Lesson 4 | Conveying the Message
Teach the logic of the text
Faithful teaching includes logic
We must beware lest we take the truths of a text and, in our teaching, assemble them how we see fit. For faithful teaching of the word demands we faithfully teach its logic. It demands we teach the main point of the text and support it in the way that it is supported in the text itself.
Faithfulness, not excessive rigidity
The point being made on this step is critical, and yet for some it has the danger of crippling them in an unwarranted and unhelpful way. The exhortation is to teach God's word with its logic faithfully represented, not to feel bound to a certain semantic expression of that logic. Thus, the structure of your sermon can look different than the structure of your arc, bracket or phrase, so long as it conveys an accurate understanding of the logic in the passage.
For example, if I say, “I am going home because I need to sleep,” I've used a Ground as signified by the word because. Should my wife then comment to someone that I am going home in order to sleep (an Action-Purpose), she has not misrepresented me. She has correctly understood my Ground and simply framed the same meaning in a slightly different structure.
The same goes for our teachings. The question is not whether we teach the text in the exact order and structure in which it appears, but whether we teach it faithful to its meaning, including the meaning inherent to its logical connections.