The student is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher. Luke 6:40
“For as the teacher is, so is the disciple fashioned to be. For it is impossible that one who has been apprenticed to the art of the smith should fulfill his training by weaving, or that one who has been taught to work at the loom should turn out an orator or a surveyor. No, the disciple transfers to himself the pattern he sees in his master. It is for this reason it says, every disciple shall be fashioned like his teacher (Luke 6:40).
What then brothers? Is it possible to become humble-minded, calm in manner, moderate, superior to the love of money-making, wise in things divine and trained to virtue and fairness in one’s ways if these qualities have not been seen in the teacher? On the contrary, I do not know how anyone will become spiritual who has done his learning in a school of worldliness, for how shall they who are striving to become like such a one fail to be as he is?”
Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335-394), the younger brother of Basil the Great and Bishop of Nyssa in Cappadocia, also known as one of the three Cappadocian Fathers, in “To the Presbyters of Nicomedia” Letter 17.24-25 as recounted in Gregory of Nyssa: The Letters, Introduction, Translation and Commentary, by Anna M. Silvas (Leiden: Brill, 2007) 167-68.
What pattern will I communicate? That’s the question I am asking myself as I travel to teach on two consecutive long weekends in Egypt. It’s an important question because disciples follow the “pattern” of their teacher. Students will not live out the truth with love unless the teacher leads the way. They will not grow generous stewards without a model to guide them.
This “pattern” is central to our purpose at GTP: “In obedient service to Jesus Christ, GTP multiplies disciples of faithful administration and mobilizes peer accountability groups to increase gospel participation in every nation.” What’s the pattern? A disciple of faithful administration understands his or her role in God’s work and does it with integrity and accountability.
At ECFA in the USA, the pattern is called Standards of Responsible Stewardship. Other such groups that are a part of the fellowship of trust partners in other countries have adopted similar sets of standards. You can look them up here. Why mention this? Each of us must consider carefully “the pattern” we exhibit before a watching world. What’s your pattern?
If you want others to grow in generosity, they must see the pattern in your life. If I want all the men and women I will serve over the next two weeks to grow in generosity, they must see the pattern in my words and works. Think about the pattern of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the saints in the early church, and throughout history. What about you? Will your life transfer the pattern?