Micromanaged Mentoring

As an introduction to this Bible study, please read the 1-minute devotion No Micromanagement.

It's wonderful to have mentors and teachers, but each Christian should also be growing in their ability to discern biblical truths for themselves.

Being dependent on teachers alone puts us in a dangerous place if we don't know God's Word for ourselves. We can easily be misled. Instead, we need to be Politely Skeptical and make sure we know God's Word for ourselves. 

1. When we don't study God's Word for ourselves, we begin to exalt teachers instead of God and we remain immature: 

1 Corinthians 3:1-15: "And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, 3 for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?

4 "For when one says, 'I am of Paul,' and another, 'I am of Apollos,' are you not mere men? 5 What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. 7 So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. 

8 "Now he who plants and he who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.  9 For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building. 10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it.

11 "For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. 14 If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. 15 If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire." 

It's interesting that Paul talks about Christians in the early church exalting one man over another. This would be similar to exalting a denomination or a particular pastor or teacher, and I think the modern church is often guilty of this. 

What do you think it means to build with wood, hay, and straw? 

2. New Testament Christians have God's Spirit to teach us.

John 14:26: "The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you." 

John 16:13: "When he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come."  

1 John 2:27: "As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him."

3. What happens when we depend too much on others?

Hebrews 5:11-14: "We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. 12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil." 

What are some signs that a Christian may have an unhealthy dependence on a teacher or teachers?

copyright 2013, Gail Burton Purath, BiteSizeBibleStudy.com, edited and updated in 2020

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