God has commanded mature believers to seek out and compassionately train newer converts. We do not accumulate spiritual knowledge for our own benefit, but rather that we also invest it in the lives of others.
The apostle Paul states, “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ” (1Corinthians 11:1). Like Paul, the mature, discipling believer should live a lifestyle that he or she would want imitated by the disciple.
Will the disciple see his or her mentor participate in the joy of witnessing, in family devotions, in faithful church service, and in demonstrations of the love of God in his or her life? A faithful walk is a powerful sermon.
The relatively new disciple must be teachable or the person discipling is wasting his or her time. For instance, Jesus did not pursue those disciples who walked away when He used the term “eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood.”(John 6) He could have chased after them and explained He was speaking figuratively of their sacrifice and commitment but did not. 1 Finally, the disciple who is growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord needs to be given greater responsibility including disciples of their own.
1 See Mike Gendron article http://www.pro-gospel.org/pdf/newsletters/2007-Volume16/Vol16no2.pdf
