Discipleship and the Kingdom of God
When I was in college, I was very active in discipleship. I was discipled by three men that I deeply admired; I also invested in several other guys who were my age or younger.
During that time, I was convinced of the necessity of discipleship, but I remember on more than one occasion puzzling over the question, "Is the goal of all this just to get more people to do the things that I'm doing?" That is not to say that we weren't growing in Christ, because we were - and faster than I had ever grown before. But at the same time I was aware that my experience of discipleship wasn't the fullness of what it is supposed to be.
Only recently have I begun (I think) to see why something so good still felt, in a way, empty. I was only listening to the first half of the Great Commission:
"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in 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.” (Mt 28:19-20)What was missing was the glory God gets through the other actions of obedience to King Jesus that flow from making disciples. Discipleship that functions simply to bring people into a relationship with Christ and to replicate that process with others, without teaching us to obey all that He commanded is not the discipleship that Jesus commanded.
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4 comments:
Interestingly, the "all that Jesus commanded" portion was significant for me while being discipled by you in that time. Be encouraged that though it was not where it needed to be with you, God was at work in that area through you regardless!
Isn't it great to know that God works in spite of us! I feel like I was totally blind to that phrase during that season of life.
I seem to remember that at the outset it was put forth that "absolute obedience" to all that Jesus would teach us was the standard expected. (Back before I had begun to even get to know you and thought maybe you were a cult leader because you were so intense and expected such obedience to Christ!)
I also remember "Consecration" was the 6th of 8 points in the Master Plan of Evangelism.
I remember you telling me that you had no right to keep anything secret in your life that God wanted to use for His purposes.
I remember accountability relationships to help enable obedience.
It was there in ways that you either do not remember or were unaware of at the time! God is very good.
Amen!
And thanks for the reminder of the Master Plan. That was a very good book to correct my foibles.
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