Teachability is a precious quality that’s hard to cultivate. It’s like a large absorbent sponge that soaks up all the water around it. It’s a spirit of learning, which is alert, keen, and hungry for the truth.
What it isn’t
There’s a false version of teachable. Paul nails it when he describes characters who are ‘always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth’ (2 Timothy 3:7).
I saw some people like this at seminary, who had a faux humility; their opinions were always provisional. They never wanted to be close-minded. They were really just pushing a postmodern agenda. Their minds were so ‘open’, their brains were in danger of falling out!
Being teachable doesn’t conflict with making up one’s mind. It doesn’t mean being a ‘yes’ man or agreeing with everything your teacher says. A teachable person doesn’t get tossed to-and-fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine (Ephesians 4:14). Rather, over time, his convictions will grow and stabilise.
