Chapter # 12 Paragraph # 3 Study # 4
December 8, 2019
Humble, Texas
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Thesis: Those that are "gifted" to "teach" are expected to put a high priority on "teaching".
Introduction: We are looking into Paul's
first "body as a living sacrifice" application: the "ministry" of each believer's "gift(s)" to the Body of Christ. No one can "present his/her body to God as a living sacrifice" without being turned by the Spirit of God to God's priority in His giving of "gifts" to human beings for the sake of the building up of the Body of Christ, nor can anyone legitimately pursue the exercise of his/her "gift(s)" without first making this "presentation" because of the mercies of God.
What we have seen thus far is that Paul selects a group of seven "gifts" to make his point. He begins with "prophecy" and ends with "showing mercy". It cannot be that he just chose seven gifts willy-nilly. He has a "point" to make, and we looked in brief last time at the way he chose to go about revealing that "point" by the way he structured his words and sentences.
At the beginning of his effort to make his point, he highlighted "prophecy". By doing that, he was revealing just how necessary it is for all "body-as-a-living-sacrifice" activities to be founded solidly upon God's revealed "Truth". In 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 Paul declared how absolutely critical this "foundation" in "Truth" is as he actually said that any "gift function" that was not properly rooted was nullified by that lack of a proper foundation. Interestingly, however, in that text, it is not "Truth" per se that he emphasizes, but "Love". This simply reveals how critical is the opening issue of Romans 12: the "presentation" of a "body-as-a-living-sacrifice" to God as a response to His great mercies is nothing more, or less, than a top-tier demonstration of the "Love" that must undergird all perceptions of "Truth" ("Love" for God and, by extension, His agenda related to His "building up of the Church").
After "prophecy" comes "ministry"; a "gift" that is both a general umbrella over all "gifts" because all "gifts" are given to meet the needs of the Church, and a specific "gift" that focuses upon a special ability to both recognize the "needs" and take specific steps to address them. This does at least two things simultaneously: it makes "ministry" dependent upon "specific revelation from God" so that "needs" can be recognized and addressed; and it makes "addressing the needs of the people of God" the reason for the "prophecy-guided" exercise of all of the "gifts". In other words, God's "Truth" is fundamental for guidance and God's "Love" is the motivation behind that guidance so that the Church can genuinely profit in time and eternity from what God has "given" to the Body of Christ.
Next we come to the "gift" of "the one who teaches". This will be the focus for our study this evening.
- I. Paul's "Logical Progression".
- A. Absolutely "first" comes "prophecy" as "revelation of Truth from God to men": "Truth" is the most critical of all issues of "Life in the Mercies of God" as to "roots".
- B. Absolutely "second" comes "minstry" as one of the highest of the top-tier "gifts" because of its "from God to people" focus: "Love" is the most critical of all issues of "Life in the Mercies of God" as to "motivation".
- C. Absolutely "third" comes "teaching" as one of the most critical of the top-tier "gifts" because of the complexity of "revealed Truth" and "teaching's" function in "explanation" of that "Truth-revealed-for-the-sake-of-people".
- D. Thus far, this "progression" has the earlier concept of 8:29 firmly in view: having a person's development into a "mirror image" of the character of the Son of God is so fundamental to the agenda of God that it is one of the things that He underwrites through "predestination".
- II. The Issues Involved in The Gift of Teaching.
- A. At this point in his development of the "Seven", Paul switches from the focus upon a "gift" to a focus upon the one exercising it.
- 1. This switch in focus is indicated by a change from an identification of a "gift" in the possession of a person ("prophecy" and "minstry"; "Faith" and "Love"), to instruction for "the one who..." (a grammatical structure of a definite article in combination with a present participle; "the one who is teaching...the one who is summoning...the one who is giving...the one who is ruling...the one who is showing mercy).
- 2. This is where "the rubber meets the road".
- a. "Prophecy" is a very large concept that lends itself to a focus upon "concept".
- b. Likewise, "Ministry" is a very large concept because of the enormous territory it covers as the issue of meeting the needs of complex people overwhelmed by the explosion of the complexity of living in a fallen world (illustrated by the fact that just three primary colors can be complicated to evolve into thousands upon thousands of variations).
- c. But, with "teaching", we have the beginning of how we are to deal with those two prior "big ticket" issues.
- d. Thus, "the one who is teaching" becomes a critical "connector" between the large issues of "revelation" and "ministry" and individual people in the details of living.
- B. Paul's "attending issues" in association with "teaching".
- 1. It has a specific "content", called by Paul "the form of knowledge and of the truth" in 2:20.
- a. This means "knowledge" and "truth" are "formed" into "language based expressions of the reality of God's commitments in regard to men".
- 1) In the 2:20 context, this means two things in particular.
- a) This "form" is held in "the Law": God's divine revelation to men.
- b) The possession of this "form" is most highly susceptible to "twisting" if pride exists in those possessing it (2:17-20).
- 2) Paul is early (chapter two) and insistent (periodic confrontations of pride) in regard to "he that is teaching".
- b. This also exalts "prophecy" as a prior necessity to "teaching" (without content, teaching is impossible).
- 2. It has a specific "danger" associated with it.
- a. This coincides with 12:3 and its warning against "thinking too highly of oneself".
- b. It is expressly stated in 2:17-20 in its prelude to Paul's potent denunciation of those who "teach" others but violate their teaching in their own behavior (2:21 and following).
- 1) That Paul declares in Philippians 1:15-18 that the "content" is more important than the "motives".
- a) This highlights just how large a "project" it is even for God to get men to the point of "Love" as a motive (see 2 Peter 1:5-7).
- b) At the root of "learning" from a "teacher" is the fact of the Spirit's personal labors in bringing the "connections of the dots" together in any given person's heart and mind; labors that do not absolutely require unhypocritical "Love" in the "teacher".
- 2) But, that Paul's very next paragraph in Romans 12 begins with an insistence upon the requirement of Love being without the baggage of false motives, indicates that this is not to be used as an excuse by "him that teaches".
- 3. The "content" and "danger" are real because "he that teaches" holds a high visibility position in the eyes of men and if a person is "addicted to the glory of men" it is almost impossible for him to teach "Truth" because it offends men, and the "messenger" loses the "glory" if he/she is "offensive".
