What is Discipleship?
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[b] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”—Matt. 28:18-20
What is discipleship? Ask that question and you’ll probably get a myriad of answers.
a personal commitment to follow Jesus through spiritual disciplines and daily practices
reading through a book on discipleship with another on a weekly basis with a mentor
intentionally using your conversations to spur one another on in the faith
Perhaps you have your own.
But at the root, discipleship consists of several ingredients: 1) a teacher, 2) a learning, 3) a set of basic principles to learn and live. Someone who is currently walking the road helps another do the same by coming alongside them, helping them to connect the dots in their lives.
As discipleship is a key purpose of this blog, I thought it would be good to really clarify what I mean. I hope this post will not only help but give you a vision for it.
Definitions of Discipleship
First, what does it mean to be a disciple?
According to Merriam Webster, it means “one who accepts and assists in spreading the doctrines of another.” We see this in Jesus’ original twelve disciples (Matt. 10:1) as well as in the larger group of seventy-two (Luke 10:1).
In the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20), Jesus issues the command to all who seek to follow Him: “make disciples of all nations.” This they do as they go through life, baptizing them and teaching them in all His ways, including making more disciples themselves! Discipleship.org has put these together succinctly, describing a disciple as “someone who is following Jesus, being changed by Jesus, and is committed to the mission of Jesus (Matt. 4:19).”
What Discipleship Looks Like
In Jesus’ day, He was not the only disciple-maker. There were many others, with their own groups of disciples following them around, listening and watching him go through life. Not surprisingly, in the end, the disciple would be like his teacher (Luke 6:40).
For the rabbi, this meant that he was always speaking, whether verbally or non-verbally. What made Jesus different was that every other human teacher was tainted with sin, meaning they were not perfect examples. Whatever his sins were could also be duplicated.
Jesus, however, was the sinless and perfect Son of God, the exact imprint of HIs nature (Heb. 1:3). When He makes disciples, they too will duplicate His nature. This transformation is never immediate, but God makes it clear that at the end, we will be like Him (Rom. 8:29)—and He will finish that job (Phil. 1:6).
Because we will always be in process ourselves, disciple-makers are themselves disciples.
This is good news for those who feel ill-equipped to be disciples. In fact, if you humbly recognize that unless Christ is your teacher, you are not fit to be one, then you’re in the right starting point.
From there, Christ sends us out by His authority. Note that He does not state in His Great Commission that His disciple-makers needed to be perfect. The original twelve certainly weren’t. Neither do we.
The Process of Discipleship
Discipleship need not be complicated. It is simply passing on what we have learned. As we keep learning, we will have more to share. We do not need to wait until we have master everything first.
Our job is to simply be faithful:
proclaiming the Gospel as ambassadors and making His appeal through us (2 Cor. 5:20),
patiently helping people move step by step, working through questions, objections, and doubts,
praying that God would shine the light of His Spirit to convict (John 16:7-11).
When they are ready to cross that line, we “baptize” them, perhaps not literally with water, but
helping them identify themselves with Christ in His death and resurrection,
dying to sin and raising to new life in Him (Rom. 6:3-4),
making the private commitment to let Christ be Lord, not just a means to heaven, even as we encourage a public declaration.
Discipleship also includes teaching. We are leaving an old way of living to embrace a new, and that isn’t easy. There are so many things to learn:
basic skills of reading and applying Scripture and prayer,
key doctrines of the faith to form a strong foundation,
how to put off our old sins and put on the new nature of Christ
Ideally, we disciple those we evangelize. It is like a new mother carrying a child for nine months and then raising her child till he is an adult and able to care for themselves independently, starting new families of their own.
Discipleship is like that. It sticks with a person for the long haul. It follows up. It trains up the new believer in the basics of their new faith, but also equips them to become a disciple-maker themselves.
The Strategic Vision of Disciple-Making
Many years ago, I read Robert Coleman’s classic The Master Plan of Evangelism. It has forever impacted how I view discipleship.
Discipleship is not separate from evangelism, but part of it. It is relational. It is focused on Christ, not the disciple-maker or the disciple. And it is strategic.
For when we invest in another, we are not just investing in another person but in another future disciple-maker. When we disciple others to disciple others, we are investing in countless of other people we will never meet personally.
The women I work with will go back into their homes to disciple their children. They will rub shoulders with roommates. They will walk in their neighborhoods. I won’t be there, but they will. And they will make disciples where they go.
When we commit ourselves to being a disciple and Jesus’s mission of discipleship, we participate in the expansion of God’s kingdom on this side of heaven. There is no better way to spend our time. The rewards are eternal.
Will you make disciples today?
