---
title: "Preparing to Teach: Study, Do, Teach"
category: "teaching"
description: "Ezra set his heart to study the Law, to do it, and to teach it. Seven principles for anyone who teaches the Bible in the church, each from Scripture, and what James 3:1 asks of a teacher who is not a pastor."
tags: ["audience/teaching", "homiletics", "ezra", "nehemiah", "2-timothy", "james", "acts", "church", "method/word-study", "lang/greek", "lang/hebrew"]
draft: false
primary_passage: "Ezra 7:10"
bible_references: ["Ezra 7:6", "Ezra 7:10", "Nehemiah 8:8", "Matthew 13:52", "Matthew 23:8", "Matthew 28:19-20", "Luke 24:27", "Acts 6:4", "1 Timothy 4:16", "Acts 17:11", "Acts 18:3", "Acts 18:24-27", "Acts 20:27", "Romans 12:6-7", "1 Corinthians 2:2", "1 Corinthians 14:9", "Colossians 1:28", "Colossians 3:16", "Colossians 4:3-4", "2 Timothy 2:2", "2 Timothy 2:15", "2 Timothy 2:24-25", "2 Timothy 3:16-17", "2 Timothy 4:2-4", "Titus 1:9", "Hebrews 5:12", "James 3:1", "1 Peter 4:11", "Proverbs 3:6", "Proverbs 11:5"]
date_created: 2026-10-19
date_modified: 2026-10-31
ai_provider_models:
  - anthropic/claude-opus-5.5
---

# Preparing to Teach: Study, Do, Teach

> ✝️ 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.** <span dir="rtl">לִדְרוֹשׁ</span> (*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.** <span dir="rtl">וְלַעֲשֹׂת</span> (*vela'asot*, H6213), "and to do". The teacher obeys
  the text before he teaches it.
- **Teach.** <span dir="rtl">וּלְלַמֵּד</span> (*ulelammed*, H3925), "and to teach", the same
  root as *talmid*, a disciple.

Before all three, Ezra <span dir="rtl">הֵכִין לְבָבוֹ</span> (*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", <span dir="rtl">מְפֹרָשׁ</span> (*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
<span lang="grc">μεῖζον κρίμα</span> (*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](https://the-way.lewy.au/christian-life/submission-in-context/#the-two-readings) 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 <span lang="grc">ὀρθοτομοῦντα</span>
(*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, <span lang="grc">ἵνα ὀρθοτομῇ τὰς
ὁδούς σου</span>, "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](https://the-way.lewy.au/scripture/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](https://the-way.lewy.au/scripture/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

1. **Pray** for understanding and for the people you will teach.
2. **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.
3. **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.
4. **Write the point in one sentence.**
5. **List the verses** that carry the point, so your hearers can check them.
6. **Say where the passage shows Jesus.**
7. **Apply it to yourself first**, then to your hearers, with one thing to do.
8. **Cut** what does not serve the one sentence.

## Discussion questions

1. **The language.** Ezra's "study" is *darash*, to seek. What is the difference between reading a
   passage and seeking in it?
2. **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?
3. **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?
4. **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?
5. **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?
6. **Be transformed.** Which of the seven principles is weakest in your own teaching, and what will
   you change before you next teach?

## 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](https://the-way.lewy.au/scripture/how-to-read-the-bible/), the method behind principle 2.
- [The Scribe Trained for the Kingdom](https://the-way.lewy.au/scripture/scribe-trained-for-the-kingdom/), Matthew
  13:52.
- [Scribes and Pharisees: a Trade and a School](https://the-way.lewy.au/scripture/scribes-and-pharisees/), Ezra the scribe
  and Nehemiah 8:8.
- [Test the Spirits](https://the-way.lewy.au/christian-life/test-the-spirits/), testing what is taught.
- [Know the Truth](https://the-way.lewy.au/christian-life/know-the-truth/), the word of truth.