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Disciple or Student?

Last week I raised the issue of discipleship, specifically in regard to our avoidance of the word as a description of who we are. I received a number of interesting responses, the most common of which was that we have been afraid to use the term lest it cause people to associate us with a particular cultic movement that emphasizes the idea of discipleship. If that is so, then isn’t it sad how we allow others to hinder us from doing right lest we be associated with their wrong actions? In how many other areas are we afraid to do something that is perfectly scriptural, avoiding it simply because “the denominations” do it and we do not want to appear denominational? I think that is a ridiculous motive. Frankly, however, while there may be some of that motivation in our avoidance of the term “disciple,” I think it goes deeper. The designation “disciple” went out of vogue long before it was appropriated by any modern cultic movement. As I suggested last week, I believe it has more to do with what is involved in being a disciple. I concluded last weeks’ article by asking how many Christians could rightly describe themselves as disciples. I’d like to explore this further this morning.

In response to last week’s article, my good friend David Ford suggested that perhaps one reason we shrink from this word is that our style of teaching today is far different than what it means to “disciple” someone. I think that is a both a valid and valuable insight. Discipling, as Jesus did with his followers, was more intimate, less structured, more about modeling and mentoring than educating and instructing. Today’s style of teaching and learning could hardly be described as “discipling.” We sit in rows as if in a college class, and listen to a lecture for the purpose of being instructed in knowledge. It seems to be more about information than transformation. Jesus, on the other hand, discipled his student -followers by modeling his life for them. Not that there wasn’t instruction, mind you. But disciples were not simply gathering information from their teacher, but attached themselves to their teacher with the goal of becoming like him. Mark 3.14, for example, says “He appointed twelve, so that they would be with him and that he could send them out to preach.” The goal of a disciple is to become like his teacher (Lk 6.40), and this requires much time spent together, time that we just don’t’ have for one another today.

Then again, our main purpose is to be disciples of Jesus rather than disciples of our preachers or Bible class teachers (although see 1 Cor 11.1). And though our instruction style today may not be the most conducive to that goal, the problem may be as much due to substance as style. Perhaps our instruction simply does not emphasize enough the characteristics of a disciple of Jesus. So let me conclude with four defining marks of a disciple of Jesus, marks that should be in the forefront of our teaching and of our lives. According to Jesus himself, a disciple of Jesus must (1) abide in the words of Jesus (Jn 8.32), (2) love the other disciples even as Jesus loves us (Jn 13.34-35), (3) bear much fruit in their life (Jn 15.8), and (4) surrender all of their possessions (Lk 14.33). That last one might be the most difficult of all. Maybe I prefer simply being a student getting instruction.