August 26, 2013

2 Timothy 1:2, 2:2 — To Timothy, my dearly beloved son: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. …
And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.

Did you ever start a Bible study, and as you got on discovered it wasn’t working out? I saw a note about Moses in a commentary on Exodus. I saw another note about Joshua. They seemed to go together … So I started a word-study about a word that seemed to mean “babe” or “young man” and also carried a sense of “vulnerable … Needing care”. As I dug in, though, I found the words were not the same at all. But something was still tugging at me …
Yesterday, our High School Pastor preached a fine sermon on the first chapter of 2 Timothy. For the record, his point was about relighting the fire inside us. But somewhere along the way it reminded me of my word-study to nowhere. The threads came together around the notion of mentoring.
Have you been mentored? Have you been a mentor? I haven’t been on either end of a formal mentoring.
relationship and I know that I have missed out.The best I can offer is some time spent nurturing younger colleagues — some of who, I’m glad to say, have passed well beyond me. But I’m conscious of a failed responsibility.
There are some good examples of mentoring relationships in the Bible. The best is probably Paul and Timothy — which is where the words at the start of this devotion come from. There are others, though. Another is Moses and Joshua. That might be an even better example because Joshua did pass on to Caleb what he had learned from Moses. Then there’s Elijah and Elisha. Mentoring involves the mentor working, and often sacrificing, to benefit the one being mentored. It involves loving and having faith in the value of the one being mentored. Elijah was the supreme Old Testament example. Look at his briefing: “And the Lord said unto him, Go, return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus: and when thou comest, anoint Hazael to be king over Syria: And Jehu the son of Nimshi shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel: and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel–meholah shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room.” (1 Kings 19:15, 16 KJV).
There is One, of course, who was the Great Mentor. Jesus was more to His disciples than their Rabbi, their teacher. He was the friend, their servant, their master and their mentor. Read, especially, the Gospel of Mark, and see how intentionally he mentored Peter.
With all those great examples in front of you, if you get the chance to be a mentor, please grab it. The pay is small, but the rewards are great!