Grow Up!
There’s this kid next door and I am convinced he is an alien. I have tried to politely communicate this to his parents, but they turn a deaf ear.
“Listen,” I say, “He slobbers, drools when he eats, and has not learned to control his various bodily functions.”
His parents seem unbothered with my thoughtful observations. They think I should not judge their child because he is only nine months old. Easy for them to say.
Likewise, we all pass judgment on Christians using the same criteria. For instance, we think that a one-size-fits-all discipleship program is the cure-for-all and that after having spoon-fed spiritual babies for 30 years or so that they will suddenly be transformed by the renewing of their kind.
Nope.
I don’t know about you, but my purpose in raising my kids is to raise them up, teach them everything they will need to know about God and life and God in life and then one day, after having demonstrated the Jesus model and invested enough money to buy a small island in Aruba, send them packing, change the locks, and invite their kids over on convenient weekends for manageable stay-n-play. No fuss, no muss.
Yeah, right.
So what is this thing we call discipleship. To begin, the word disciple or mathetes is more of an attitude than a title. A disciple is a learner. You’re thinking, that means that someone is teaching them, right? Right. Just like in natural parenting.
To discover the meaning of the word, we need to see it used in context. Whenever Jesus used the word disciple, He placed a high standard – a very high standard – with the term. Think Olympic caliber, A-level, first-string, first round draft choice standard.
We say a person is a Christian when they receive Jesus as Lord and Savior. Yes, the word Christian does appear in the Bible – three times. But the word disciple appears 252 times.
So what is a disciple according to Jesus? Let’s start by using the Great Commission where Jesus said, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (Matthew 28:19,20)
A disciple is a person on the journey. That process begins the moment they accept Jesus as Lord, Master, and Savior of their life and continues as long as they keep learning and obeying everything Jesus commanded. They start out as babies; go through spiritual adolescence, and eventually, hopefully, into spiritual adulthood.
Now here’s the hard part for most of us. We look at God’s Word and we see pictures of men and women who are at the end of their journey. In effect, these are pictures of the end result to show us what we should look like at the end of the journey, not the beginning.
It’s a lot like looking at the cover of a 2,000-piece jigsaw puzzle. The cover is not the puzzle. The cover is what the puzzle will look like if all the pieces are put together. We use the cover as the big picture of what those 2,000 little pieces will look like when they are correctly assembled together.
Just like the Bible.
What we should look for in a disciple is someone who is a person on the journey, showing increasing commitments to Jesus, and growing up on the road to maturity.
What we should not do is expect the same spiritual maturity from a nine month old as someone who has been walking with Jesus for three decades. It only makes sense.
And yes, the demands of discipleship will increase. After having walked with Jesus for over two years and after many disciples turned back and no longer followed Him, Jesus asked the twelve apostles, “You do not want to leave too, do you?"
The Rock, Simon Peter, answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” (John 6:68,69)
The more we hear about Jesus’ real truth, the more uncomfortable we will become, the thinner the ranks will be. Honest believers will always want to understand more. Others will simply walk away because they won’t like what they hear.
If you truly are a disciple, your response to Jesus’ question will be, “to whom shall we go?” There is no other way. |
