The Christian Walk has been described as one beggar showing another beggar where to find food. This illustrates wonderfully how one of our primary missions on this earth is to instruct others in the way of salvation.
I. Matthew 28:18-20. Animals know how to live by instinct, but human beings need to be taught (Genesis 3:5-22). God has given us the Bible to instruct us in the way of salvation (2 Timothy 3:16-17) and displayed His power in creation to know that He is God (Romans 1:18-22). So, it is no wonder that Jesus seeks and saves the lost (Luke 19:10) today by equipping us to make disciples through teaching others the gospel.
II. Ephesians 4:11-16. But, the teaching does not stop there. After making disciples, we are to teach them to obey all of Jesus’ commands. To do that, Jesus established His church (Matthew 16:18) as a center of learning, where the lost can hear the gospel, yes, but where the church, speaking the truth in love, can build itself up in love. Our teaching should not be confined within the walls of buildings, however, but the church, attaining unity and maturity in Jesus, should go forth and teach.
III. John 13:13-34. We glimpse Jesus’ great love that motivated Him to live a number of years in the flesh to instruct us in the way of salvation before going to the cross for us in love. In Matthew 23:37, He laments that Jerusalem persisted in sin while so many prophets had come to teach the city and the nation throughout the centuries. That same love is our motivation as we take up Jesus’ mission to teach others by word and by deed, by our very lives, the way back to God.
By learning do we now understand our world, and so God, in His infinite wisdom, taught us who He is and how to return to Him. Then, having come to know Him, we are, in turn, told to teach others.