Practicing on Being a Disciple

The pair of thoughts on the term discipleship is that the term "discipleship" does not appear in the Bible. In English, the word is vague. It could refer to my own habit of loving Jesus, believing him, and learning from him as a disciple. That is how I practice discipleship. That's what it might be. It may also refer to my work of assisting others in being disciples in the sense of learning from and developing in him.

In Matthew 28:19–20, it can refer to the whole period of conversion, baptism, and teaching the ways of Jesus: “Go, then, and make disciples of all nations.” And here's what he's getting at. “Baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all I have commanded you.”

Developing discipleship is a lengthy procedure. That's a lifetime's worth of work. But go ahead and transform them. They should be baptized. So spend the rest of your life teaching them to follow everything Jesus said. That is what the word "disciple" means in the New Testament.

Christians in their Second Stage

In the New Testament, the term disciple does not refer to a second-stage Christian. There are several ministries that are based on this unbiblical division, as if there are followers, then missionaries, who are little stage-two Christians who read more, and finally disciple builders.

Many of those categories are now linguistically alien to the New Testament. In the New Testament, a disciple is actually a Christian: “And the apostles were first named Christians in Antioch” (Acts 11:26). Any person who came to faith in Jesus became a disciple. All who came to faith in Jesus becomes a Christian.

We believe that what matters is the truth, not the language. People must be taught how to think, believe, and behave as Christians in order to become Christians. That is, an apostle of Jesus, a follower who acknowledges him as Lord, Savior, and Treasure.

Now, when and how does that take place? That, I believe, is what all the conversation of discipleship is about. It's a new concern about how to lead people to Christ and raise them up to be the Christians, adherents of Jesus, and disciples that they should be. People nowadays use the variety of terms to explain what it is to be a "Christian."

Conversion of unbelievers and atheists to Christians and the apostles, on the other hand, should occur under any and all circumstances. There is no one-size-fits-all approach the ways in which a human can be shown the good news of Jesus is endless.

In that sense, "discipline" is as diverse as the forms of saying or practicing the gospel in front of people to pull them in. In terms of discipline Christians in how to think, believe, and behave as Christians — that is, raising them into more and more developed — the New Testament does so in a variety of ways.

Every Christian should be teaching unbelievers Christ in order to make them become believers. That is how you make a disciple. Any Christian should also be assisting other Christians in being more mature. That is how you make a disciple.

And, in order to continue to develop, every Christian should seek out support from others. This is indeed true of our discipleship. Any church should consider how all of these aspects of biblical discipleship play out in their organizational life.