Christ and Christ Crucified

Take time to read 1 Corinthians chapter 2.

I have the awesome privilege of teaching the Word of God to high school aged youth.  On a weekly basis I get the opportunity to open the Scripture and speak about our great God.  This is an awesome privilege and an awesome, heavy responsibility.

"Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly."  James 3:1

Teaching youth, or anyone for that matter, is a grand and heavy task.  So, one must examine what good Biblical teaching is so as not to be judged as doing a bad job.

What is good teaching of Scripture?

This is the question I'm left asking because I don't want to stand before God and be found to have taught incorrectly.

I think Paul answers what good teaching and good scriptural interpretation is.

"For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified."  1 Corinthians 2:2

This statement describes good Biblical teaching in a nutshell.  We who teach are not to only look for moral lessons from the Bible.  That's not the primary goal of Scripture.  Now, moral lessons can be found all over the pages of God's Word.  All over the Word we see God's way versus man's way.  All over Scripture we are given good, moral lessons.  But moral lessons are not the goal of Scripture.

The focal point of Scripture is Jesus Christ and Him crucified.  The entire Old Testament points forward to Jesus Christ and Him crucified.  The Gospels describe Jesus Christ and Him crucified.  And the rest of the New Testament points back to Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

Jesus Christ and Him crucified therefore must be the focal point of our teaching.  Teachers, we must not stop at moral lessons and fall short of giving our students what they need most... Jesus Christ and Him crucified.  Teachers, if we help our students, whether youth, adult or children, become moral people but miss teaching Jesus Christ and Him crucified we could and should be judged more strictly.  We could be teaching our students to be good, decent, damned people.

So, our call as teachers, if we want to be good teachers that is, is to have Christ and Christ crucified in every lesson we teach.  When we read David and Goliath we must see Christ and Christ crucified in the story... because it's there.  When we teach the 10 Commandments we must see Christ and Christ crucified... because it's there.  Teachers we must resolve to know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified as the focal point of our teaching.

Teach Christ and Christ crucified today.