A TEACHABLE SPIRIT

And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him – Acts 8:31

Let’s see a picture of teachableness. Acts 8 tells the story of a God-fearing eunuch who served as treasurer to the Ethiopian queen, and had made a five-month journey by chariot to Jerusalem, to worship God. On his return trip he was ruminating aloud over Isaiah’s scroll. The Holy Spirit then appointed Philip to help him understand the meaning. Philip asked the man if he understood the passage that he was reading (Isaiah 53). He responded, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” (v. 31). He then invited Philip to sit in his chariot, and asked him about whom this passage spoke. Philip, beginning with this Scripture, told him the good news about Jesus (v. 35). Soon after, the eunuch insisted they stop the chariot in order to be baptized by Philip in obedience to his newly-found Savior and King, Jesus Christ.

First, the Ethiopian wrestled with and laboured to understand the meaning of God’s Word. Not content to merely skim the Scriptures, he applied himself and tried to figure out what the text meant. Such should be our attitude: we must spend time in the Bible, working hard and trusting God for deeper insight. Paul wrote: “Consider what I say, and may the Lord give you understanding in all things” (2Tim.2:7). Second, the eunuch humbly acknowledged his own insufficiency in understanding the Word, admitted that he needed help, and then asked for it. We should approach God with such teachable attitude, heart and spirit, remembering that He wants to be inquired from and that He promised to generously give us wisdom if we humbly but confidently ask (Jam.1:5).

Third, the eunuch asked a good, clear, relevant question based on his own wrestling with the meaning of the text. Asking good questions is evidence of good thinking. If you don’t ask good questions about the text, you won’t engage your mind and you won’t be able to evaluate the answers. Fourth, he listened carefully to the Christ-centered, gospel-focused teaching confronting him. Jesus warned us to take care how we listen (Lk.8:18). The eunuch did just that. The inclination of some Christians is to talk first and then try to listen, but we are admonished to be “quick to hear” and “slow to speak” (Jam.1:19).

Finally, the eunuch put into practice what he had just learned from the Word and from his commentator. Philip had told him “the good news about Jesus” (Acts 8:35), which probably included the teaching that members of God’s covenant community will publicly identify with Christ in the act of baptism. So the Ethiopian models for us James’ command to “be doers of the word, and not hearers only” (Jam.1:22). Bottom line: let’s be like the Bereans who received God’s Word “with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11).