What is Discipleship?

Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in Heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” - From the Gospel of Matthew

Peter was known as the foot-in-his-mouth disciple. He often had moments of brilliance followed by moments that nearly cancelled them out. He seemed to have had a certain pride for Jewish heritage. Cornelius was a powerful Roman Centurion from outside of Israel. These were two men that you would not expect together, yet the gospel brought them together.

Cornelius was described as a man searching for God. He tithed regularly and did many good deeds. Many churches may even be envious for such a congregant, but he was not saved. He did not yet know God. One of the many spectacular things about this passage is that this man was seeking after God, and so God made sure Cornelius found Him. God could have simply told Cornelius all Cornelius needed to know, but God sent a vision to Cornelius to tell him to send men to find Peter. God also sent Peter a vision telling him to meet with the non-jewish centurion and share the gospel with him. It may seem odd that an all powerful God would use men to share the news of Him, especially after He had just sent a vision.

This encounter shows us how important discipleship is. It shows that we are to be being trained in the ways of God, and teaching others. This encounter shows that discipleship and Christian brotherhood is not defined by past or ethnicity, but by the blood of Christ. As Christians discipleship is to be part of our life. Do you have people personally training you, and are you training people? You may not have much to train others in yet, but if you are saved, you have that much you can share. When the lady at the well met Jesus, she immediately went and told her village. She lacked a lot of training and doctrine, but she knew who Jesus was and could share that. Whether it is children or friends, there are people we can be discipling and showing the gospel. Likewise, there are people we can be personally growing with and being trained by.

So what does this discipleship look like? It is seen when one is intimately passing on the knowledge of Jesus and righteousness from one person to another. This is not done just by looking at God’s word, but living in God’s word so that your life is an example for others that you are directly and actively teaching and pouring into. In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, Paul tells fathers to train their children. In Paul’s letter to Titus for instance, we see that older women have the task of training the younger women. In this letter as a whole, we see that Paul has been discipling Titus, and is even teaching him how to make disciples who can the disciple others. From this, we see that discipleship is intensive and personal. You can learn a lot of things from youtube or a book like this, but it does not count as discipleship. There is a personal and sacrificial element of the person who is discipling. Jesus spent three years with His twelve disciples. Paul preached and taught many people, but his main discipleship was one Timothy and Titus. He spent time, effort, and resources specifically on them. Jesus calls us to make disciples of all nations. This is not an easy command, or something that can be done in one's spare time. Discipleship involves living life together so you can show someone how to live a godly life. This is more than reading the Bible together. It is using your life as an example of what it looks like to apply the Bible’s teaching to the life you have been given.