What is Discipleship?
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age (Matthew 28:19-20)
Some of Jesus’ last words were to make disciples and teach these disciples to do everything he commanded. It was evident that his disciples obeyed Jesus because we have the New Testament which records everything he commanded.
The Apostles formed churches by making disciples. Every new believer was discipled, and in turn, went out and made more disciples. But somewhere in between then and now, the American church has forgot what a disciple is, how to make a disciple, and what discipleship involves.
How to make a disciple: Simply go out and preach the entire gospel message. When men confess and repent of their sins; and decide to follow Christ, they have become a disciple. It is now the Church’s job to disciple them.
What is a disciple? The Strong’s Greek Concordance (G3100) defines it this way: From G3101; intransitively to become a pupil; transitively to disciple, that is, enroll as scholar:—be disciple, instruct, teach. In other words: A disciple is a pupil, a person – someone you are to teach and instruct. A “discipler” is someone who does the teaching and instructing.
What makes a good disciple?
- He is more than a student – rather, an apprentice.
- New and spiritually hungry wanting to serve Jesus.
- Has godly convictions and is repentant.
- Teachable / dependable and committed to his own spiritual growth.
- Humble and able to be held accountable.
- He is willing to give up all, deny himself and follow Christ.
What is the purpose for discipleship?
We shouldn’t expect the new believer to understand much about the Christian walk. He has been re-birthed and become a child of God. Children need guidance, protection and supervision. What God requires is not works, but faith and an interior change of the heart. But it is only natural for new believers to be mainly concerned with doing the right things, which means their focus is on external behavior (works).
New believers understand the foundational doctrine of salvation, but now they need to build on that truth, but how do they do that? Is it reasonable to simply tell them to go to church, pray and read the Bible, and expect them to effectively grow to spiritual maturity? Now that the person has been reconciled to God and has entered into spiritual things and a spiritual family, how do they begin to understand spiritual things and relate to a spiritual God? They must be taught.
How do we learn a life style? We learn from seeing others. When I was younger, I seen how my parents interacted with each other and the people around them, and that’s how I started to interact with others. That’s how it is with new Christians, they need to see how the “grown ups” do it first. God created us as social beings, and that’s what we do, we learn from each other. Therefore, mature believers are to teach them how to follow Jesus as he instructed.
New believer, old believer. It doesn’t matter if the person just got baptized or has been attending church for 10 years – anyone can be a disciple. Maturity isn’t measured by age in the Kingdom of God, it’s measured by faith and obedience.
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Praise God!
Im praful from Mumbai,India
My few doubts are cleared by reading this message. Waiting for part 2 of diciple.. Jesus bless you all.
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