The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple. (Psalm 119:130)
Someone not long ago asked me to tell them what the answers were. We were looking at the book of Romans in the New Testament and came upon some hard to understand points.
I was asking questions trying to get people to understand what the apostle Paul was saying in the passages. The discussion got a bit intense for one guy and he asked me to tell them the answers.
My answer: no. It is not my job to tell you the answers. He really didn’t like that answer, I could tell.
But it is true. It is not the job of the teacher to tell people the answers. It is his job to bring them to a knowledge of the truth.
You do that through several different methods. But the best is just asking questions until people kind of figure it out. That is how Jesus did it. He was a teacher in the Socratic method. That meant you just keep asking questions until the truth finally gets through.
It makes sometimes for what can be a difficult class. But if you listen, you can tell where people are coming from.
It sounds simplistic but it is true. You learn a lot from people by just listening to them. And if they talk long enough, they will sometimes tell you more than they intend.
And part of that is allowing them to ask questions. When they do, you listen to the question.
When people feel free to ask questions, they begin to learn.
Then again, there is no way you can understand, no matter how many questions you ask or answers you receive, until God opens it up to you.
The Bible is the written word of God, and as such is subject to his interpretation. He will open it to you if you allow him to. The process is called Divine Illumination. You are illuminated to the answers by God and his Spirit, not some guy. All the teacher amounts to is a conduit through which that Divine Illumination comes.
The teacher works together with the class and together they discover the will of God. And he opens it to both teacher and taught. All stand together as seekers of the divine will.
When we all get to it together, it is great. And we get light and understanding.
As long as we quit thinking that we have the answers and that it is our job to give them to others, we will learn the divine will of God.
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