If you were asked who the most
influential people are in your life, chances are your list would include a
teacher or two. Good teachers make a huge impact on their students. While the
profession of teaching is often undervalued, it’s incredibly important. It’s
also really hard work. I have three kids at school, and I see the effort and
long hours that their teachers put in, both inside and outside the classroom. My
wife and I can vouch for the immensely positive effect this is having on our children.
Why does good teaching take so much effort? Because it’s not just about
transmitting information. It’s about forming lives. It’s about intentionally
seeking to help grow individuals to develop their knowledge, their skills,
their attitudes, and their values. To do this well takes time, energy, and
genuine care. I thank God for those teachers committed to that task.

Teaching, of a slightly different kind,
is also part of my own job. I’m involved in theological education. At our
theological college, Moore College, we’re seeking
to form and equip ministers of the gospel. In theological education, it’s particularly
important for us to remember that we’re not just transmitting information. Of
course, we are seeking to transmit information: we’re wanting to ground
people in the truths of God’s word. But we’re not just doing that. We’re
also seeking to help people shape their entire lives by the gospel. It’s why
our core program is face-to-face, and it’s why we emphasise living together in
community. Those rich multidimensional interactions of life are a fundamental
component of learning. They are the arena in which people are formed as ministers
of the gospel, with the heart as well as the knowledge that makes them able to
teach others.

But learning and teaching isn’t just the
territory of school kids or theological college students. As Paul says here in
Ephesians 4:20–21, learning and teaching is fundamental to the lives of all
Christians. Churches—Christian communities—are places of learning and teaching.[1]
And again, it’s not just about transmitting information. Christians aren’t just
people who learn facts. Christians are, says Paul here, people who “learn
Christ”.

But you didn’t learn Christ that way—assuming that you heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus.Ephesians 4:20–21

Learning Christ

Paul starts verse 20 by saying: “But you
didn’t learn Christ that way”. This is quite a strange expression, isn’t it? The
word “learn” is normally used for things like skills, attitudes, facts, and ideas.
It’s not normal to talk about learning a person. So what does Paul mean by
the expression “learn Christ?”

To understand what Paul means here, we need
to look at what he has just said in the previous verses. Paul has just been
spelling out the opposite of learning Christ. He’s been talking about
the way people in the world live their lives. The opposite of learning Christ
is futility,
dark thinking, separation from the life of God, ignorance, hard hearts,
callousness, unrestrained sensuality, and insatiable appetites for impure
actions (see verses 17–19). If we flip this around, we can see that
learning Christ is about the opposite: having purpose and hope, thinking
rightly, being connected to the life of God, knowing the truth, having soft
hearts open to God’s correction,