The Journey of Christian Discipleship

It has become clear to me in the last few months that discipleship is the heart of the Christian life. If you asked me a year ago whether discipleship was important, I would have replied that it was, but I wouldn’t have been able to explain why. I have largely neglected the issue of Christian discipleship in the past; and, I have approached the issue haphazardly when I have bothered to think about it at all. I plan to change all that in the coming weeks. In particular, I plan to do a lot of thinking and writing about discipleship. I hope that you will join me. To kick things off, I want to say a few words about the nature of Christian discipleship and its role in the life of the Christian. I won’t proof-text my remarks, but I believe that everything that I say here is firmly grounded in Scripture.

Discipleship is costly, but it is also important. When Jesus tells his followers to make disciples of all nations, he means that everyone who follows him should be a disciple. Jesus doesn’t teach that disciples are a special class of believer – rather, every believer is supposed to be a disciple. So, what does it mean to be a disciple? This is a difficult question to answer, but one thing is clear: a disciple is someone who has made a commitment to follow Christ. Ideally, a disciple will understand that Christ is Lord, God, and Savior, and some authors even build such an understanding into the very definition of being a disciple, but whatever else a disciple is, she is someone who has made a commitment to follow Christ.

Of course, unless we can say what it means to follow Christ, we won’t have made much progress in clarifying the idea of discipleship. Fortunately, the Gospels are full of teachings about what it means to follow Christ. It means that we endeavor to conform our thoughts, feelings, and actions to the standards which Christ has set for us. In particular, it means that we strive to love the Lord our God with our whole mind, heart, soul, and strength, and that we strive to love our neighbors as ourselves. It means that we see ourselves as servants of all, and that we take the last seat, not the first. It means that we rejoice with those who rejoice, that we mourn with those who mourn, and that we have compassion for all. It means that we dedicate our time, talents, and resources to caring for all hurting and marginalized persons. It means that we answer the Great Commission by witnessing to Christ before our family and friends, and also before strangers. It means that we repent constantly, and that we praise and thank God regularly. It means that we pray without ceasing. It means that we study Scripture, that we participate in the sacraments, and that we join in the life of the church.

To follow Jesus is to do all these things, and all of these things are part of Christian discipleship. In other words, Christian discipleship involves everything that Jesus commands us to do as part of following him. If someone claimed to be a disciple while consciously rejecting any part of Jesus’s commands, that person would clearly have a deficient concept of discipleship. A true disciple is committed to following all of Jesus’s teachings, even the hard ones. (Actually, they’re all hard.) But discipleship isn’t fundamentally a matter of performance. We are all called to obedience, and the Spirit is at work in all our hearts, regenerating us and bearing fruit. Still, even disciples sin, and so discipleship cannot consist simply in performance. One who fails to perform Jesus’s commands may still be a disciple. Furthermore, discipleship involves a wide range of commands, including prayer, the study of Scripture, repentance, service, and love. No believer can concentrate on more than a handful of these commands at any point in her spiritual life, and so discipleship cannot require that believers concentrate on all these commands during a single season of one’s spiritual life, however long it may be. At the same time, however, discipleship clearly involves all of these commands in some way.

So, what is discipleship? Again, it is a commitment to following Jesus. And, though our commitment involves a set of commands, our discipleship fundamentally consists in the commitment itself, and not our ability to perform all the commands. Yes, a disciple should be expected to make progress, but we will never reach perfect maturity this side of heaven. The disciple will stumble, and she will fall. She will struggle with doubt, and she will feel her commitment to waver at times. Nevertheless, the disciple is one who makes a commitment to follow Christ by obeying and serving him in every way that he has called us to do. How can someone be a disciple if her commitment to Christ wavers? Because discipleship is ultimately the work of the Spirit, and it is not something that is judged from moment to moment. If you have a bad day, you don’t cease to be a disciple for that day. Discipleship is a lifelong commitment, and like a friendship or a marriage, it isn’t annulled or suspended whenever one struggles or stumbles. In fact, Scripture guarantees that we will struggle and stumble. Faith, like obedience, is never perfect this side of heaven.

Given what I have said so far, the reader may wonder whether there is any one way of approaching Christian discipleship that would apply to all disciples. For, if discipleship involves a commitment to obeying all Jesus’s commands, and if there are so many commands that no one can concentrate on them all at once, then there are probably as many forms of discipleship as there are disciples. In the light of this, should we expect there to be anything that all disciples do in common? Well, yes. Disciples don’t simply pick a few commands, work on them for a while, repent when they come up short, and then move on to another set of commands. There is more structure to the life of the disciple than this. As I mentioned earlier, Christian discipleship should flow from the conviction that Christ is Lord, that Christ is God, and that Christ saves sinners. This conviction may be weak in new disciples, but it will strengthen in time through the power of the Holy Spirit. And, while our conviction in these things is a gift from God, all Christian disciples should seek to grow in this conviction.

This is where the spiritual disciplines come in. The spiritual disciplines are means of grace. In other words, while God can bestow grace in any way that He chooses, He has chosen to grant grace in a reliable and regular way through the spiritual disciplines. Thus, believers who practice the spiritual disciplines can expect to have their conviction in the central tenets of the Christian faith strengthened. There are many spiritual disciplines, but all Christian disciples should pray, study Scripture, and participate in the sacraments. These spiritual disciplines are a great help in strengthening our conviction in the truths of the faith, and they should structure the lives of all believers. Discipleship may come in many forms, but all disciples should pray, study the Bible, and participate in the sacraments. (It is customary to distinguish between sacraments and spiritual disciplines, but they are all means of grace, and that is what is important here.)

In practicing the spiritual disciples, it is crucial that we pay attention to what we are doing. For example, when one participates in the sacraments, one should think carefully about the meaning of the sacraments, not just go through the motions. When one participates in the Lord’s Supper, one should meditate carefully on the facts that man is a sinner, that sin alienates man from God, that Christ alone reconciles us with God, and that Christ reconciles us with God through the cross. And, of course, one should examine oneself carefully before participating in the Lord’s Supper, as Scripture teaches. Baptism is a more complicated case, but one can certainly meditate on one’s own baptism, the baptism of Jesus, the unity of the church, or the need for grace while witnessing the baptism of another person.

In addition, when one reads the Bible, one should study it carefully and meditate upon its teachings. Too often, Christians race through Scripture mindlessly; and, while such reading may be better than nothing, it clearly falls short of what the Lord commands. There are occasions on which it is fine to read through whole books of the Bible in one sitting, but Christian disciples should also be willing to spend an hour, or at least thirty minutes, on a single passage. In fact, the believer will likely gain more from meditating on a Passion scene for half an hour than by reading all of Exodus at a brisk clip, though this would probably take a few hours.

Finally, the Christian disciple must prayer regularly. In particular, she must constantly give God thanks and praise in prayer, and she must repent on a regular basis. Again, Christians often race through their prayers; and, while this may be better than nothing, it clearly doesn’t meet the standards that Jesus sets for us. Given the frailties of the human mind, it is perhaps impossible to concentrate every time we pray or read Scripture, but we should endeavor to do so nonetheless. At any rate, the Christian should regularly spend time in prayer meditating on the basic truths of the faith. In particular, she should regularly spend time in prayer mediating on the birth, ministry, death, and resurrection of Christ. Many Christians find it hard to sit silently with Jesus in meditative prayer (I know I do), but there is probably no spiritual discipline that is more conducive to Christian growth. Does one need to concentrate on the basic facts about Jesus in every prayer? No, but one should always be mindful of addressing God and who God is. If we come to God in petition, then we should be mindful of His power and care; and, if we come to Him in thanks, then we should be mindful of His many great blessings. Again, the human mind is frail, and it will inevitably be distracted, but we should endeavor to be mindful in our prayers.

I want to make one more point before closing. Christians grow in holiness through the gift of the Spirit, and the Spirit is at work in the Christian believer in ways that the believer cannot understand. Thus, while Christians are commanded to work hard at obedience, the growth comes from God, and God grows in ways that we cannot understand. So, the believer is definitely called to think, feel, and act in ways that conform to Jesus’s commands, but our success is not our own, and we may well see growth in places where we are not even aware of having planted. Thus, by working on one part of discipleship, we are often working on all parts of discipleship; for, if we work at all, then God works with us, and God often grows us in many ways at once. It is frequently said that the reason why Paul writes of “the fruit of the Spirit” rather than “the fruits of the Spirit” in Galatians 5:22-23 is that the fruits of the Spirit are a package deal, and that they come together when they come at all. I don’t know whether this is true in principle, but it is certainly true in practice, at least much of the time. At any rate, the fact remains that God often grows us in many ways at once. That is a comforting thought, and it should remind us that our growth as disciples often outstrips our conscious efforts.

As I say, I will be thinking and writing a lot about Christian discipleship in the next few weeks. I hope that this will be useful to others, and I look forward to any comments that readers may leave. This is an important issue that Christians should engage together.