As a great teacher went from place to place teaching everything his father taught him, many thousands of people came to see him, to see what he did, to hear what he said, and to learn from him.
Out of those thousands of people, he chose 70 or 72 faithful people to teach at a deeper level. These 70 or 72 were the few faithful students of the many thousands.
From that group of 70 or 72, he chose twelve even more faithful men whom he could teach at an even deeper level than the 70 or 72. He invited these twelve to become his students, and he later entrusted them with the work that he was doing because of their faithfulness. These twelve were the few more faithful students of the 70 or 72.
Upon his invitation to follow him, the twelve men immediately stopped what they were doing and followed the teacher. This was a sign of their faithfulness and commitment to him.
The teacher determined if someone was faithful and worth taking time out of his schedule to teach, by whether or not they applied what he taught them and by whether or not they obeyed his instructions, because whoever obeyed him, loved him and would be faithful to him and committed to his teachings.
Those people who did not apply his teaching and instruction were not proven faithful or worthy of his time because they did not love him and therefore they would not be faithful to him or committed to his teachings.
The twelve men went everywhere and did everything with the teacher. They watched how he lived, how he loved, how he forgave, how he cared, and how he taught.
They watched how he dealt with opposition, how he loved his enemies and how he prayed for the persecuted.
When he wasn't teaching the large crowds, the teacher met with the twelve men and invested everything his father taught him into them. He poured deeply into them.
Of these twelve men, there were three who were his most intimate students and friends. The teacher loved them and spent the most of his time with them, and he invested the most deeply into them. He said things that he did not say to the others, and he taught and showed them things that he did not teach or show the others. These three were the most faithful students of the twelve, so he poured the deepest into them.
With great privilege, comes great responsibility. To whom much is given, much will be required.
Just as the teacher himself was taught by his father and instructed by him to apply and pass on what he was taught, the twelve men were required to apply what the teacher taught them, to do what he instructed them to do, and to pass on what they learned from the teacher. They were not to keep it to themselves.
After the teacher left and entrusted them with the work, they went to other places and people and shared everything the teacher taught them, just as he instructed them to do.
With understanding that to whom much is given, much will be required, the teacher, as well as each of the students, suffered and died while passing on the things they were taught.
What this story teaches us, is that as we produce fruit, we should invest our time in those who are faithful and who are willing to learn and apply what they learn. We need to understand that with being given such a great privilege, much will be required of us. We have a great responsibility to share our knowledge and the things that we are learning with others in order to produce lasting fruit for our father and his house.
This principal is called "pouring deeply into the few".
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