Sometimes people feel called to a teaching ministry, and they get right into teaching before they have done the hard work of really mastering the Bible. Then all they have to offer is their own spiritual experience; they cannot share the deepest riches of God’s Word. Or sometimes–and this is especially tempting for seminary students and pastors–they go right from studying to teaching without having the Word of God really transform their lives. It goes from the mind to the mouth without ever passing through the heart.
Philip Graham Ryken, “Ezra, According to the Gospel: Ezra 7:10,” Themelios 33.3 (2008): 64.