Manthano: Lifetime Learning for Believers

Word of the Week

November 22, 2025

Manthanō: Lifetime Learning for Believers

 

Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.

Philippians 4:11 NASB

We never outgrow the need for learning.  When we were young, we learned to ride a bicycle.  Then we learned to drive.  As time passed, we learned job skills and human relations expertise.  Now we have to learn new technology tricks every time our phone receives an update!

That’s OK, because one of the best ways to keep an aging mind nimble is to learn new skills.

Learning is also a lifetime process for Christians who want to grow in their faith.  The apostle Paul, for example, told his friends in Philippi that he had learned to be content – regardless of his circumstances (Philippians 4:11).

That is an extraordinary claim.  Most of us struggle to keep our footing through ordinary ups and downs.  Paul, however, had mastered the art of dealing triumphantly with both abundance and need.

How did he learn such a challenging skill?

The key lies in the Greek word he chose for “learn.”  Let’s look more closely at this word to discover what shaped the apostle’s attitudes.

The Greek word for “learn” is manthanō [mahn-THAH-noe].  Appearing 25 times in the New Testament, it involves more than merely collecting information.  It includes the ideas of focusing the mind, grasping reality, and developing new attitudes or skills.

To understand how the New Testament uses the word, we can look at the very different ways that “learning” was understood in the ancient world.

Learning in the Greek Philosophical Tradition

For Greek philosophers like Plato and Aristotle, the focus of learning was often on acquiring facts, understanding theories, and fitting everything into a logical system.  Their learning centered on analysis – taking the world apart in order to explain it. They found deep satisfaction in building a mental framework that made sense of everything around them.

This definition of “learn” appears in the New Testament.  At times the word simply means “to discover information, to learn the facts.”

A Roman officer reported that he rescued Paul from a mob because he had “learned that he was a Roman” (Acts 23:27).

And Paul launched a warning against false teachers by declaring, “There is one thing I want to find out from you . . .” (Galatians 3:2).

But for the people of God, learning is more than mere information.

Learning in the Old Testament

In the Old Testament, learning was deeply practical.  It was never learning for curiosity’s sake or intellectual pleasure alone. It was focused on understanding what God said so that His people would obey Him.

The goal was changed behavior.  We might compare it to a drivers education class: you don’t learn the traffic laws so you can recite them—you learn them so you’ll know what to do behind the wheel.

This pattern—learning that leads to action—forms the backdrop for the majority of New Testament uses of manthanō.

Learning in the New Testament

When we reach the New Testament, most passages move beyond factual learning.  They involve transformational learning.

This is the kind of learning that shaped Paul’s attitude of contentment.

And the New Testament shows us three main ways this kind of learning takes place.

 

How we learn – Three Biblical Pathways

1. We learn through explanation.

Sometimes learning happens because someone explains something—either in writing or by speaking. The New Testament shows this repeatedly:

• The Jews then were astonished, saying, “How has this man become learned, having never been educated?” (John 7:15)
• Jesus said, “Now learn the parable from the fig tree” (Matthew 24:32).
• Paul told the Romans to “keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching you learned” (Romans 16:1).

Teaching provides the content we need for growth.  But information alone is not enough.

2. We learn through experience.

This is where learning becomes real.

• Paul describes the whole Christian life when he says, “You did not learn Christ in this way” (Ephesians 4:20).
• He also describes the lessons, good and bad, that we learn in family life. He urges children “to first learn to practice piety in regard to their own family” by caring for widowed parents (1 Timothy 5:4).  And he warns that people who lead an irresponsible single life “learn to be idle” (1 Timothy 5:14).
• Even Jesus “learned obedience from the things which he suffered” (Hebrews 5:8).

None of this learning came from a classroom.  It was produced by the ups and downs of daily life.

3. We learn through exposure to a person.

Sometimes learning comes simply from being around a person, observing him and absorbing his character.

• Jesus invited His listeners to “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart” (Matthew 11:29). A person would “take the yoke” of a prominent rabbi by attaching himself to the teacher consistently.
• Paul spoke of the believers who “learned from Epaphras, our beloved fellow bond-servant” (Colossians 1:7).
• He also urged his associate Timothy to “continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them” (2 Timothy 3:14).

This is the heart of discipleship.  In fact, the Greek word for “disciple” comes from the noun that matches manthanō.  Disciples learn by watching, imitating and walking alongside a master.

This is how Jesus trained His disciples, and it is the core of how He shapes us.

So how did Paul learn contentment?

He learned through God’s instruction – the truths that anchored his heart.

He learned through long experience – seasons of hunger, seasons of plenty.

He learned through a Person – walking with Christ and knowing Him more deeply.

And we can learn in the same way!

 

 

Study Hint:

As I mentioned, the word manthanō is a cousin of mathētēs, the word for “disciple.”  You can learn more about that word by checking the Word of the Week for March 22, 2025.

Paul also used a different word for “learn” in the same Philippians passage.  This one means “to learn the secret,” and you can delve into that difference in the Word of the Week for March 8, 2025.

 

Coming Up

Our next study is going to be brief, but it picks up a nuance of Greek vocabulary that makes me very thankful at Thanksgiving!  It’s a surprising turn in Christ’s conversation with His disciples at the Last Supper.

©Ezra Project 2025