How To Teach Like JesusMostra

"Instruction Through Inquiry"

Throughout the gospels, Jesus incorporates questioning as one of his main forms of teaching. Whether he was debating Pharisees or instructing the disciples, he often focused more on asking questions than making statements. 

Why was he always asking these questions if he knew the answers? Asking questions is an important part of keeping your listener engaged. If they know that they’re going to be called on to respond, they’re going to pay more attention to the discussion.

What’s more important is that asking questions teaches students how to think. When you make a truth-based statement, you’re instructing someone how to think about that particular principle. When you ask the right kinds of questions, you can lead people to the right conclusions while teaching them how to think. 

This is what we see Jesus doing in this example. He isn’t just giving his opponents the outcome of his thinking process. By asking them questions, he is encouraging them to make the connections for themselves. If you’re interested in more ways that Jesus used questions, check out the following passages in Matthew: 16:26, 21:23–27, 22:17-21, 22:41–45.