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UNDERSTANDING DISCIPLESHIP
The word discipleship or
disciple comes from the Greek word mathano
meaning to learn, a learner, pupil, one who follows the teachings of someone
else, to be instructed, one who is taught, one who is trained, disciplined one,
to be apprised of, to increase one’s knowledge,
According to the Greek, the
word for “disciple” is not necessarily synonymous with what is often
referred to as being a “saved” person.
A person can be an initial learner and not put that knowledge into
practice or make it a part of his life. Thus
the context must rule as to whether the particular disciple mentioned, is
“saved or unsaved” and not always by the use of the word “disciple”
itself.
It should be noted that
Jesus did not command his followers to make “Christians” but rather to make
“disciples”! He did not say
“repeat” but “repent” nor did Jesus say that all one has to do is state
a brief prayer, raise a hand, walk an aisle or sign a card.
It is a “cheapened” message of the grace of God to say that it costs
nothing for one to be “saved” when Jesus paid such a great and ultimate
price by dying on the cross for the sins of the world!
The Biblical order was to
“make disciples(learners), baptize them, and teach them to observe all things
Jesus commanded.” A person first
makes a commitment to be a disciple(learner), knowing the cost up-front, then he
is baptized as evidence of his commitment and he is then taught to put into
practice “all” that Jesus commanded.
Jesus always made sure that
the potential follower or learner(disciple)knew up front from the beginning, the
cost or consequences of following Him. In Matthew 16:24,
Jesus said, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and
take up his cross, and follow me.” Again
in Luke 14:26-27, He said,
“If any man come to me, and hate not his father and mother, and wife, and
children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my
disciple. And whosoever doth not
bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.”
In Luke 14:28-33,
Jesus states the necessity of “counting the cost” of discipleship by giving
examples of a builder of a tower and a king going into battle.
In John 6:53, 56, Jesus says,
“Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye
have no life in you. He that eateth
my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.” According to John
6:44 Jesus said, “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent
me draw him;” In John 6:65
we read, “No man can come unto me, except it were given him of my Father.
John 6:60
then states, “many therefore of his disciples(Note: They were called
“disciples”), when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who
can hear it? John 6:66
states, “From that time many of his disciples(Note: They were called
“disciples”) went back, and walked no more with Jesus.”
In John 6:67-69, Jesus said to the twelve, “Will ye also go
away? Then Simon Peter answered
him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou
hast the words of eternal life. And
we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.”
In the New Testament,
discipleship began with a definitive commitment to put oneself under the
tutelage of a teacher in order to learn from and practice the teachings of the
instructor. Christian discipleship
can be best understood as a process of learning not just about the teachings, or
learning from the teacher, or even knowing the life example of the teacher but
choosing to “become” the person the teacher desires”. In Matthew 4:19-20, Jesus called Peter and John to
“follow me and I will “make you to become…and straightway they left their
nets, and followed Him.” Discipleship
then is not just an initial one-time decision but rather a life time commitment
to become all that God purposed. Romans
8:29 states clearly that purpose, “For whom he did foreknow, he also did
predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son.”
This then is a process that continues throughout one’s entire Christian
life not just a one-time decision.
Thus much of the confusion
of the different decisions believers may make in their life time, i.e. initial
commitment of knowing Jesus as Savior, which is often referred to as being
“saved” or “born again”; or
knowing Jesus as Lord, which is understood as a time when believers allow Jesus
to be in total control of their lives, or being baptized by His Spirit, or being
filled with His Spirit, or walking in His Spirit, bearing the fruit of His
Spirit, etc., can thus be best discerned by the Biblical understanding of the
word for disciple or discipleship as being a process.
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