We need to contact and take care of others, sinners and believers, as the apostle Paul, the top apostle, did in contacting people and taking care of people's need (2 Cor. 1:23-2:14). In 2 Corinthians 11:28-29 Paul said, "Apart from the things which have not been mentioned, there is this: the crowd of cares pressing upon me daily, the anxious concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is stumbled, and I myself do not burn?" This unveils the care of a proper shepherd.
Our attitude may be that everyone is weak but we are not weak. We may have the feeling that we are strong ones. In 1 Corinthians 9:22 Paul said, "To the weak I became weak that I might gain the weak." This means that we should come down to the weak one's level. To a sick person we come down to the level of a sick person. This is the way to shepherd people by visiting them. Paul also said, "Who is stumbled, and I myself do not burn?" This is to burn in sorrow and indignation over the cause of the stumbling of all the fallen ones. This shows the pattern of Paul as a good shepherd, taking care of God's flock.
Acts 20 says that while Paul was on his way to Jerusalem, he sent word to Ephesus and called for the elders of the church. He told them that they should shepherd God's flock, which God purchased with His own blood (v. 28). The shepherding of God's flock was on Paul's heart. Many think that Paul was a great apostle doing a great work as a great career. But Paul considered what he did as shepherding the flock of God. We have to be revolutionized in our logic and consideration. We should not think that we are going to do a great work for Christ like certain spiritual giants. These so-called giants actually did not accomplish much for God's interest. Instead, they only made a name for themselves with little result for the building up of the Body of Christ.
The apostle Paul taught in his personal visits to the churches (1 Cor. 4:17b; 7:17b).
Paul also wrote fourteen Epistles to the churches and individuals concerning God's eternal economy with Christ as its centrality and universality and the Body of Christ as its central line to consummate the New Jerusalem. What Paul taught was the same as what the Lord Jesus taught. Many teachings today are in the realm of ethics. They are not up to the standard of what Christ and Paul taught. Both Christ and Paul taught the contents of God's eternal economy. In our vital groups we have to learn to teach these things.
If we are going to teach the Gospel of Matthew, we need to know its three main sections: the constitution of the kingdom (chs. 5-7), the mysteries of the kingdom (ch.13), and the manifestation of the kingdom (chs. 24-25). In the constitution of the kingdom, we have to be poor in spirit and pure in heart and to have a righteousness which exceeds that of the Pharisees. If we teach the mysteries of the kingdom, we have to stress that we need to be the good ground, into which Christ sows Himself as the seed. Today we have to grow Christ and be transformed into a great pearl. We should also teach from John that God is the flowing God. The Father is the fountain emerging to be the spring in the Son and gushing up to be the river as the Spirit unto a great consummation, the New Jerusalem. These are the teachings we should learn and minister to others. When we teach these things, people will be surprised and attracted. They will also receive the supply and the ministry of life.
In addition to the shepherding by the main function of the gifted persons, Christ as the Head of the church also charged the apostles to appoint elders (overseers) in all the local churches to carry out His shepherding of His flock (1Tim. 3:1-7; 5:17a). The Head of the church gave many gifted persons to function in shepherding for the building up of His Body, but the Body is manifested in the local churches. The Body is universal and abstract, but the churches are located and substantial. In the local churches, the elders as the local shepherds are needed. The local shepherds are more practical. Christ as the Head of the church charged the apostles, the universal shepherds, to appoint some local elders to take care of the located churches.