The What and Who of Discipleship
One cannot help being somewhat repulsed at the strikingly short-sighted response of King Hezekiah recorded in 2 Kings 20:19. “Then said Hezekiah unto Isaiah, Good is the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken. And he said, Is it not good, if peace and truth be in my days?”
Isaiah had been sent to Hezekiah after he had shown Babylonian ambassadors all his wealth and the wealth of the temple. God’s judgment of Judah was clearly pronounced against the nation and specifically against Hezekiah’s descendents. Yet Hezekiah found comfort in the fact that he would not directly endure the judgment but that it would come after his death. One wonders how he could have so little concern about the future well-being of his subjects and, even worse, his family.
The short-sighted, self-serving perspective of Hezekiah is often lived out practically in the way that believers disciple the following generation. You can be certain, very few would overtly claim Hezekiah’s philosophy as their own, yet many of us are living out that same philosophy in our discipleship practices.
The who and what of discipleship are a bit entangled, but we will consider each separately.
What Is Discipleship?
Jesus commanded the ministry of discipleship to His own disciples just before His ascension as recorded in Matthew 28:19, 20: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” The word Matthew uses to describe this ministry is translated as “teach” in our text, but the word contains more meaning than simple teaching. This word means to make disciples. That discipleship is further explained by engaging the disciples in baptism and by “teaching them to observe” all that Christ had taught them. Jesus taught His disciples the objective, unchanging truth about God and His will for them. Jesus taught His disciples about the nature of God, the coming of the Holy Spirit, the nature and coming of the Kingdom, and various other truths we tend to categorize as “theological truths.” He also taught His disciples how to apply that objective truth to life. He taught them the essential nature of human reconciliation, to love their enemies, to abide in Him, the danger of superficial interpretations of the Law, and to forgive those who sin against them. His application of truth came in the form of discourse, parable, and by living out the truths publicly for all to see. His discipleship also included the more subjective elements of the relationship that His followers were to have with His Father. He taught His disciples how to pray, how to wait, how to interpret the Scriptures, how to minister to others.
A full-orbed ministry of discipleship must include the same elements. We must be committed to teach objective truth about God. This means we must first be students who know about God and continue to learn about Him. We must be committed to reading the Scriptures daily with the intention of knowing God better. We must not allow ourselves to treat our time in the Word as the fulfillment of some perfunctory duty. With Paul, our heart’s desire must resonate:
Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death (Phil. 3:8–10).
We must approach our worship and fellowship with the same underlying zeal. If God provides opportunities for small-group Bible studies, institute courses, or extra Bible training, take advantage of those who will help you to know God better. For the better you know God, the more of Him you will be able to share with those you disciple.
Not only should you increase in understanding the objective truths of God, but you must work to skillfully apply His truth to the world in which you live. There is an incongruity that forms in the one who seems to know a great deal about God but still seems powerless to love his neighbor or forgive his enemy. Objective truth about God has the power to transform the believer into an increasingly Christlike reflection. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 3:18, “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” I hope that I do not present this concept as some sort of magical transformation that bypasses human cooperation. Transformation is the work of the Holy Scriptures accomplished through the Holy Spirit, but it also requires a submission of the will. This will happen only when we do the difficult work of meditating on how the Scriptures confront or deny the present truth about me. This takes mental energy, devoted time, and humility to be confronted as less righteous than we would like to think that we are.
Finally, while God is truth, He is not a seminary textbook. God is a living, though divine, Being. He is a Person. We have been reconciled with Him in order to delight in His fellowship and to enjoy Him forever. Christian growth is also relational. We must grow in prayer and unity with Him. We will not be able to disciple another to a better relationship with God than the one that we are experiencing. If we are not delighting and growing in fellowship with God, we will probably have very little effect in helping others in that area. Jesus’ disciples recognized the zeal that Jesus had for His Father. It prompted them to ask Him to teach them to pray. Has anyone ever asked you to teach him to pray?
Each of these areas comprises genuine discipleship: teaching objective truth about God, applying God’s truth to everyday life, and growing in the personal fellowship each of us must have with God. Has any one person ever helped you in all of these areas of Christian discipleship? I imagine that if you say yes, you are one of the rarely blessed Christians. Many of us have been helped differently from different sources. But wrestle with the following question. If you have not received this kind of discipleship from any one person, why did you not receive it? Perhaps that question will be better understood when we consider who is responsible to disciple.
Who Should Disciple?
The Great Commission that introduced this article would imply that discipleship is one of the church’s primary objectives. Discipleship is a responsibility of the local church. But we are facing an epidemic problem in the church today that stems from a lack of genuine discipleship. Too many Christians see the church as an institution. When we see the church as an institution, the responsibility to disciple becomes a corporate responsibility. Failure to disciple is seen as a failure in church leadership. Pastors and church leaders do need to be intentional in making discipleship one of the main objectives of the corporate life of the church. But wait, the church is the Spirit-selected collection of Christians. The church is not the institution. It is not the building. It is not the leadership. The church is Spiritguided membership. Christians are to disciple. And more specifically, Christian parents are to disciple their children and grandchildren. Too many parents have come to believe that the Christian school, youth group, church program, or Sunday school is responsible for discipling their children. Some even hope the Christian college, university, or seminary will provide what their child needs. All of these are effective tools parents can use to help in their responsibility to disciple their children, but none will do the job effectively apart from the parents’ participation. The home is the context where children see and experience whether or not Christianity has any real-world value. A home without discipleship is a home that has abandoned its primary responsibility. Moses wrote in Deuteronomy 6:4–9,
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.
Parents and grandparents who know and walk with the Lord provide the living illustration of God applied to life. They possess the most time and direct access to their children. They also have the responsibility entrusted to them by God. “Fathers, . . . bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4).
Robert Condict resides in Forest Hill, Maryland, where he has served the Upper Cross Roads Baptist Church for the last twenty-one years. He is still seeking to disciple his two teenage daughters for God’s glory.
(Originally published in FrontLine • September/October 2012. Click here to subscribe to the magazine.)
Photo by Earl Wilcox on Unsplash