Today’s passage: James 3:1-5
Helpful thoughts:
- Teaching is convicting and humbling if you are truly doing it to serve the Lord and the listeners.
- It is impossible to teach the whole counsel of God without failing to perfectly “practice what you preach.”(Teachers and preachers need the Gospel too!)
- The teacher therefore must also be a sincere humble learner, even in their preparation and delivery of the lecture.
- Words are powerful. They can affect far more than the speaker ever intended.
- We can choose our words, but we can’t choose their consequences.
Questions to consider:
- What would be some good motivations and some bad motivations to teach? What makes them good or bad?
- What makes good teaching “good”? What is even more important than the humility and conduct of the teacher?
- If you are aware that a little fire on the campsite could erupt into a full-blown forest fire, how do you take precaution at your campsite? How would this illustration translate into taking precaution with your words?