Gift of Teachers

 

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS

GIFT OF TEACHERS

1 Cor 12:27-31

27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 28 And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? 31 But eagerly desire the greater gifts.

And now I will show you the most excellent way.

NIV

Before we get to the most excellent way we need to take a look at these gifts, especially the newer mentioned ones. Although we did take a second look at apostles and prophets, this is the first time we consider the gift of teachers. There is some discussion regarding whether Paul intended this as a separate gift to the church in his letter to the Ephesians when he says that some are pastors and teachers. The argument in Greek is that both those words are plural and use the same article. This would mean in essence that all pastors would be teachers, but not all teachers would be pastors. In Greek, they appear to be two different gifts, so then this gift of teachers is simply a teacher and not pastor and teacher. Because Paul does not mention the pastor here but keeps the teacher alone, it would again make sense that in his letter to the Ephesians the teacher is also a separate gift. This gift of instructor is given by the Spirit to certain people, for the benefit of the common good. In order words, people need to be enlightened by the words of the teacher. Again, as this is a gift, the person through whom the Spirit manifests himself may not be the one who has learned through extension study or years of education. This does not discount learned knowledge at all. There are some extremely knowledgeable individuals able to explain many aspects of the scriptures that benefit the common good. However, that is learned knowledge, but it is not the gift of teachers. There are some of these same extremely learned individuals that cannot communicate enough to benefit the common good. However, this does not discount that God may also gift one of these individuals with the gift of teachers. This would give us the idea that God decides who is a teacher, not man deciding to teach because of his learned knowledge. It is not uncommon for some to use the term Sunday school teacher, especially in regard to children’s Sunday school. Perhaps this stems from the secular use of the title of a teacher in schools. Sometimes with adults, we tend to shy away from that term and use facilitator instead, not wanting to be seen as teaching, which would infer adults need to learn, and that might offend someone. However, the truth has to be instructed so the common good will grow in the knowledge of God, and become all God intended them to be. How else will some know unless they learn, and how else will they learn, unless they are taught, and how else will they be taught, unless the Spirit gives the gift of teachers?