pray. This means that you need to create an atmosphere of prayer. Do not teach unless there is such an atmosphere in your class. To have an atmosphere of prayer, you should allow an adequate time in every class session for prayer.
Do you know what a living meeting is? A living meeting is a meeting that has an atmosphere of prayer. All those who speak for the Lord know that it is easy to speak in a meeting where there is an atmosphere of prayer. Otherwise, it will be very difficult to speak, for you may feel as if you are speaking in a cemetery.
I would remind you that teaching in the Summer School of Truth is absolutely different from teaching in a secular school. There is no need to fan the gift of God into flame in order to teach a class in a secular school. But to teach in our summer school, you must be a person of prayer, a person with a flame who brings in an atmosphere of prayer.
Once you have fanned the gift of God into flame, stirred up the praying spirit, and created an atmosphere of prayer, you are now ready to teach. You should teach not in a doctrinal way but in an experiential way.
Suppose you are teaching a lesson on man’s fallen condition and man’s need of salvation. You should not ask your students merely to remember and recite all the points related to man’s fallen condition. That would be to teach in a doctrinal way. If you would teach in an experiential way, you should help the young people to realize that they themselves are fallen. You may ask them to paint a picture of their own fallen condition, not just to remember a number of doctrinal points. Take, for example, the matter of lying. Concerning this, those in your class should come to realize that, because they were born in sin, there is no need for them to learn how to lie; they lie spontaneously. To teach in this way is to teach not according to doctrine but according to experience.
One of the points in the lesson on man’s need of salvation is that man is under God’s condemnation. Man has sinned by disobeying God’s commandment and thus has come under God’s condemnation. If you teach in a doctrinal way, you will ask questions such as the following: What is God’s commandment? What does it mean to be condemned? What is the significance of being under God’s condemnation? If you would teach in an experiential way, you must help your students to realize that they have sinned by disobeying particular commandments. Furthermore, you should point out to them that often they have disobeyed the demands of their conscience. You may ask them, “Can you say that you have never disobeyed your conscience? If you have disobeyed your conscience, then surely you have sinned.” By speaking to them in this way, you will help them to realize experientially what it means to be under God’s judgment.
Learn in your teaching to touch others experientially. Apply every point of your teaching to their personal, practical situation.
As you are teaching the young people in your class, you should frequently talk to them in a personal and practical way. For instance, you might say, “Are you not unhappy when your brother or sister has something that you do not have? Do you not hate that? Also, have you not offended your parents many times? Do you not have a sense deep within that it is wrong to offend your parents? Do you not realize that you should honor, respect, regard, and love your parents?” Instead of only covering the points in the lesson book, talk to the young people in a very personal way. Every point of the lesson should be presented in a way that will create an experiential impression. Apply every point to their actual situation.
When you teach a class in the Summer School of Truth, do not take the way of giving messages or lectures. Instead, you need to have personal talks with the young people, teaching every point experientially. As you are talking with them, you should be watchful over each one, paying particular attention to their expressions. This will help you to know the needs of your students. Then in the next class session you should endeavor to meet these needs. As the Lord leads you, you may speak to certain ones in particular and then ask them to pray with you. In this way you will help them to open up, you will strengthen their praying spirit, and you will bring them into the experience of the truths that you are presenting.
The principle is the same with preaching the gospel. When we preach the gospel, we should not just gather people together and give them a message. We should have direct, personal contact with people. We may give a message, but afterward, according to the condition of the attendants, we need to talk with them in a personal way about their need. Then we should pray with them. We all need to learn to do this.
The hardest thing for us to do in teaching in an experiential way is to get people to pray with us. You may be able to give a message and talk with others, but when you come to the point where it is necessary to pray, you may be void of the praying spirit. If you are void of the praying spirit, you cannot stir up a praying spirit in someone else. If you want to stir up a praying spirit in the person with whom you are speaking, you yourself must be a person who is full of the praying spirit.
I hope that there will be much prayer in your class in the Summer School of Truth. Adequate prayer will accomplish at least three things. It will impress the young people in an experiential way with the points of the lesson; it will stir up the praying spirit within them; and it will cause them to become living. Those who attend such a summer school will surely become very living.
Let us not merely train the young people in our summer school with the knowledge of truth. Mere doctrinal knowledge is vain, and I have no confidence in it. Rather, let us impress the young ones with truth as the reality of God’s economy. This is the truth that we are burdened to impart to our young people. In order to carry out this burden, you need to put into practice all the points that we have covered in this chapter. Be governed by a clear view of God’s economy; fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you; and be a person of prayer with an atmosphere of prayer who can stir up a praying spirit in others. As a teacher in the Summer School of Truth, you should be ready to pray at any time. Then you will be able to teach.
