Am I a poor teacher?

Question:

Hello brother.

How are you doing? I hope you are doing well.

Brother, I feel confused and at the same time, I feel a little disappointed in myself. Sometimes I wonder if I'm doing a good job when I'm teaching others.

There was a man I was teaching. No matter how many Bible verses we covered and Bible classes we had -- no matter how many times I tried to explain to him about baptism -- he just wouldn't accept the fact that a person needs to be baptized in order to be saved. He told me that he was also having some Bible classes with a Catholic priest. He told me that he didn't need me to come to visit him anymore since we never see eye-to-eye.

I just think I'm not persuasive enough. Is it my lack of knowledge? Was the priest more persuasive than me? Did I not use the Bible verse at the right time at the right moment? Was I too direct? Was it my lack of experience? Was I not prepared enough? Did I say the wrong thing?

What do you think brother? What advice can you give me?

Answer:

I think you need to stop being so hard on yourself. Jesus, the Master Teacher, did not convert many of the Jews. Do you remember the rich young ruler, who went away sorrowfully after Jesus pointed out how he could reach heaven? What you are forgetting is that everyone has free will. Your job is to present God's teachings. Whether the person you are teaching accepts the message is up to that person. "What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth" (I Corinthians 3:5-7). The man you taught rejected God's teaching. It is disappointing, but you move on to teach someone else.

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