What You Are Getting Wrong About Discipleship
A faulty understanding of discipleship left me resentful and stagnant in my spiritual growth. I don’t necessarily believe the Church has wrong teaching on the topic, I actually think just the way we talk about discipleship in Christian circles does similar harm. I will even go as far to say that our limited view of discipleship is rooted in pride, at least mine was.
Discipleship, in my understanding and interpretation of the Scriptures, is the main purpose of the institution, that is the local church. The edification and sanctification of believers is why the local church exists.
Paul lays out a beautiful picture of why God has united us as one people under Jehovah-Nissi (The Lord our banner).
There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all… And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service , to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and to the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ… we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. (Ephesians 4:4–6, 11–13, 15–16, NASB)
A key component here is that God united us as both a global community and several local communities for the purpose of spiritual formation as individuals and as a collective. Likely not much dispute there; However, here is where I think we miss the mark around our conversations regarding discipleship.
It’s Horizontal.
You see, most of our conversation around discipleship is focused on what one ‘seasoned’ believer can pass on to a ‘new(er)’ believer. Though there is a level of verticality to this form of discipleship and relationship (and it is indeed healthy and required within the Church); relative to the ultimate vertical relationship we can have as believers, it still falls horizontal in comparison.
Like I said, these types of relationships are needed. As someone who has participated in and led the planting of a new church on a college campus, it is the very reason I still staunchly believed it shouldn’t be a community made up solely of college students. Again, this is healthy, but not a complete theology of discipleship.
Often when the Church thinks discipleship, we think of the relationship between Paul and Timothy, Christian education within the local church church, or Jesus’ Great Commission to “make disciples” (which the church has historically and collectively agreed that the focus of the Great Commission is evangelism).
This incomplete understanding of discipleship caused me to get frustrated with others when I felt like I wasn’t being “discipled.” A strictly horizontal view of discipleship places the responsibility of one’s spiritual formation on the shoulders of someone who was never meant to carry it. As both someone who sought discipleship and one whose heart is to intentionally and individually disciple others, pride, and even idolatry laid at the foundation of this incomplete understanding of discipleship.
The Ultimate Vertical Relationship
It wasn’t until recently that I realized I was thinking about this discipleship thing all wrong. I voiced my desire for a relationship with someone who I had hoped to disciple me, and they responded, “You don’t need me, you need Jesus.”
Whoa.
Such an obvious statement, right? But I realized it wasn’t only pride and idolatry that caused me to miss such a life-changing and obvious truth. I had realized just how little we refer to a modern believer as a “disciple of Jesus.” If we hear “disciple of Jesus” out of context, we automatically think of the 12+ followers of Jesus recorded in the Gospel accounts, who lived over 2,000 years ago. I mean, sure! They matter; but what if I could put myself in their sandals? Not just in the context of New Testament Israel, but today… where I live…where I work… where I worship.
This changes everything. I don’t have wait for a man to be willing to mentor me, or to have time in their schedule for discipleship to take place. Nor do I have to carry the heaviness of the burden of doing so for others. We all have access to the best Rabbi, the best Master, the best Shepherd — Jesus.
As I rummaged through Scripture to see what the Bible had to say about “being” a disciple, most references came from the mouth of Jesus and He mostly referred to believers as “my” disciples. Such a simple shift in thinking that has such infinite implications. We are not reliant or dependent upon anything or anyone but Christ himself, who is “preeminent in all things” (Colossians 1:18). We don’t follow any created man; we follow the high King of Heaven.
I now wake up everyday and I remind myself I am actively following Christ today, as a disciple, not in an abstract way, but practically. He teaches me, He directs me, and He sanctifies me. And I just follow.
…until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. (Ephesians 4:13, NASB)
Who better to lead us into His image, His “stature,” than Christ himself?
