So excited to pour out my life again during tonight's Greek class. I love these students! I'm reminded of something Paul said about the Thessalonians. "For now we truly live, if you stand firm in the Lord" (1 Thess. 3:8). The EXB reads, "Our life is really full!" Get this. Paul's "life" was contingent to a degree on their continued steadfastness. He's saying, "My very life depends on your stability in Christ and your correct Christian walk." Any good teacher will tell you that they flourish when those they are training are steady as a rock in the exercising of their duties as students. Paul's whole life seemed to be bound up with the churches he had founded. They were his "children," his "loved and longed-for," his "hope and joy and crown of boasting" (1 Thess. 2:19). And he wasn't ashamed to tell them that!
Greek prof, tell your students that you love them. Tell them often. Tell them unabashedly. Then support that statement by your gracious treatment of them. They will be drawn to you like a magnet.