The Bible affirms from very early on that God’s people need teaching and that God’s people are vulnerable when teachers are absent, false or unfaithful. But what are the ultimate goals of such teaching? What results should we want to achieve through the ministry of teaching?

In answer, I suggest three biblical outcomes of teaching:

1. Mission: In a World of Many Nations, the Abrahamic Outcome

In Genesis 18, we read, “Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him” (Gen 18:18–19).

In a world going the way of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 18:20–21; 19; Isa 1:9–23; Ezek 16:49–50), God wanted to create a community that would be different – not just religiously different, but morally and socially distinctive (committed to righteousness and justice). That is the reason God chose and called Abraham and commissioned him to teach his own household and descendants.

But then, why did God want such a community to exist in the world? God reminds us of his own purpose in verse 18. It was in order to fulfil God’s promise to Abraham that through him and his descendants, all nations on earth would find blessing. That is God’s ultimate purpose.

There is, then, a universal and missional context here to the teaching mandate given to Abraham. Already, however, the ethical content of the law (“keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just”) is anticipated in the kind of teaching that Abraham was to give to his household after him. Abraham was to teach his people not only about God but also about the ethical character of God and how God wants people to live. In other words, this is missionally focused ethical teaching to shape a people through whom God can fulfil his mission among the nations. This in itself shows that teaching is never merely the imparting of knowledge but includes the shaping of character and behaviour.

So, the ethical purpose of teaching in Old Testament Israel is governed by the missional purpose behind Israel’s existence in the first place. In the midst of the nations, this nation is to be taught how to live as the redeemed people of God, ultimately for the sake of the nations and as part of the mission of God for the nations.

2. Monotheism: In a World of Many Gods, the Mosaic Outcome

There is a strong emphasis on teaching in Deuteronomy. God’s word (the knowledge of God’s mighty acts and God’s law) must be constantly taught to the people. Moses himself is repeatedly presented in the book as the one who teaches Israel the requirements of their covenant God, and the primary content of Moses’ teaching was that YHWH the God of Israel was the one and only, unique and universal God, beside whom there is no other (4:35, 39). For that reason, the first and greatest commandment is to love that one whole single God with your one whole single self – with heart and soul and strength (6:4–5).

And that primary love command is immediately followed by the necessity of teaching – teaching that is to apply to the personal realm (hands and foreheads), the family realm (the doorposts of the home), and the public arena (the gate) (6:4–9).

Such teaching was necessary because of the polytheistic culture that surrounded the Israelites. Idolatry is the greatest threat to biblical mission, for God’s people cannot bear witness to the true and living God if they are obsessed with the worship of the gods of the cultures around them (whether in Old Testament Israel or in today’s church).

So, the whole of Deuteronomy 4 is a sustained challenge to avoid idolatry, and the emphasis on teaching within the chapter is strong and repeated. The way to avoid idolatry is to pay attention to the teaching, and the purpose of the teaching is to keep future generations from idolatry.

If Israel was to be true to their mission among the nations, in such a way that the nations would ultimately come to worship the one true living God, then they, Israel, must preserve the knowledge and worship of YHWH alone. For that reason, there must be teaching from generation to generation of all that the God of Israel had done and all that the God of Israel had said. Teaching was essential to preserving their monotheistic stewardship, the knowledge of God that God had entrusted to Israel. The “theological education” of Israel had the missional intention of preserving their monotheistic faith for the sake of the nations who had yet to come to know this truth about the living God.

3. Maturity: In a World of Many Falsehoods, the Pauline Outcome

The kind of church growth Paul prayed for was growth in maturity. Here’s how Paul described the kind of qualitative church growth he prayed for in his churches:

We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience. (Colossians 1:9–11)

In those few verses, Paul prays for three kinds of maturity:

• Knowledge of God’s story (verse 9) – his will and purpose.
• Life lived by God’s standards (verse 10) – their moral choices and behaviour.
• Proof of God’s strength (verse 11) – their spiritual commitment to Christ and perseverance in spite of suffering.