Faith Venture

Somewhere in the Pastor’s sermon last Sunday, he said, “We are called to be disciples.” He must laugh to himself when he sees me grab my Moleskin notebook and fountain pen and begin writing feverishly. But, I started making notes.

But then I wondered what is a disciple? Have I been a disciple? Or better, am I now a disciple?

A Web search pulls up tons of worthless information. But the word itself comes from Greek and Latin words that mean “hearer.” By tradition, a disciple was someone who followed a teacher (literally) and learned from the teacher. The teacher was to be emulated in every detail.

Note that to be a disciple and to be an apostle are two different roles. We call The Twelve disciples, but they were also The Apostles (evangelists). The New Testament refers to many disciples.

Paul uses the terminology of athletes when he talks about spiritual growth and discipleship. He means that athletes don’t just  perform in the games. They must adopt a lifestyle of constant training and learning in order to succeed.

There are many people today who think that all you have to do is say you believe in Christ and that’s the end. There is no need for learning and practicing disciplines, because that’s work. They think there is no work. You just say you believe, then you say you agree with other sayings, and that’s all you need.

Jesus and Paul were much smarter about human beings than that. They both emphasized a lifestyle where you need to train and practice being with God. It’s easy for a human to slip away and begin living the “easy” lifestyle that leads away from God. (“The path is wide…”)

To be a disciple means to be constantly learning and training to live a life that’s pleasing to God. Then you’ll be ready for the main event–resurrection.

This entry was posted on June 29, 2011 at 6:43 am and is filed under Christianity, Disciplines, Living. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.