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,