Through the decades it has dawned on me that the concept of discipleship is often misunderstood and therefore repeatedly presented with distorted lines. To understand the nature of discipleship is particularly important for three basic reasons:
First reason
First, because only disciples can receive explicit teachings from the Master. This is what the Scriptures declare:
And with many such parables He spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it. But without a parable He did not speak to them. And when they were alone, He explained all things to His disciples” (Mark 4:33,34).
Based on Mark 4:1,2 you might point out that Jesus taught everybody, but He never did it explicitly, i.e., He gave explanations only to His disciples. Matthew presents the idea even more clearly:
And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” He answered and said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given” (Matt. 13:10,11).
This difference between a disciple and a non-disciple is often overlooked. When Paul writes: “But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus” (Eph. 4:20,21), he is referring to this sort of explicit teaching.
A person can frequent a Bible school for years and fill his head with theological data, but if he is not a disciple Jesus will not explain anything to him. When this happens, one is left with mere human instructions void of revelational power.
Likewise, to read the explanations Jesus gave to His disciples more than two thousand years ago is one thing, but to hear Him giving them to us now is an utterly different story. The latter engenders revelations, the former doesn’t.
Second reason
Since we are called to make disciples and not mere converts, we should have a clear idea of what a disciple is. By “a clear idea” I mean a concept derived from the very Scriptures and therefore coherent with them.
If our idea of discipleship is the result of an intellectual collage made out of fragments gathered through the years from various sermons and books—the one often diverging from the other—our concept is most surely distorted. And a disfigured concept can only lead to misconceptions.
Third reason
At last, a clear understanding of discipleship is crucial because only a genuine disciple can make genuine disciples (Gen. 1:12). This is the reason why Jesus entrusted the task of proliferation to those who were disciples indeed (Matt. 28:16–20), for as much as a mule is sterile, being the offspring of a horse and a donkey (not all hybrids are sterile), the person whose Christianity is corrupt by worldly semen will not be able to produce Christian offsprings. Such a one is foredoomed to remain barren until he accepts the conditions of discipleship.
The first misconception
One of the most popular misapprehensions regarding discipleship is encapsulated in the belief that a person becomes a Christian first, then eventually a disciple. In other words, according to this misconception, someone can be a Christian without being a disciple. The problem with this popular belief is that it doesn’t fit the testimony of the Scriptures.
In the Book of Acts we read: “the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch” (Acts 11:26). This affirmation evinces that a Christian is nothing more and nothing less than a disciple. Actually, as far as the Scriptures are concerned, the two words can be interchanged without causing any tension. But somehow we have deformed the concept and created two entities where the Bible presents only one.
In creating these two entities we have produced two kinds of Christianity: One relatively cheap and easy, the other quite expensive and difficult. Moreover we are told we are free to choose the one we prefer, and that the result of our choice will in no way affect our salvation. Then we seem surprised when people choose the cheaper kind.
How did we get there?
We arrived to such misconception by overemphasizing a truth at the expense of another. To the sinner we have presented Jesus as the Savior, no or little stress has been put on His Lordship. The idea such preaching conveys is that the acceptance of Jesus as Savior is sufficient to obtain salvation without having to come under His Lordship.
The Apostles never fell in that trap. To the Romans Paul wrote:
If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom. 10:9). And again: “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom. 10:13).
The same emphasis was expressed when Paul and Silas answered the Philippian jailer: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household” (Acts 16:31). Paul’s message was clear because he himself had received a revelation of the Lordship of Christ on the road to Damascus. The result was his absolute surrender: “Lord, what do You want me to do?” (Acts 9:6). The apostle of the gentiles knew there could be no Christianity without the apprehension of Christ’s Lordship.
The notion that a person must receive the Savior to become a Christian, and the Lord to become a disciple is not only unsound but also dangerous, for it harbors in its wings a subtle deception that undermines the importance of obedience.
Obedience is the only requirement
The basic requirement to become a Christian is the same than the requirement to become a disciple, which is, obedience. A higher requirement doesn’t exist, and anything lower is rebellion.
Taking everything into consideration it boils down to one question: Did I come to terms with Jesus in the realm of unconditional obedience? If I did, I am a disciple. If I have not, I am lost. There is nothing in between.
Two misconceptions about discipleship (part 2)
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