Ezra 7:10 - Who then are you teaching?

Ezra 7:10 (ESV)

For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.

Ezra studied and practiced the Law of the LORD. But it didn’t stop there. He also taught God’s Law. He was not only rightly dividing the Scriptures, he was rightly communicating them to the people of God. Doing must come before teaching. In John 13:17 Jesus said, “If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.” Too often we are more ready to tell others what they should be doing than we are to do what is right ourselves. Doing must come before teaching.

But we can’t stop with doing. We need to realize that we, as believers in Jesus Christ, are all teachers. The Great Commission included these words, “. . . teaching them to observe all I commanded you” (Mt 28:20). In Deuteronomy 6:6-7 the people of God were instructed, “You shall teach them [the words that God had commanded his people] diligently to your children.” We are tempted to leave the teaching to those gifted as teachers, or those professional preachers among us. In Acts 18:26 a professional preacher came through town and, “Priscilla and Aquila heard him [Apollos], they took him and explained to him the way of God more accurately.” It doesn’t take professionals to teach the Word of God. It only takes people who know and do the Word. Are you in the Word? Are you doing the Word? Who then are you teaching?