Have you ever heard the saying, ” The best way to learn is to teach the material yourself?”

Romans 2:21 NIV

you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself?

Teachers are held to a higher standard because they will be judged more strictly.

James 3:1 NIV

Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. 

Why? Because teaching God’s truth is never just about passing information to someone else. It is first about allowing that truth to transform us. Before we teach others, we are called to “Examine yourselves”.

2 Corinthians 13:5 NIV

Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?

Spiritual growth begins with self-correction. The most effective teachers are not those who have all the answers, but those who continually let God’s Word teach them first.

James 1:22-25 NIV

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

Maybe there is more truth to that old saying than we realize. The best way to learn God’s Word is to live it. The best way to teach God’s Word is to let it teach you first.