An Alphabetical Analysis
Volume 10 - Practical Truth - Page 176 of 277
INDEX
These qualifications, however, are by no means all.  There are also
moral qualifications that are essential.  This we may gather from the passage
already quoted from 1 Timothy 3:
'A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant,
sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach; not given
to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a
brawler, not covetous; one that ruleth well his own house, having his
children in subjection with all gravity; (for if a man know not how to
rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?)  Not
a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation
of the devil.  Moreover he must have a good report of them which are
without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil' (1 Tim.
3:2-7).
The domestic qualifications mentioned here belong not so much to the
teacher as to the bishop, for in these early days the Church was in the
house.  The rest of the passage, however, may be taken as indicating the
qualities that should accompany aptness to teach, if the teacher is to be
approved of God.  It should be remembered that the words translated 'teacher'
(didaskalos) and 'teach' (didasko) give us didaskalia, which is translated in
most passages by the word 'doctrine'.
Teaching and Practice
Throughout the Scriptures we find a salutary insistence upon the
necessity for the life to correspond with the teaching given and received.
The balance of doctrine and practice is very noticeable in the epistles, and
also in the lives of the apostles.  Paul himself draws the attention of
Timothy to his consistency in this matter, saying:
'Thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life' (2 Tim. 3:10).
'I ... have shewed you, and have taught you' (Acts 20:20).
The relation between 'shewing' and 'teaching' was a very practical one
in the apostle's case, as verses 34 and 35 reveal:
'Yea, ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto my
necessities, and to them that were with me.  I have shewed you all
things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to
remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, It is more blessed
to give than to receive' (Acts 20:34,35).
The subject of the teacher and his teaching is so great that we at
first thought of taking some lesser theme, and of reserving the subject of
teaching for a more thorough treatment.  However, we have presented very
briefly one or two aspects of it here, and trust that the service of each of
us may be the better for the brief consideration we have given.
Unmoveable
At the close of the Sermon on the Mount the Lord likens His hearers to
two builders, the one who built his house upon a rock, and the other who
built his house upon the sand.  The figures vary in different parts of
Scripture, but the underlying truth remains that the believer, while in one
sense he may be said to grow and run and wrestle, is nevertheless in another
sense 'unmoved'.