Preparing to Teach: Study, Do, Teach
New, published 19 October 2026. What else is new
✝️ Ezra 7:10 (ESV)
10 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.
In one sentence: Ezra studied God's Law, did it, and then taught it, in that order, and anyone who teaches the Bible in the church follows the same order: you pray and study until you understand the text, you obey it yourself, and then you teach it plainly, from the verses, pointing to Jesus Christ, because the people you teach will answer to God for what they hear and you will answer for what you said.
Key Takeaways
Types & Prophecy
- Parallel. Scripture does not call Ezra a type of Christ, but the two do the same work. Ezra was "a scribe skilled in the Law of Moses" (Ezra 7:6, ESV) who opened the Law to a people back from exile. Jesus did the same on the road to Emmaus: "beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself" (Luke 24:27, ESV).
Lessons about Jesus
- Jesus is the one Teacher: "you have one teacher, and you are all brothers" (Matthew 23:8, ESV). Everyone else who teaches is passing on what He said.
- His commission makes teaching part of making disciples: "teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you" (Matthew 28:20, ESV).
- Paul's whole message was a person: "I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified" (1 Corinthians 2:2, ESV).
Memory verses
✝️ 2 Timothy 2:15 (ESV)
15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
✝️ James 3:1 (ESV)
1 Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.
Be Transformed
- Think. Teaching is a weight before it is a gift. God will judge what you taught (James 3:1).
- Attitude. Teach as one who has obeyed the text first. Ezra set his heart to do the Law before he taught it.
- Do. Before your next lesson, do Ezra's three things in his order (Ezra 7:10): study the passage until you can write its point in one sentence and say where it shows you Jesus, obey it yourself that week, and then teach it.
Prayer
Father, You gave Your word and You gave teachers to Your church. Give me a heart set to study it, to do it and to teach it. Keep me from saying more than Your word says, or less. Open the eyes of those I teach, and let them see Your Son Jesus in every passage. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Study, do, teach
Ezra 7 introduces Ezra by his family line back to Aaron (Ezra 7:1-5) and then by his work. He came from Babylon with the king's commission to teach the Law in Judah, and the narrator gives the reason God's hand was on him in three verbs.
- Study. לִדְרוֹשׁ (lidrosh, H1875) is to seek or inquire. The Legacy Standard Bible footnotes it "Lit seek". Ezra searched the Law as a man searches for something he needs.
- Do. וְלַעֲשֹׂת (vela'asot, H6213), "and to do". The teacher obeys the text before he teaches it.
- Teach. וּלְלַמֵּד (ulelammed, H3925), "and to teach", the same root as talmid, a disciple.
Before all three, Ezra הֵכִין לְבָבוֹ (hekhin levavo, H3559, H3824), "had set his heart", prepared and fixed it. The order matters. A teacher who skips the study teaches his own ideas, and one who skips the doing teaches what he has not lived. Paul told Timothy the same: "Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers" (1 Timothy 4:16, ESV). Nehemiah 8 shows the result: Ezra read the Law to the whole assembly, and the Levites "read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading" (Nehemiah 8:8, ESV).
Meforash: "clearly", or "translating"
The word for "clearly", מְפֹרָשׁ (meforash, H6567), is uncertain. The ESV reads "clearly", and the Legacy Standard Bible footnotes "Or translating". The people had come back from Babylon, where Aramaic was spoken, so the Levites may have translated as they read; the text does not say which. Either way, the verse ends in the point: "the people understood".
Who should teach
Every believer teaches someone. Paul told the whole church at Colossae to be "teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom" (Colossians 3:16, ESV), and Hebrews scolds its readers because "by this time you ought to be teachers" (Hebrews 5:12, ESV). Some are given teaching as a gift: "the one who teaches, in his teaching" (Romans 12:7, ESV). And the work passes from hand to hand: "what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also" (2 Timothy 2:2, ESV).
James 3:1: a greater judgment
James sets the weight beside the gift. "Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness" (James 3:1, ESV). The Greek is μεῖζον κρίμα (meizon krima, G3187, G2917), "a greater judgment". James includes himself ("we who teach"). A teacher who is not a pastor carries the same weight, because the judgment falls on what was taught, whoever taught it.
Apollos: teaching under correction
Acts 18 shows how the church handles a teacher who is close but not complete. Apollos was "an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures", who "taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John" (Acts 18:24-25, ESV). Priscilla and Aquila, tentmakers by trade (Acts 18:3), heard him, "took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately" (Acts 18:26, ESV). Luke records how they did it: together, as a married couple, and in private, away from the synagogue where Apollos had spoken. That care is part of the lesson, because a correction given privately and with respect let Apollos go on teaching. Whether and how women teach in the church's gathering is a separate question, which Submission in Context works through from 1 Timothy 2:12, setting out both readings; this page does not settle it. The brothers then wrote ahead to Achaia to welcome him, and there he "greatly helped those who through grace had believed" (Acts 18:27, ESV). So a teacher in the church teaches under correction: from Scripture, from the elders who must "hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught" (Titus 1:9, ESV), and from any brother or sister who can show him the text more accurately.
Seven principles
1. Pray at every step
The apostles gave their time to two things: "we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word" (Acts 6:4, ESV). Paul, in prison, asked the Colossians to pray "that God may open to us a door for the word ... that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak" (Colossians 4:3-4, ESV). Pray before you study, while you prepare, before you speak, and for the people afterwards. Understanding is God's gift to them, and clarity is His gift to you.
2. Teach what the Bible teaches
"All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16, ESV). Peter says the one who speaks should speak "as one who speaks oracles of God" (1 Peter 4:11, ESV): the teacher's words carry weight only as far as they say what God said.
Paul's word for "rightly handling" in 2 Timothy 2:15 is ὀρθοτομοῦντα (orthotomounta, G3718), from orthos, straight, and temnō, to cut. It is used once in the New Testament. The Septuagint uses it twice, both in Proverbs and both of a way cut straight. In Proverbs 3:6 the reader is told to know "her", most likely wisdom, ἵνα ὀρθοτομῇ τὰς ὁδούς σου, "that she may cut your ways straight"; the Hebrew, which the ESV translates, has the LORD do it: "he will make straight your paths" (Proverbs 3:6, ESV). In Proverbs 11:5 it is righteousness that cuts a straight way for the blameless. The teacher cuts a straight path through the text, so the hearer can walk where the text goes. How to Read the Bible sets out the method: what it meant to its first readers, before what it means now.
3. Show the verses
The Bereans "received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so" (Acts 17:11, ESV), and Luke calls them noble for checking Paul. Give your hearers the references, so they can do the same. A point the hearer can find in the text stays with him after he has forgotten the teacher.
4. Point to Christ
Jesus taught that all the Scriptures concern Him (Luke 24:27). On the Emmaus road He began "with Moses and all the Prophets" and showed two disciples Himself. This page holds that every passage is read first for how it points to Christ, and only then for what it asks of you: God's work in His Son comes before your response to it. Paul's aim was "Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ" (Colossians 1:28, ESV). Every passage you teach has a place in the story that leads to Him: a promise He keeps, a type He fulfils, a law He obeyed, or a command He gives His people. Find it and say it. Jesus said the trained scribe "brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old" (Matthew 13:52, ESV); The Scribe Trained for the Kingdom studies that verse.
5. Name what is false, with gentleness
Paul charged Timothy to "preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching", because "people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions" (2 Timothy 4:2-3, ESV). He could tell the Ephesian elders, "I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God" (Acts 20:27, ESV). The teacher states plainly where a popular idea contradicts Scripture, and does not apologise for what God has said.
The same letter sets the manner. "The Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness" (2 Timothy 2:24-25, ESV). Bold about the truth, gentle with the person: the aim is that "God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth" (2 Timothy 2:25, ESV).
6. Be clear, and make one point
Paul asked prayer for clarity (Colossians 4:4), and warned the Corinthians, "if with your tongue you utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is said? For you will be speaking into the air" (1 Corinthians 14:9, ESV). The Levites at the Water Gate measured their teaching by one result: "the people understood" (Nehemiah 8:8, ESV). Write the passage's point in one sentence before you write anything else, and let everything in the lesson serve that sentence.
7. Teach for obedience
Jesus sent His disciples out "teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you" (Matthew 28:20, ESV). The goal of teaching is a hearer who does the word, which brings the teacher back to Ezra's middle verb. A lesson that inspires and changes nothing has stopped short. Teach what the text means, then what it asks of the people in front of you, and show them where to begin.
Preparing a lesson
- Pray for understanding and for the people you will teach.
- Read the passage in its context: the paragraph, the chapter, the book. Ask what it meant to its first hearers before you ask what it means now.
- Do the word studies the passage needs. This site's pop-ups give the Strong's number and the lexicon entry for a word, and every reference on a page opens the verse.
- Write the point in one sentence.
- List the verses that carry the point, so your hearers can check them.
- Say where the passage shows Jesus.
- Apply it to yourself first, then to your hearers, with one thing to do.
- Cut what does not serve the one sentence.
Discussion questions
- The language. Ezra's "study" is darash, to seek. What is the difference between reading a passage and seeking in it?
- The text in its context. Ezra 7:10 puts "to do it" between study and teaching. Why might the narrator have put obedience in the middle?
- Christ. Jesus called Himself the one Teacher (Matthew 23:8). How does that change the way a teacher in the church sees his own authority?
- The hard part. James says teachers face "greater strictness" (James 3:1), yet Hebrews says "you ought to be teachers" (Hebrews 5:12). How do the two verses fit together?
- The text in its context. Priscilla and Aquila corrected Apollos privately (Acts 18:26). What does their way of doing it teach about correcting a teacher today?
- Be transformed. Which of the seven principles is weakest in your own teaching, and what will you change before you next teach?
Group study sheet for a 40-minute group: two A4 sheets, or one with the guided path
The point, the passage, the questions and the response, from this study. Print on both sides of two A4 sheets, flipping on the long edge. While this block is open, printing the page prints the sheet; close it to print the study.
Preparing to Teach: Study, Do, Teach
Ezra 7:10The point Ezra studied God's Law, did it, and then taught it, in that order, and anyone who teaches the Bible in the church follows the same order: you pray and study until you understand the text, you obey it yourself, and then you teach it plainly, from the verses, pointing to Jesus Christ, because the people you teach will answer to God for what they hear and you will answer for what you said.
Ask: what comes to mind when you hear Preparing to Teach
? Hear a few answers before anyone reads.
Ezra 7:10 10For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, to practice it, and to teach its statutes and ordinances in Israel.
Also read:
Preparing to Teach: Study, Do, Teach
Preparing to Teach: Study, Do, Teach
1The language. Ezra's "study" is darash, to seek. What is the difference between reading a passage and seeking in it?
2The text in its context. Ezra 7:10 puts "to do it" between study and teaching. Why might the narrator have put obedience in the middle?
3The text in its context. Priscilla and Aquila corrected Apollos privately (Acts 18:26). What does their way of doing it teach about correcting a teacher today?
4Christ. Jesus called Himself the one Teacher (Matthew 23:8). How does that change the way a teacher in the church sees his own authority?
5The hard part. James says teachers face "greater strictness" (James 3:1), yet Hebrews says "you ought to be teachers" (Hebrews 5:12). How do the two verses fit together?
Preparing to Teach: Study, Do, Teach
6Be transformed. Which of the seven principles is weakest in your own teaching, and what will you change before you next teach?
- Think. Teaching is a weight before it is a gift. God will judge what you taught (James 3:1).
- Attitude. Teach as one who has obeyed the text first. Ezra set his heart to do the Law before he taught it.
- Do. Before your next lesson, do Ezra's three things in his order (Ezra 7:10): study the passage until you can write its point in one sentence and say where it shows you Jesus, obey it yourself that week, and then teach it.
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
2 Timothy 2:15 (ESV)Father, You gave Your word and You gave teachers to Your church. Give me a heart set to study it, to do it and to teach it. Keep me from saying more than Your word says, or less. Open the eyes of those I teach, and let them see Your Son Jesus in every passage. In Jesus' name. Amen.
References & Recommended Reading
- Hebrew text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, with MACULA Hebrew morphology (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0), for Ezra 7:10 and Nehemiah 8:8.
- Greek text: SBL Greek New Testament, with MACULA Greek morphology, for 2 Timothy 2:15 and James 3:1; the Septuagint for Proverbs 3:6 and 11:5.
- English: ESV verse text throughout, checked against the ESV in study-notes.db; footnotes from the Legacy Standard Bible, quoted briefly.
On this site
- How to Read the Bible, the method behind principle 2.
- The Scribe Trained for the Kingdom, Matthew 13:52.
- Scribes and Pharisees: a Trade and a School, Ezra the scribe and Nehemiah 8:8.
- Test the Spirits, testing what is taught.
- Know the Truth, the word of truth.