Colossians 3:12-17 (NLT) ; 歌 羅 西 書 3:12-17 (CUVS)

This sermon is number 8 of 9 in Pastor Ryan’s sermon series “One Another”. Because of a power outage during the service, there is no recording of this sermon. Here is a brief summary:

Think about your favorite teacher from when you were in school. What was it that made him/her a good teacher? In the passage today, Paul says that we are to teach and counsel one another (v. 16). This is for all of us, not just the ones with the spiritual gift of teaching. It is part of the “priesthood of all believers”, which means that all of us have the ability and responsibility to search and interpret the Scriptures with the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the local church. If we are spending time with Jesus and learning from him, we have things we can share with others to build them up.

Principles of good teaching:

• Good teaching flows from good character, such as the traits that are listed above in v. 12-14: kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, and love. Love above all.
• Good teaching is anchored to a purpose, and our purpose is Christ, to make him known and help us become like him. We can only teach what we have learned about following Jesus from our own experience.
• God guides the who and what and when of our teaching. We need to be sensitive to the Spirit’s leading to know who to talk to, about what, and when to do it. A good practice is to ask God in the morning to show you who he wants you to instruct and then check again to make sure when the opportunity arises.
• Teaching is matched with singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs in verse 16. Teaching is something we do together in the presence of Jesus, so it is an act of worship with one another.

Photo by Sebastián León Prado on Unsplash