Jesus taught the multitudes from Peter’s boat. He then commanded him to “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” Peter answered, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.” The resulting catch was large enough to fill and almost sink two boats.
There is a sense in which the Lord has told us to let down our nets in teaching. We need to begin with our own children in our own homes and in Bible classes. God told Israel:
Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, like the days of the heavens above the earth. (Deuteronomy 11:18-21)
Christian fathers need to follow Paul’s directive. “And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4).
Christ’s followers must make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15-16; Luke 24:46-48). We might be tempted to tell the Lord we have been “toiling all night and caught nothing.” Such a response overlooks the real source of fruit produced by sowing the seed of the kingdom (1 Corinthians 3:6-7). The early church understood, and though persecuted and scattered, they “went everywhere preaching the word” (Acts 8:4).
Let us resolve to teach our children and look for openings to teach others. “Let down your nets” and pray for the Lord to give us a bountiful catch.
