Monday, February 3, 2014

Imparting your soul

Religion classes contribute to the soul of Brigham Young University. To me, it is a huge privilege to attend this ‘Mormon’ college partly due to the knowledge I acquire in these spiritual classes. I have to admit that they can be busy work and disrupt my slow-paced personal scripture study (with the more-than-my-usual-daily-dose-of chapters to complete before class).  
            But all in all, I feel I have gained more from the time spent than if I would have spent it on anything else. This semester, I have been attending Professor Griffin’s class on the second half of the New Testament, from The Act to Revelations. If there is something I appreciate most from his teaching, it would be his emphasis on first, studying and learning the context of the scriptures, then identifying and understanding the critical doctrines and principles and lastly, showing the application of those doctrines and principles. I have found that this has made scripture study most rewarding.
            In our last class, he went through the epistles of Paul to the Thessalonians. With every start of the class, we learn the historical context such as the year (50 A.D), location (Corinth) and the author who was obviously Paul. It set perspective and gave more meaning to the scripture verses, as one tends to recognize the tone and intention of the words. The words of Paul resonated strongly with me when we reached verse 8 of chapter 2. When he mentioned “we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls,” I felt the deep emotion of love he had for his converts in Thessalonica.  Paul’s choice of words illustrated a key concept. Words have a powerful way of conveying love. But what made Paul’s words far more powerful was the fact that he gave his ‘soul’ to his converts. I could imagine Paul going out of his way to serve them. I could see him arising tirelessly in the morning to preach to the people in Thessalonica, possibly engaging them in their markets, in the temple for morning rituals and listening to the different challenges of the people there and expressing faith in them. I could see him sacrificing for them rather than merely prescribing the gospel to solve their problems. I think the key difference between an effective teacher and a mediocre teacher is the amount of love through action they put into teaching their students. Although the scriptures often seem to paint prophets and apostles as miracle workers who go from place to place to heal, cast devils and provide as well as cry repentance to the people and get rejected often, I think my image of Paul might probably be more accurate.

            Looking at my extrapolated imagery of Paul based on his words, I think we can take much with us. Teaching is soul work. It requires the heart. I don’t think there is a prescribed cooker-cutter way of doing this… except to teach not only the gospel of Jesus Christ but in a pattern after the gospel of Jesus Christ.