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Why Discipleship is Vital

What’s the identifying mark of the Christian life?

Faith? Being part of a church? Getting angry over derivative theological issues?

I think the best way to answer that question is with one simple word.

Discipleship.

What is Discipleship?

On Theophilus, we talk a lot about discipleship - spiritual practices, encountering God, following Him…

​But what does discipleship actually mean?

​Christians inherit this term from Judaism. In Judaism, a rabbi (teacher) takes on disciples who, one day, may also become rabbis themselves.

Jesus Himself was a rabbi and any casual reader of the Gospels will see that discipleship was a major part of His work. And when Jesus made His numerous calls for disciples He was very much invoking this mode of Jewish discipleship.

This mode of discipleship saw young disciples follow their rabbi around everywhere. In that time, they not only learned the rabbi's teachings but his way of life as well.

Meaning, they essentially came to embody the holistic person of their rabbi, not just the intellectual stuff. 

When you think about that in the context of the person of Jesus and the Gospel, you get a Christian understanding of discipleship.

That is, a discipleship that repatterns one’s entire life around the teachings AND person of Jesus Christ.

Why It Matters

Now this might seem obvious, but the sad reality is, discipleship tends to be under practiced.

On the one hand, nominal Christianity is a pretty big problem.

And on the other hand, many churches present an overly cerebral Gospel that prescribes Bible study, sermons, and Sunday church attendance as the means to a fulfilling Christian life.

Discipleship is more than both.

It pushes us to take our faith seriously; it’s a whole life commitment after all.

It also takes our faith beyond the realm of the mind. Information is incredibly useful, but without the practice discipleship requires, how useful is it?

​At the end of the day, Jesus was quite clear:

This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. (John 15:8)

“Bearing fruit” requires us to repattern our entire lives around Jesus, just as Jewish disciples did under their rabbis.

We cannot expect to enter the depth of the Gospel without this kind of discipleship.

One of our aims at Theophilus is to guide others in that.

To encourage others to ask the Holy Spirit to walk beside them and, day by day, steadily transform them more into the likeness of Christ.

That is the journey of the Christian life, one of eternal discipleship under Father, Son, and Spirit.

Have a good weekend.

Be Blessed,

Jon

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