Come, my children, and listen to me, and I will teach you to fear the LORD (Psalm 34:11, NLT).
We need spiritual parents from whom we can learn both doctrine and practice. Love is only learned in and through relationships.
The Pharisees and Jesus disagreed on a lot, but they did agree on this: learning how to live a godly life was just as much caught as it was taught. They both knew that book learning only got you so far. Knowing Scripture was important. Having good theology was important. But there are realities about learning to live out God’s grace and truth that can only be learned by seeing it lived out in another person. There is an indispensable component of learning to be godly that can only take place in relationship with another.
We need to be men and women who can honestly say Philippians 4:9 (NLT) to our children, and to people we are discipling, “Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.” Can you say that? Can you say “be imitators of me” to your family and friends? How would they respond if you said that? Would they be moved to come and learn from you, or would they politely decline, or even laugh at the idea? Can your family and friends say they are growing in Christ because they are imitating you?
Learning To Be Full Of Grace And Truth. 