Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.
John 13:14-16
I’ve been doing a little reading on the word disciple and its use in the New Testament. My interest is more than academic, though, because I’m convinced that the significance of “discipleship” in Christianity has been lost on most of us. Our attitudes have been thoroughly saturated with a secular outlook, and most of have chosen to make “Christian” only one among many labels used to describe our lives and interests. Discipleship, for many Christians, has been squeezed into a tiny box and put away on the back shelf of the mind. It is only to be taken out at socially acceptable moments, and it is certainly not to be seen in public.
Are my statements too strong? If you think so, then consider this description of “disciple” that I found in a Bible dictionary:
Disciple — a scholar, sometimes applied to the followers of John the Baptist (Matt. 9:14), and of the Pharisees (22:16), but principally to the followers of Christ. A disciple of Christ is one who (1) believes his doctrine, (2) rests on his sacrifice, (3) imbibes his spirit, and (4) imitates his example (Matt. 10:24; Luke 14:26, 27, 33; John 6:69).[1]
I like that definition, so let’s take the four points one at a time. First, discipleship is characterized by faith, a belief in something that has been taught by and about Christ. Specifically, the doctrine for Christian discipleship is that Jesus is the son of God who lived in flesh on the earth, bore mankind’s sins when he died on the cross, and was resurrected by God to demonstrate his power over life and death. Now that’s a belief system that reaches way beyond ordinary life.
Second, discipleship leads a person beyond a dependence on his own ability to solve problems and atone for sins. To say that a disciple of Christ is one who “rests on his sacrifice” is to say that he/she is willing to say out loud, “the sacrifice of Jesus Christ defines my existence.”
The third part of the definition makes things a little more serious because it reaches inside us. It suggests that something of self has to be replaced with something of Christ. Maybe that’s why Paul told the Corinthian disciples that they needed to put away sexual immorality in recognition of the fact that their bodies were temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:18-20). We no longer under self-ownership because we belong to Christ; the proof of ownership is his Spirit living within us.
It’s the fourth part of this description of discipleship that really digs into us. Discipleship means imitation. A disciple has taken hold of an obligation to do more than merely repeat his teacher’s words; he has committed himself to imitate the life and lifestyle of that teacher. A Christian is obligated, therefore, to imitation of the life of Jesus Christ. Jesus’ attitudes must become the disciple’s attitudes. Jesus’ approach to people must become the disciple’s approach. What Jesus did, the disciple must do.
Most of us are not really very good disciples. Jesus denied himself, served others and died on a cross, but we are always looking for ways to wear his name without really imitating his life. The problem with that approach is that it will keep us from ultimately going where he went – home to His Father.
Can you be called a disciple?
Bobby Wheat
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