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It is only reasonable to believe that anyone sent by the Lord to teach will have an
"aptitude" for teaching. If he has to speak, he will be able to speak plainly, and will be
able to make himself heard and understood. However good the message may be, it is
valueless if it is inaudible or unintelligible.
Moral fitness.
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 I Tim. 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"
(I 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" (II 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