The general subject of the first series of lessons in the Summer School of Truth is God’s full salvation. The full salvation of God is actually equal to the truth, because the Triune God with His all-inclusive redemption is the structure of the truth. Through Paul’s writings this truth has become an inoculation against the decline of Christianity. On the one hand, we may speak of the structure of the truth; on the other hand, we may speak of the element of the inoculation. This inoculation is like a dose of medicine containing various elements. The elements in the “dose” ministered by Paul as an inoculation are the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—and His all-inclusive redemption.
In helping the young people to experience God’s full salvation, you have to unveil to them their fallen condition, which involves sin, Satan, and the world, the satanic system. These negative things are related to the actual condition of the saved ones. If we would experience and enjoy God’s full salvation, we should consider our condition and its involvement, with sin, Satan, the world, and many other negative things.
As you prepare yourself to teach, you should not merely put your trust in the lesson book nor in the compendium. You need to immerse yourself in the truth concerning God’s full salvation. This means that you need to be saturated with a thorough knowledge, realization, and experience of the Triune God with His all-inclusive redemption in relation to all the aspects of man’s fallen condition. To prepare yourself to teach, it is not adequate simply to read the lesson book. As a teacher in the Summer School of Truth, you need to be soaked and saturated with the truth. I hope that you will be impressed with your need to dive into the divine truth, which is the reality of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit and of His all-inclusive redemption understood in relation to the condition of fallen man.
When you hear this, you may be troubled and feel that you are not qualified to teach the young people. I would urge you not to feel this way. Your experience may be limited, but the amount of experience you have qualifies you.
In your teaching do not speak peculiar things to arouse people’s curiosity. Also, do not make a display of your knowledge about other subjects, such as history or science. It is shameful to make a display. You must be focused on God’s economy and be restricted by God’s economy. All of the class time, which is actually quite limited, should be used for presenting the truth of God’s economy.
Once again I wish to point out that you need to be fully soaked and saturated with the divine truth. The summer school should be a school not only to the students but also to all the teachers. I hope that you yourself will be the first one to learn the truth. You cannot teach others without first being taught yourself. Likewise, you cannot minister a certain thing to others without first experiencing and enjoying that matter yourself. You can minister to others only what you yourself have enjoyed. Otherwise, your teaching will be merely doctrinal and thus will be in vain.
Let us now go on to consider the practical matter of teaching in an experiential way rather than in a doctrinal way. Suppose you are teaching lesson seventeen on transformation. The lesson book says, “Transformation is the result of sanctification and is related to man’s soul.” To ask the students merely to understand and remember the facts is to teach in a doctrinal way. If you would teach in an experiential way, you should fellowship with the young people regarding why transformation is the result of sanctification. By doing this you will turn your teaching from doctrine to experience. This experiential fellowship will deeply impress them.
As you speak in this way about why transformation is the result of sanctification, one of the students might offer an explanation. He might say that sanctification separates us, changes us, and causes us to become holy with God’s holy nature and that the result is a metabolic change, which is transformation. If someone speaks in this way, you should immediately ask him certain questions: “How about you? Have you been changed with God’s holy nature? Has your being been made holy by the divine nature?” This way of teaching is experiential.
However, if you have not been soaked in the truth concerning sanctification and if you have not had any experience of sanctification, you have no choice other than to teach people doctrinally. You will be able to do nothing more than simply repeat what you have read in the lesson book. Having been “educated” with doctrine in letters, you will then teach the doctrine that transformation is the result of sanctification and is related to man’s soul. But neither you nor the students will know the truth, the reality, of sanctification and transformation. Since you do not have any experience, you cannot minister life to the young people in your class. Rather, you will pass on mere knowledge, as if you were teaching in a theological school. If you teach in this way, you will ruin the summer school and even damage your students.
(Teachers' Training, Chapter 4, by Witness Lee)