Lesson 4 | Conveying the Message
Thick and thin teaching
The level of language in our teaching
As we prepare a teaching, we must decide how much complexity to weave into our lesson. This is not an easy question. Consider the following seven principles concerning “thick” (complex) and “thin” (simplistic) teaching.
- Thin teaching may go over well because it is entertaining and easy to absorb, but likely will not leave lasting impact.
- Teaching that is thick for the sake of thickness also falls short by leaving people behind through unnecessary obscurity.
- The Bible contains both simple and complex language. God forbid we arrogantly declare one of them to be always out of place.
- The level of language in the scriptures seems to depend on the author's personal style, genre of the writing, and the intended audience. Thus, we would do well to consider the same as we weigh how thick or thin to make our teaching.
- We ought to be as clear and understandable as possible, without watering down the meaning of text.
- Writing something down helps us to be more precise, concise and to the point. In effect, it helps us to be more understandable. Thus, even if you prefer not to write out your entire teaching, you would be wise to pen out the key points.
- There is an art to knowing what to leave out of your teaching. In our study, our aim is to see as much as we can; but in our teaching, we have limited time and scope. Thus, we must choose what is most central, important and pertinent to the lives of our hearers. Oftentimes, less is more. Many teachings have been ruined through injecting into them more content than they had capacity to hold.
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. —John 20:30-31
Doctrinal depth in plain language
Perhaps it is helpful to also state our goal negatively. We are not after thick teaching in order to look smart, to appease our intellectual hearers, or because complexity is more spiritual. Furthermore, given the prideful tendency of ourselves and others, often we ought to intentionally run the exact opposite direction.
And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. —1 Corinthians 2:1-5
Now simplifying thick truths without thinning them out takes practice. Let me encourage you to do so below by reworking some overly thick quotations of insightful doctrinal points from some great historical teachers.
But before you do so, let me mention one caveat. The task to rework these quotations is in no way a criticism of the teachers below, as if we can expect to outdo them in our style of teaching. For one, they all wrote centuries ago, three of them in languages other than English. Thus their audience and linguistic framework were different than ours. Secondly, it took me a long time to find these quotes because the overwhelming majority of their teaching is sharp and clear, while still maintaining great depth. This is one of the things that made these men such great teachers!
After you read through these quotations (multiple times, if need be), try writing a more concise and clear rendition of the point each is making, without watering it down.
The human will is so divinely helped in the pursuit of righteousness, that he [the believer] receives the Holy Spirit, by whom there is formed in his mind a delight in, and a love of, that supreme and unchangeable good, which is God. By this gift to him of the down payment, as it were, of the free gift, he conceives a burning desire to cleave to his Maker.
Augustine
Augustine in your words.
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Because an eternal, unchangeable sentence of condemnation has passed upon sin – for God cannot and will not regard sin with favor, but his wrath abides upon it eternally and irrevocably – redemption was not possible without a ransom of such precious worth as to atone for sin, to assume the guilt, pay the price of wrath and thus abolish sin.
Martin Luther
Luther in your words.
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There are other reasons, neither few nor weak, for which the dignity and majesty of Scripture are not only affirmed in godly hearts, but brilliantly vindicated against the wiles of its disparagers; yet of themselves these are not strong enough to provide a firm faith, until our Heavenly Father, revealing his majesty there, lifts reverence for Scripture beyond the realm of controversy.
John Calvin
Calvin in your words.
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Gracious affections arise from those operations and influences which are spiritual, and that the inward principle from whence they flow, is something divine, a communication of God, a participation of the divine nature, Christ living in the heart, the Holy Spirit dwelling there, in union with the faculties of the soul, as an internal vital principle, exerting his own proper nature in the exercise of those faculties.
Jonathan Edwards
Edwards in your words.
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