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Session 1: Your Teachers Love You

Introduction

Start by reading out loud James 3:1:

“Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.”

As you come back to school and walk through familiar or maybe unfamiliar halls, what are you going to be thinking about your teachers? Take some time to talk as a group about what you’ll be thinking about your teachers as you start your first day of school.

Many of you may be wondering if your teacher is hard or not. Will he let you turn in work late? Will she use a lot of red ink on your papers? Will he give you homework every day?

During this study we’re going to try to think about teachers in a different way. What if God gave you teachers because He loves you? Would that change the way you look at your teachers? What are some ways that teachers are indeed a gift from God? What do teachers do for you that you can’t do for yourself?

Take time to talk as a group about how your teachers are indeed good. What do your teachers do for you that helps you be the kind of person you would like to be?

Getting into Scripture

Like many of the things that God gives us, we often don’t miss them until they’re gone. This was the truth with God’s people in Judah and Israel during the ministry of the prophet Isaiah.

Read Isaiah 30:19-21 out loud as a group.

Now reread this passage on your own. Look for a word or phrase that jumps out at you.

Take some time to share that word or phrase you felt was pronounced from the text.

God’s people would no longer weep because God would show grace to them. One way He would show grace would be by bringing back the teachers the people had rejected by not listening to their words. By rejecting God’s teachers, they were actually rejecting God Himself.

Reread Isaiah 30:20-21

We see in this passage that God’s people would again hear the voice of their teachers. Ultimately this meant that the people would hear the voice of God, their great Teacher. What is so great about hearing the way to walk? What is God saying He will provide for the people by telling them the way?

Have you ever been lost? Discuss as a group some of the feelings that come up when you realize that you are lost and you don’t know where to go.

God’s people had turned to their wealth for comfort and to idols for direction. In what ways would this make them lost?

Do you think God’s people didn’t realize that they were so desperately lost or do you think they just didn’t care?

Read Isaiah 30:9-11 as a group.

Why do you think God’s people no longer wanted to hear about God and what He had to say to them?

What does it say in this passage that the people wanted to hear instead of God’s words for them?

Read Proverbs 5:7-14 as a group.

Now reread Proverbs 5:11-14 on your own.

What do you think ignoring discipline and the voice of teachers has to do with falling into ruin? Why is it so important to be taught and corrected?

Application

How does it make you feel when a teacher corrects something you did incorrectly?

We make mistakes because of sin in our lives. We also are sometimes corrected by teachers even when we don’t need correction because our teachers are also sinful and not perfect. How can you work on responding well to teachers correcting you when you don’t need to be corrected?

Jesus is our great teacher, yet He was treated as one who needed to be corrected. He rightly taught that He was God, yet this was the justification to wrongly accuse Him of blasphemy. Should we also take on punishment when we are being wrongly accused? At what point should we step up and fight for ourselves, and how should we submit to authority even when it’s wrong?

Because of what Christ did for us on the cross, He has given us the gift of correction. Even in the midst of our turning away from God and rejecting His teaching, Jesus died for us. How does God continue to correct and guide us?

When God corrects us and guides us, it’s always out of His love for us. May you always see the motivation of love that comes from the guidance and correction your teachers offer you.

Close as a group by saying together the Lord’s Prayer. Afterward, reflect on how the words of the prayer offer correction and forgiveness.

Session 2: Who’s the Teacher Now?

Introduction

In our first study we talked about how we are corrected. Sometimes this correction is justified, sometimes it’s not. When God corrects us, He always does it out of love for us. In this study, we’re going to discuss how sometimes we are in the position of teacher in that we sometimes need to correct others.

Take some time to talk as a group about some of your experiences with substitute teachers. Do you think substitute teachers have a harder job than full-time teachers? Why or why not?

Getting into Scripture

Read as a group 2 Timothy 3:16.

Do you think this passage is talking to just teachers or to all believers?

What does this passage tell us about God’s Word?

Another way to translate the word “correction” is “restoration.” How could you use God’s Word to restore someone else?

How often have you used God’s word to correct someone else?

Do you ever worry that someone might view you negatively because you correct others?

Let’s take some time to talk about someone who needed some correction. Peter was a passionate follower of Jesus. He had faith to step out on the water to walk to his teacher and Savior. He had the boldness to confess about Jesus, “You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

Despite these acts of faith, Peter was still, like us, a sinner. He did unwise things. He needed to be corrected on occasion.

Read as a group Mark 8:31-33.

What did Peter do that needed to be corrected?

It seems as if Jesus is being pretty harsh with Peter. Why do you think He was so serious about correcting Peter on this issue?

There’s another instance in the Bible where Peter needed some correction. This time it was Paul who did the correcting.

Read as a group Galatians 2:11-14.

Now reread this passage on your own. Look for a word or phrase that jumps out at you.

Take some time to share that word or phrase you felt was pronounced from the text.

At this time, there was a group of people who believed that to be Christian, you had to take on many of the Jewish customs first. Peter felt pressure from this group to stop doing things that he believed were right, such as eating with Gentiles (non-Jewish people).

Though Peter was a fellow-believer, Paul did the right thing and corrected him.

Why do you think Peter caved under the pressure of the circumcision group? What do you think he had to gain by becoming popular with this group?

Application

Sometimes people we admire and respect make mistakes. What are some of the challenges in correcting someone we look up to?

Not all of us are bold or would consider ourselves leaders or teachers. How can those of us who are not so bold overcome this to do the bold thing of correcting someone else?

When Jesus corrected Peter, it was because Peter was trying to hold Jesus back from doing God’s will. Though Jesus sounded harsh in his rebuke, He did this to go to the cross where He would die for us. Jesus tells us that He came to fulfill all the laws that remind us we need correcting. By dying and rising, He has given us forgiveness, the ultimate goal of correction.

Knowing what Jesus did for us to restore us, how might this change your view of how you might correct others?

Read as a group Galatians 6:1.

Think of one person in your life who could use some gentle restoring. Think this week of the words you could use to correct and restore that person with God’s Word.

Close in prayer. Pray for that one person who needs restoring specifically.