You Who Teach Others, Do You Not Teach Yourself?

As he was about to go to Pharaoh, Moses asked God how he should answer when asked for God’s name. Forty years as a prince and forty as a shepherd had trained him, yet for all that he had no confidence in himself.

God gave the law to the Jews, but they made it a source of pride and mocked the Gentiles as blind. They preached against stealing and stole, forbade adultery and committed it, and went so far as to rob temples. They held circumcision to be the sign of salvation, but where the Word is not lived out, that circumcision is no different from uncircumcision.

Those who teach must first ask themselves whether they are living by that Word. A merely outward faith only dishonors God, and true circumcision is the one received in the heart by the Spirit. The greater the grace received, the more closely words and deeds need to agree, and that is how God is glorified.