How can they understand?

Lately I've been going through the book of Acts, and God has continually been speaking to me through His Word. To give a little background, all of the teachers at my school are commissioned as missionaries. Our job is to teach, but our purpose is to share the Gospel with our students. Our students come from all different kinds of backgrounds. Though we are a Christian school, many of our students are not Christians.

Because we are a Christian school, we have things like weekly Chapel, where the students hear from one of the teachers or a guest speaker. We start each morning with prayer over the PA system. We give all of our students Bibles. There are all these opportunities we have to expose our students to the Word of God. But even with all these avenues, if we stop there, we are only doing the bare minimum. We are presenting the information and saying, "Here you go. You have all the data, now it's up to you to make a decision."

In Acts chapter 8, Philip is traveling from Jerusalem to Gaza, and he comes across an Ethiopian sitting in his chariot reading from Isaiah. Philip could easily have just walked by and said something like, "Hey, I'm glad you're reading scripture. Keep up the good work!" But instead, Philip is prompted by the Spirit and asks the Ethiopian if he understands what he is reading. And the Ethiopian responded, "How can I understand unless someone explains it to me?"

How can I understand unless someone explains it to me?

This question keeps ringing in my head over and over. How can our students understand the Word of God unless someone explains it to them? It's not enough just to make sure they have the information, someone has to explain it to them, too.

This idea is reinforced over and over in the next few chapters of Acts. In chapter 9, Saul has an encounter with Christ, but it isn't until Ananias comes to him and explains the Gospel to him that he completely changes his life to serve Christ. In chapter 10, Cornelius is a gentile who loves God and has always served him faithfully, it isn't until Peter comes to his home and explains to him the Gospel of Christ that he and his family are baptized and receive the Holy Spirit.

How will they understand unless someone explains it to them?

We had a Purity Chapel session last week at our school, where the students were able to ask questions to a panel of teachers about the what and why of Purity (and not just sexual purity, but purity from all sin). One of the questions was about how to be more pure, but at the end of the question was the caveat, "and don't just tell us to read the Bible and pray." And my heart broke for the students, because they know the "right" answer, but they don't understand how to read the Bible and how to pray. They don't know that the only way to be pure is to daily seek after Christ, to fill their minds with his Word and to ask for his Grace.

How will they understand unless someone explains it to them?

I think about this all the time, trying to incorporate it into my plans for my discipleship groups and chapel talks. And I encourage you to meditate on it as well, and to look for opportunities to explain the Gospel to people you come in contact with.

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten son; that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life."

The most earth-shattering statement in the whole Bible, but until someone explains it to the non-believer, until that person understands exactly what it means, it will just be words on a page.

How will they understand unless we explain it to them?