Studying. Doing. Teaching.

Last Wednesday night I was pleasantly surprised to have a conversation with an old friend right after our student ministry gathering. He has served in a different student ministry for the last 4-5 years, but had decided to take this year off. He told me he had slid into a habit of studying God’s word, and trying to teach it to students, but wasn’t living it himself.

He pointed to a verse that had helped open his eyes to see this problem. Ezra 7:10, “For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of God, and to do it, and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.” My friend said the order was crucial for him to see—studying. doing. teaching. He explained to me that he had unintentionally removed the middle step, and it was taking a toll. His relationships at home were suffering, and more importantly, his relationship with God was suffering. How could he teach others to do what he was not doing himself? So he was taking a difficult but necessary step back in an effort to repair and restore those relationships.

I was reminded of a quote from one of my favorite dead guys (and I have a lot of favorite dead guys). John Owen once said, “A man preacheth that sermon only well unto others which preacheth itself in his own soul.  And he that doth not feed on and thrive in the digestion of the food which he provides for others will scarce make it savoury unto them; yea, he knows not but the food he hath provided may be poison, unless he have really tasted of it himself.  If the word do not dwell with power in us, it will not pass with power from us.”

If a man desires to teach or preach God’s word to others, he must first taste of it himself. And once he has tasted it (studying) and thrived in it (doing) he is able to help others savor it as well (teaching).

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God, help me to taste and see that your word is sweet to my soul! Give me a deeper longing to feed on the food of the Scriptures and thrive in it. May I be a student of your word, and a doer of your word, before I ever attempt to be a teacher of your word.