The concept of discipleship is neither new
nor exclusively Christian. Examples of disciples and disciplers
are plentiful, both in modern and ancient societies.
To the Greeks, the process of discipleship
afforded an effective way to pass on popular ideologies. The great philosopher,
Aristotle, was a ''disciple'' of Plato. Simply put, Aristotle was Plato's
apprentice. Through close association, Aristotle became steeped in Plato's
thoughts, feelings, reactions and convictions. Aristotle went on to disseminate
that body of information throughout the Greek world. The discipleship process
continued.
At the other end of the spectrum, you can
find a modern-day parallel of discipleship taking place on city street corners.
You see, the local drug pusher is a discipler. He's
looking for moldable young people whom he can train not only to become
addicted, but to become his distributors, thus increasing his ''client base''
and his wealth. Tragically, this variation on the discipling process is
extremely effective.
I am a product of a discipler
of a different kind: my father. I remember that when I was in my early teens,
my dad, along with five or six men from the church, would go downtown and
preach to passers-by on the street corner. Often, he would take me along. On
other occasions, I watched him preach to prison inmates. As often as possible,
I stood at his side as he ministered to others. Those experiences left an
indelible mark upon me and played a big part in shaping my present-day
ministry.
Not too long ago, I found myself talking with
my eldest son about accompanying me and participating in my work. It occurred
to me that my father's discipling influence was being passed to yet another
generation.
So, the word ''disciple'' generally means
''student,'' as we have seen. However, in Greek, the word has two additional
shades of meaning. First, a disciple is one who has learned what the discipler knows. He has collected and retained the raw
data. In most schools, the process stops here. Students are tested for what
they remember. Regurgitating facts and figures may be all it takes to secure a
good grade. But for our purposes, the process is incomplete. Information is not
enough; performance is essential. Discipleship is not simply a matter of how much you know. It
is vitally concerned with how much you can do. And if the mechanism of
discipleship does not move us from information to execution, the process has
failed.
Consider the surgeon. He spends years in
school learning about all the parts of the body and how they work. He learns
what to cut, when to cut it, and how to put it back together after cutting it.
But if a medical student proposes to perform surgery on you or a loved one,
some further discussion is definitely in order. Regardless of his grades, he's
not ready to be turned loose on live people who want to stay that way. He needs
hands on, supervised training. That's the purpose for a lengthy internship.
It's the seasoning that turns raw information into professional expertise.
For
our purposes, discipleship is a spiritual internship. Specifically defined, it
is the process of spiritual development which occurs within an environment of
loving accountability, whereby the
believer progressively moves from spiritual infancy to spiritual maturity,
ultimately repeating the process with others.
Let's take that definition apart and examine
it piece by piece.
Why don't all believers attain maturity after
a certain period of time? Why isn't the discipling process more uniform? The
answer lies in a mathematical formula: distance equals speed multiplied by
time.
Some people who have been Christians for
years are every bit as immature now as the day they got saved. They did not lack
for time; they simply never got up to speed.
On the other hand, there are those who have
known the Lord for a relatively short time, during which they have grown more
mature than their contemporaries. Why? Speed! People like this hit the ground
running and don't slow down.
You see, if I'm running and you're walking,
it doesn't matter that you left the starting blocks before me. You may have
more time, but I'm covering the distance faster.
This explains why some Christians
struggle to keep their marriage from falling apart and others seem to turn
theirs around overnight. It explains why some believers battle issues of
morality, language, thought life, etc., while others overcome those hurdles
with seemingly little effort. God doesn't play favorites; it's simply a matter
of speed multiplied by time. It's the difference between running the Christian
race and walking it.
For an illustration of this principle, take a
look at I Corinthians 3:1-3. Paul wrote this epistle in 55 A.D.--five years
after establishing the church at
Brothers, I could not address you as
spiritual, but as worldly--mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid
food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You
are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are
you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men?
Do you sense Paul's expectation? Five years
downstream from salvation, baby Christians should have matured. Their behavior
should have changed.
After five years in the faith, a believer
ought to stand out from the crowd. Christlike behavior should be the rule in
life, not the exception. Infancy, after all, is only appropriate for infants.
If you're eager to stop crawling through
Christianity, think back to our equation. Your progress is a product of time
and speed. Obviously, you can't control time. But the speed at which you travel
is up to you. If God takes second place to your T.V. viewing, hobbies, friends,
business or anything else on your agenda, you're likely to wind up a spiritual
midget, doomed to a lifetime of milk, not solid food. On the other hand, if you
can't get enough of God's word, God's people, God's presence, God's direction
and God's input in your life, I guarantee you that you'll cover some serious
distance in a relatively short time. Your spiritual life will take off and fly!
If necessary, an expectant mother can deliver
her own baby. It's not recommended; it's certainly not desirable. However, it
has been done.
At the same time, it is a generally accepted
fact that babies don't raise themselves. They need care, supervision and
guidance in order to grow into mature adults.
Baby Christians are no different. They can be
born without help, but they can't grow that way. Discipleship occurs within an
environment of loving accountability--precisely the atmosphere that should
exist within the local church.
Jesus personally raised the original
disciples. Then, he turned that job over to his body, the church. Each of us
functions as a cell in that body, dividing and reproducing over and over again
as we participate in the growth process.
However, in order to stay healthy, the body
requires more than the reproduction of cells. It needs antibodies to protect it
from disease. A doctor once explained to me that inside all of us, viruses and
renegade cells occasionally pop off and begin doing their own thing. Soon, they
start affecting (or infecting) the cells around them. Before long, a tumor, a
cancer or some other disease develops. The result would inevitably be fatal, if
not for antibodies. Antibodies are specialized cells that hunt down these
renegades and destroy them before they destroy you. You don't have to think
about it; it happens automatically in a healthy body.
In a
healthy church, the process is remarkably similar. When renegade church members
bring the infection of discord, disunity or immorality, the right cells automatically
go to work fighting the disease. When physical, emotional or spiritual needs
develop, the body's defense's react immediately and instinctively.
The measure of a church is not the size of
its membership roll, the structure of its staff or the extent of its
programming. The measure of a church is the extent to which it fosters
spiritual maturity in its people.
Why is the church so critical? In I Timothy
3:14-15, Paul puts it this way:
Although I hope to come to you soon, I am
writing you these instructions so that, if I am delayed, you will know how
people are to conduct themselves in God's household, which is the church of the
living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.
It's fairly obvious that the world no longer
holds truth in high regard. Out in the world, games are being played; there's a
lot of shucking and jiving going on. But there's not much truth. The church
should be the one place where you can count on finding the truth, the whole
truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God. The quest for God's truth
should be at the top of the list of what draws you to church on Sunday
mornings.
In addition, there's a relational side to
this equation. Every part of your body is in dynamic relationship with all of
its other parts. If you were to cut off your leg, how far could it walk? If you
cut off your hand, how well could it write? Once a part of the body is severed,
it can no longer perform its function. It ceases to grow and develop. My hand
moves only because it is physically connected to the rest of my body and, by
means of the nerves, to my brain. Everything is interconnected and functions as
a unit.
The church is a body that functions
in dynamic relationship. A church can't grow around one person because no one
person has everything another person needs. That's why we see an emphasis on
small groups in the New Testament. This context facilitates encouragement,
supervision, mutual support and accountability. Without it, we are just a
loose-knit association of individuals and the process of discipleship is
short-circuited.
We call some people ''mature'' and others
''immature.'' Quite simply, maturity is acting your age.
You wouldn't call a two-year-old immature
when he plays with his food - that's what toddlers do! However, by the time
that youngster turns 21 or 22; his behavior should have changed as dramatically
as his body. He should have made continual progress toward maturity.
We should expect at least as much from young
Christians. A new believer is bound to struggle and stumble at first. But as
time goes by, those who were abusive should grow more gentle and tolerant.
Those controlled by their passions should grow more temperate. Those who lacked
love should grow more caring. In short, the goal of spiritual maturity is
measured by Christlikeness. Jesus' aim is to make you
like Himself. In II
Corinthians 3:18 we read:
And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect
the Lord's glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing
glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
A member of my church pulled me aside
recently as I was walking with my oldest son. ''My, that boy looks like you!''
she said. Anthony has many of my features, and the comparison pleased me. (I
hope Anthony felt likewise!) God wants to make that same comparison. He wants
to look at Jesus and look at you and then look back at Jesus, and remark about
the uncanny resemblance. Of course, as you grow to resemble Christ, you'll start
looking less and less like the rest of the world. In fact, the time will come
when the world will neither recognize you nor understand you. Paul warns about
this phenomenon in I Corinthians 2:14. The man without the Spirit does not
accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to
him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Some time ago, a single lady from our church
was interviewed on the Oprah Winfrey Show. In the course of the conversation, she
mentioned her commitment to remain celibate until God provided her a mate. The
reaction was predictable: ''What's wrong with you?''
The danger is that, in time, we will start
asking, ''What is wrong with me?'' When that temptation comes, here's the answer:
nothing is wrong with you. You have devoted yourself to spiritual maturity. You
are growing to resemble Christ. To the world, you appear weird - not because
you are trying to be weird, but because you no longer conform to the world's
image.
Don't let the pressure to conform impede your
progress toward the goal of spiritual maturity.
How do
you know when you have become a mature disciple? When you begin discipling
others!
The Apostle Paul summed it up succinctly. ''Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ,''
he said. (I Corinthians 11:1) Does
that make you feel uneasy? Good! That takes us back to the section on
accountability! The truth is there is nothing wrong with following people,
provided the person you're following is following Christ. That's how the
process of discipleship works. If it stops with you, how will the faith be
passed on? The greatest danger facing a healthy, Christ-centered,
Bible-teaching church is the temptation to get comfortable sitting on the
truth. ''My church teaches the truth of the Bible,''
you say. So what? If what is taught does not change how you live, if it does
not compel you to reach out to others, if it does not affect your community,
your workplace and your home, the time you spent in church was wasted.
It's too easy to become a spiritual couch
potato, stuffing in the snacks and packing on the weight until you can't move.
The truth that nourishes you can also paralyze you if not put to use. We need
to look for opportunities to put God's truth to work by passing on what we have
received. Sunday's sermon needs to become Monday's mission. (For that matter,
why waste Sunday afternoon?!)
Remember what Paul told Timothy:
The things you have heard me say in the
presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified
to teach others. (II Timothy 2:2)
It started with Christ. Jesus taught Paul,
Paul taught Timothy. Timothy sought reliable men. And so on, and so on. Each
believer in that chain committed himself to the same process of spiritual
development within an environment of loving accountability, and progressively
moved from spiritual infancy to spiritual maturity, ultimately repeating the
process with others.
This succession has continued, without
interruption, from then until now. The question is; will we accept the challenge of passing the
baton to a new generation of believers? The very survival of the church hinges
on the answer.
It always has.
Copyright 1990 by the Urban
Alternative, Inc. All Rights
Reserved. Edited by: Steve Harris - Cover Design: Dave Eaton
If you would like to know
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note, please write to us at P.O. Box 4000 Dallas, TX 75208 or call us at 1
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