My uncle said it. I am pretty sure he had never read George Bernard Shaw. Most of us who know the saying, believe it is a proverb— not something lifted out of a novel.
The Bible, however, teaches us something different in Ezra 7:10, “For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach his statutes to Israel” (ESV).
From God’s perspective, there are two requirements to be a teacher. First, we should not teach His word until we set our hearts to study it. Setting the heart is more than just an academic decision, but a conviction and commitment to know what the Lord says through His word. Second, we must actually do what the Scripture teaches. What is the point of learning if we never intend to put it into practice? So we should read our Bible, then study it, then apply it to our lives, and then make it our practice to do — to obey — God. This is tough, tiresome, and sometimes lonely. The only way to do it successfully is to first set our hearts.
Once we are studying and doing what is written, then we move toward teaching others so they can develop the same “heartset” to study, do, and teach. Unfortunately, if we do not set our hearts as Ezra did, we are also teaching, but we are teaching a very different message to our friends, neighbors, and family. Since we are teaching either way, for good or ill, let us set our hearts like Ezra. Then we can prove Mr. Shaw wrong by saying, “Those who can, do teach.”
