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.
