As a biblical integrator, you are speaking God’s Word to your students. In the classroom, you help them see that Jesus is Lord and that all things are his. Every Christian educator is a leader because we are leading our students to rightly see and savor Christ and his gospel in many different areas of life. And as leaders, our lives are meant to be on display.
Hebrews 13:7-8 calls Christians to notice the lives of their leaders, saying, “Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”
Students should be able to look to your life and remember the ways that you have taught the Word to them. Further, they should be able to see the outcome of the way we live out our faith and want to imitate it because the true Christian life is attractive. This does not mean that they see a cushy, no-problems life when they look to us. The author Hebrews points back to Jesus here to help us see. Just one chapter earlier, he called believers to fix “our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross” (Heb 12:2).
Jesus’ life was hard and painful, but it was aimed at the joy set before Him. We too might experience hard things in this life, but, like our Ultimate Leader, we are aiming for joy. Our students should understand how to follow Jesus because they see us doing it.
In Hebrews 13:6, we read: “So we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?’” Martin Luther answered that rhetorical question in the closing lines of his most famous hymn with a challenge:
Let goods and kindred go,
this mortal life also;
the body they may kill;
God’s truth abideth still;
his kingdom is forever.
That is the kind of leader that students will remember and emulate. Why? Because that is a picture of the Christ-like leader. Jesus let goods and closeness with the Father go when He left Heaven to pursue us. He laid his mortal life down and allowed mere mortals to kill Him. He did this knowing the power and truth of God. He was confident that his kingdom is forever. Jesus has accomplished everything for us, and He calls us to follow his example. He is the Leader of leaders.
So how do leaders follow Christ? Verses 15-16 of Hebrews 13 offers part of the answer:
Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
We give Him praise continually. We openly profess his name. As a biblical integrator, your course becomes an auditorium of worship as you point students to his greatness, goodness, and presence. And we put these truths into action when we do not forget to do good and share with others.
Students will not quickly forget a teacher who openly professes Jesus with words and follows Christ’s example with action. This is the kind of leader worth remembering. Will you follow Christ by being that teacher this year?
