I was just looking over some comments on a Facebook status I posted and as I chuckled I thought about  how good it is to really be known.  It is a deeply satisfying feeling.  As our pastor says, “Fully known and fully loved” - deeply satisfying.

This is a lot of ministry.  Paul said it this way.

    ¹⁰You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, ¹¹persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. ¹²In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, ¹³while evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. ¹⁴But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, ¹⁵and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.   2 Timothy 3

Timothy knew Paul fully well.  He had spent untold hours with him, beginning with hearing him speak and then seeing him stoned and left for dead.He knew not only what he taught, but how he lived. You learn a lot by being around someone, not just when you have a Bible open, but when you have your life open.  Paul was not perfect and probably had to work a bit to keep relationships clear and reconcile things from time to time.  Yet he could say to Tim to continue in what he was convinced of because he knew those he had learned from.

Paul consistently and intentionally speaks of this:

⁸We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us. ⁹Surely you remember, brothers, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you. 1 Thess. 2

⁹Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.  Philippians 4

¹Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ. ²I praise you for remembering me in everything and for holding to the teachings,^[a] just as I passed them on to you.  1 Corinthians 11

So it seems Paul’s method of discipleship was not just preaching alone, but fully sharing his life - the good and the bad and how he handled the bad and the good.

And we do all we can to model this method with students.  Our homes are open to students and they are in it regularly - though not all the time.  They are able to see our lives and we are known.  Hopefully and prayerfully and intentionally, people around us are able to be more like Jesus because of this, or at least understand Jesus’ way.

It is good to be fully known and fully loved.  It is good to be used by God to move students closer to Jesus.  It is good to have people know you on Facebook.  It is better to have them in your house.