Ten Thousand Instructors

The Few

Paul names a striking contrast here, ten thousand instructors, but not many fathers, worth noticing directly, instructors named as genuinely plentiful, while this deeper, fatherly relationship, I have begotten you, is named as genuinely rare, worth examining which of these two categories your own investment actually falls into.

This is worth holding as needed honesty against settling for merely instructing others, technically correct teaching offered from comfortable distance, rather than this deeper, costlier fathering Paul names directly, genuine relationship this whole book’s second movement has been describing across its exploration of actual, costly investment.

Notice begotten, striking, embodied language, genuine, personal involvement in someone’s actual coming-to-life spiritually, not merely information conveyed from a distance, worth holding as the actual, deeper aim this whole book has been building toward, not merely one instructor among ten thousand, but genuine, fathering investment.

Consider today whether your relationship with whoever you are discipling more closely resembles this described instructor, plentiful but comparatively shallow, or this rarer, deeper father, genuinely, personally invested in their actual coming-to-life, and consider what moving toward this deeper category might actually require.