Should a Christian be involved in mentoring? What does the Bible say about mentorship?

I would say to the young brethren, keep in the company of those who know more than yourselves, by that you will learn. This is the way we have all learned, to be in the company of older brothers, mature brothers and from them we learned by their knowledge, by their experience, and we made progress. All through the Scriptures this is the true principle, the true pattern, and would to God it were followed more today, so that the young and the old move together for the pleasure of God.

Learning to walk with God in the company of older ones who could teach and train him, he became fitted as a choice vessel of the Lord. If you are young in the faith, seek the company of older, faithful brothers and sisters, and learn from them. Take every opportunity to serve with them.

Often in the nursery an older child will assume an almost parental care of a younger child. So in the things of the Lord it is happy when a Christian sets out to care for one a little younger in grace and advancement than himself, and when the whole atmosphere of the assembly is one of kindly care for the young. Oh! that we had the spirit of Paul, who acted as a nursing mother in his day. May this appeal stimulate saints of God to this godly care. The young need encouragement and help as never before.

If we do not see things this way, perhaps we should consider Paul’s words to Titus when he tells him to encourage ‘the elder women’ to ‘admonish the young women to be attached to their husbands, to be attached to their children, discreet, chaste, diligent in home work, good, subject to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be evil spoken of’ (Titus 2:3–5). Having gone through life and brought up a family, older women have a lot of experience. Do those of us who are older take our responsibility seriously to talk over matters with the younger generation? Perhaps younger sisters might not want older sisters to speak to them in this way, but why repeat the mistakes that others have made in the past? Would it not be wiser to listen to the advice that older women can give us in a godly way?

Then the apostle says "The things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses. the same commit thou to faithful men who shall he able to teach others also. Now it seems to me that the apostle recognises that the mass of Christians were giving up the truth but he recalls Timothy to what he had heard from himself. We have these things in the epistles; but, he says to Timothy, "These things you have heard of me. Now if Timothy through exercise of soul became strong in the grace that was in Christ Jesus, and in his own life, and own way, was brought under the power of the truth he was to commit these same things to faithful men. That is, I suppose, the apostle in a way expects that these faithful men would be distinguishable among the general unfaithfulness. But Timothy was to seek them out and getting into their company and into exercise with them he was to speak of these things together with them so that they might become suited vessels to carry it on. You often feel that speaking of the rank and file, that the very things we ought to he most familiar with we can hardly speak about. We have to speak of elementary things, and it is very nice to speak about elementary things when you meet a simple child to try and help him at the point where you find him. If he is not clear about the forgiveness of sins, well. try to help him. If he is not clear about peace with God, try to help him. If he has not yet learned the seventh of Romans, go patiently over it with him; get it deeper into your own soul while helping him. but help according as to how you find him But how seldom you really find saints of God who are eager to learn the deeper truths of Christ and God's purpose in connection with Him. And therefore you are greatly limited and do not even have time to speak about these things; but wherever you find a faithful men, it is your privilege and mine, to share with him what we can of all that we have learned.

"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.'' If you are getting into exercise as to the proper truths of the gospel and as to the deeper truths of the Assembly of God, wherever you find an open ear, and a heart that appreciates these things with you, share together what you are learning about the Lord. Make sure it is what we have heard of Paul among many witnesses; we have it all recorded here in the Word, but what you are learning of Christ share with your brother, and in that way you are preparing some who in their turn will be able to teach others also. I think that we cannot rely upon the continuation of gift in the way in which we have known it in past years. We are all conscious how that in past years there have been outstanding men, there have been those whom we have recognised as getting a distinct impression from the Lord, and they have preached the truth and been in the exercise and power of it, and they have brought the truth before us in such a way that we recognise their message from the Lord. But they have passed and their places are not filled, and we are left very very weak we are left where we have the truth but we have not these gifts, but we are weak, and we are made conscious of this. Now supposing we had no longer these eminent and specia1 gifts and we were left in our weakness does that mean we can no longer get into touch with the truth that is in Christ Jesus? Certainly not. We have it here, and we have the Holy Ghost given to us, but if we are to pass it on there must he this communication, as it says here, "The things thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also."

They did not all willingly offer themselves here, as we shall see, but, thank God, there will always be those who will respond to true ministry that finds its centre in Christ. If it does not find its centre in Christ it will be doomed to failure eventually. It might be a very good idea, it might be a very reasonable idea, but if it is not centred in Christ it will be bound to fail. And so we find that the object of all those persons mentioned in the New Testament, who have responsibility in relation to helping the saints of God, is to lead them to Christ. In the thirteenth chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews the saints were exhorted to obey their leaders and to follow their conversation (Heb.13:7), says Paul, 'imitate them'. And what was the source or the substance of their conversation, "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and forever" (v.8). 'Follow their example', says Paul, 'these are the men who are seeking to lead you, not leading you astray like false shepherds, but leading you to the Lord and into the fullness of His thoughts'.

There are tens of thousands of the Lord's people who cannot articulate a matter for themselves, who yet can see it the moment it is articulated for them. What then is the business of anyone ministering in the Church, be he apostle or prophet, pastor and teacher, or evangelist, or elder, or anything else? Is it not to articulate what is true in Christ? You first of all learn for yourself what is true in Him, — in your own case, of course, from the Scriptures, and in dependence upon God the Holy Ghost; — then you prove it in your own soul's experience, and then finally you pass it on for the guidance and help of all whom God, by His providence, has placed within your reach. So that authority in the Church in its true sense is not the "ex cathedra" utterance of an ecclesiastic, but the education of Christ's people, their guidance in difficulties, their help in pressure, by the application of a deep knowledge of Christ to a shallow or defective one. This is a hundred times over confirmed in the New Testament. I can quite understand that when as yet there were no Scriptures in circulation, the Holy Ghost was pleased to use apostles and prophets to utter the mind of God, and the truth of Christ for the guidance and edification of the Church. But on their passing off the scene their teachings were preserved by the wisdom and power of the Spirit of God in the form of the Scriptures. "I commend you to God and to the word of His grace" (Acts 20).

The teaching of the apostles would be all that they learned in company with the Lord Jesus, all the wonderful discourses that we have written for us in our Bibles and perhaps many other things that are not recorded for us, these things would be handed on to those new converts. They would tell them, 'This is what the Lord demanded of us, this is what He demands of you. It is the Lord who is doing it, we are only His servants in conveying these things to you'. What faithfulness is required then in handing on the truth to those who are newly converted; not letting them grow themselves (if they are left to themselves they will not grow).

In the midst of all the enemy's wiles and the saints' weakness, the apostle says to Timothy — this promising young man, eminently gifted, and desiring to get on, yet weeping because he saw the state of things around — "Thou, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus." It carries us back to the teaching of the apostle, to "the things which thou hast heard of me." We do not of course attain to teach others in five minutes. But would you not like, dear fellow Christian, brother or sister, to be numbered among the faithful, faithful to the full light God has given us as to the Christ (because, of course, Christian sisters can be faithful too). Would you not pray to be numbered among these faithful ones who, while maintaining the whole truth which God has taught us, are able to teach others also? Right down to the very end we should be able to stand in all the good of that which is revealed, in spite of the slide-away on every hand. May God grant this to be the case with us all. Every line of the truth remains true in Christ, and we may give nothing up.

If we test ourselves by that kind of knowledge, shall we not find admonition here for us, as it was for those to whom it was first addressed? "For the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God." How long have we been Christians? Here is one who has been saved for a year, another for five years; others can look back upon a Christian life of ten, fifteen, or twenty years. Very blessed it is to be able to look back and say, "For twenty years I have known the Lord;" but here is the point: for the time that you have known Christ you ought to be a teacher of Christ. We all ought to know Him so well that we can have no difficulty in teaching others of Him. I ask, How many of us are teachers in this sense? It is not a question of the gift of teaching here. God has given gifts in the assembly — some apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. It is not those specific gifts that are spoken of here. It is that spiritual faculty of being able to make known to others a Person who is well known to ourselves. The only way you can introduce two persons is to be acquainted with both. So there must be heart acquaintance with Christ, a deep, real, full heart knowledge of Him, if we are to make Him known to others. Where this is the case we can say with the apostle, "We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard." There is a savor of Christ in one's heart that cannot be concealed.