1 Corinthians 4:15-17

Amplified Bible

¹⁵ For even if you were to have ten thousand teachers [to guide you] in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers [who led you to Christ and assumed responsibility for you], for I became your father in Christ Jesus through the good news [of salvation]. ¹⁶ So I urge you, be imitators of me [just as a child imitates his father]. ¹⁷ For this reason I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and he will remind you of my way of life in Christ [my conduct and my precepts for godly living], just as I teach everywhere in every church.