Role of the Apostolic: Birthing the Next Generation

For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. Therefore I urge you, imitate me. For this reason I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful son in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach everywhere in every church. (I Corinthians 4:15-17)

It is so remarkable to me that in this passage, Paul was exhorting the church in Corinth to imitate him. Later on in chapter 11, he exhorts them again to imitate him as he imitates Christ. What I think is even more remarkable, however, is that Paul did not go to Corinth himself in this passage. He actually sent Timothy to them who was his beloved and faithful son in the Lord. Paul had fathered Timothy as a son, and Timothy was being sent to father the church in Corinth. He had been birthed as a father by Paul.

Timothy was the one who taught the church in Corinth and through that they were imitating Paul who was imitating Christ. Although Paul did go to Corinth at certain points, Paul was not addressing himself going to Corinth in this passage, but he was speaking of Timothy going to Corinth and that Paul through Timothy would birth them as a father.

Even more than this, it is noteworthy that Paul was distinguishing here between teachers and fathers. He was telling the church in Corinth that he has begotten them. He was saying that he was the one who led them to the Lord but even more than that, he was birthing them.

Paul continually uses the imagery of fathering when he is referring to his role in the church. In all of those passages, he constantly de-emphasizes the glamor in the life of an apostle, and he emphasizes that fact that they are laying down their lives for the church rather than taking advantage of them. Even in one passage, Paul likens himself to a mother who nurtures them.

Nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others, when we might have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children. So, affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us. For you remember, brethren, our labor and toil; for laboring night and day…as you know how we exhorted, and comforted, and charged every one of you, as a father does his own children… (I Thessalonians 2:6-9, 11)

The role of every generation is to honor the generation above them and to pour into the generation under them. Every ceiling on one generation should become the floor of another. We need fathers and mothers in the generation who build on the foundations of the older generation while promoting and birthing the next generation into all that God has created it to be.