A scribe, and so a minister of God, dedicates his life to studying God's written Word so he can expound and illustrate its laws, statutes, and principles and help people live God's abundant way of life. Ezra, the archetypal scribe, was trained in the Law of Moses and read it so the people could understand it. The minister is at once a student, a teacher, and a leader. The word "instructed" means to become a pupil or disciple, so he is taught and keeps being taught, and he must keep learning so that he can keep teaching. Jesus compares him to the master of a house, who holds authority and responsibility and has the final say over his household. God has commissioned His ministers as authoritative teachers of Scripture, and Christ gives them to the church to preach the gospel, equip the saints, and bring people toward the fullness of Christ. Like a householder who draws on his storeroom, the minister feeds his spiritual family from what he has stored up through study of God's truth and experience in living God's way. He balances the Old and New Testaments, as a prudent householder balances old and fresh food. The old is neither discarded nor wrong, and Jesus shed new light on the old understanding of the Kingdom. Ministers may not grasp all of God's wisdom, but having been taught by Christ, they must use this treasure to enrich others.

Teaching forms an indispensable element of God's present activity under the New Covenant. The church's work is fundamentally educational, with teachers ranked third in order after apostles and prophets. The noun teacher appears sixteen times, the noun teaching twenty-four times, the verb teach thirty-nine times, and related terms for instruction eighteen times across the New Testament books written after the New Covenant's establishment. This frequency underscores teaching's centrality rather than any indication that the New Covenant remains future. Christ's explicit directive to make disciples of all nations and to teach them everything He commanded confirms that instructional activity continues until the end of the age. The role of teachers aligns directly with the New Covenant's gradual, individual implementation. Because God ratifies this covenant person by person rather than with an entire nation at once, some individuals stand under its terms while others do not. During this extended period, those already called require instruction so they may observe all that Christ commanded. Teaching therefore serves the incremental process by which names are added one by one to the Book of Life. Only when that process concludes, when no further individuals remain to be called, will the need for such teaching cease, as all who have accepted the covenant will then know the Lord without intermediary instruction. Until that termination, teachers fulfill an essential function within the ongoing realization of the New Covenant.

God's people are born to teach, but no one can teach until he has first been a learner, so this life is training for teaching the world in the Millennium. The church announces and teaches the good news now, but in the World Tomorrow the saints will be kings and priests who enforce God's law under Christ and, like ancient Israel's priests, teach His way to those coming out of the tribulation. Out of Zion the law will go forth, and God will teach the nations through His church. Jesus, the supreme Teacher, is the model: He taught in any setting, taught disciples and crowds alike, and suited His instruction to His listeners, and His authority came from the Father. Seven qualities mark a good teacher, and each must be developed now. Good teachers fear the Lord, since wisdom begins there and human reasoning alone misleads. They are wise, meek learners who know their subjects, digest the Word, and live it first. They set good examples, being swift to hear and slow to speak and to anger. They use authority with self-control and without superiority, learning truth together with students. They communicate clearly and humbly, as Christ empathizes with us. They are patient, and the patience must be real, not feigned. They show mercy and kindness, encouraging and never humiliating. A teacher's credibility lies in what he is and by whose authority he teaches.