Does the influence of early Christian mentors continue after they are gone?
Yes. Early Christian mentors’ influence continues after they are gone, because those touched by their lives carry that impact forward, and the full results remain unknown until the Lord reveals them. Their labor in a believer’s early experience keeps carrying on.
Les explains that the final impact of our influence will not be known until the Lord, the righteous judge, reveals it at the last time. He shares his own experience: the people instrumental in his early Christian experience are long gone, but as a result of what they did in his life, it is still carrying on. He warns never to lose sight of that. The same principle applies to the lost, whose impact also produces followers. The apostle’s point is that we are responsible only to the Lord, and until He comes, our responsibility lies there. When the Lord comes, He will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of the hearts; then every man shall have praise of God.