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Commentary on "Discipleship"
Day 1: Sabbath Afternoon, May 30, 2009
This weeks lesson is on the subject of Discipleship. The Quarterly for this week opens with these words:
It is important that we use our intellectual capacities to grasp as much as is humanly possible of what God has revealed to us. Yet, perfect knowledge of all doctrine is not a prerequisite for salvation.
To use one's intellectual abilities to grasp what God has revealed to us about Himself is a good thing. In the Seventh-day Adventist Church, however, intellect is praised more than the non-intellectual means of communing with God, and one must be suspicious when intellect is brought to the fore. This is not to say that mysticism should be a part of discipleship, but a large part of learning from, and teaching others about, our Lord need not be intellectual in nature. We are much more than brain capacity, and to downplay the spiritual aspects of our discipleship is to overlook a major teaching that Jesus shared with Nicodemus, when He told Nicodemus that he must be born again, or from above. (In fact, Jesus was a little sharp with Nicodemus and his intellectual capacity. In Jn. 3:9,10 they have this exchange:
Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?*
I can imagine a smile on Jesus' face as He said this to Nicodemus. Nicodemus just forgot what Jesus had just spoken to him one sentence earlier. In v. 8 Jesus said, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
One of Jesus' statements on what is required of a disciple may be helpful here. Jesus said in Luke 14:33, “So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.”
Included in those things that we must renounce is our intellect. God may have blessed you with a fantastic intellect. He may intend for you to use that intellect in the building up of His Kingdom. But an intellect that has not been given up (renounced) might not be used by God. It is better to give up all things, and then take back what God returns to you to use for His glory.
The Quarterly states that a disciple is a “lifelong learner.” As this week progresses, we will see that a Christian disciple is more than a lifelone learner. Jesus said, “Seek and ye shall find.” Often the emphasis is on seeking, as the emphasis should be for those who have not come to Christ. For those of us who have come to Christ, the emphasis must be on the “find.” We have found Him of whom the Law and Prophets testified. Now we are to lead others to Him. A Christian disciple is a reproducer. The disciples of Jesus, while He walked the earth, were definitely learners. Once the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples on the day of Pentecost, they were primarily reproducers – evangelists, missionaries, teachers – workers of miracles.
This is what a Christian disciple is today. Yes, learning and using ones intellect is important before one becomes a Christian. And learning should occur throughout ones Christian walk, but once you have found the One you have been looking for, it is time to go out and find other lost souls and show them where to find the Bread of Life.
Before we conclude for today, let's take a look at some of the statements in the gospels about discipleship.
Mt. 10:25a It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master.
Mt. 10:32 And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”
Mt. 10:24 A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.
Lk. 14:26 If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
(Matthew gives us the positive phrasing of this teaching of Jesus. He said, “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”)
Lk. 14:27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
Gal. 2:20 The cross that each of us bear is the cross of Christ. We are His disciple if we have been crucified with Him.
Lk. 14:33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
We must renounce all that this world has given us. This does not necessarily mean giving away everything we own.
Jn. 9:28 And they [the Pharisees] reviled him [the blind man who was healed], saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses.” [Although the Pharisees are stating this, they are stating the truth that one cannot be both Moses' disciple and Jesus' disciple.]
Jn. 19:38 After these things Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body.
Jn. 21:24 This is [John] the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true.
From these scriptures, we see that a Christian disciple has these qualities:
- He is to be like his Master, and is below his Master.
- He will be like the master of a house, bringing new and old out of his treasure store.
- He must love Jesus more than he loves anyone else.
- He must bear his own cross (Galatians 2:20 explains this. “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”)
- We must renounce all. This includes all that we are, not only all that we possess physically.
- We are not disciples of Moses. (The quartely includes Exod. 18:13–27 as one of the scripture readings. We cannot be both Moses' disciples and Christ's disciples. We must be one or the other.)
- We are concerned with the body of Christ. Joseph of Arimathea demonstrated this by caring for the crucified body of our Lord. For us living today, it is concern for the body of Christ, made up of all Christians. Those of us who write for this particular set of Bible study lessons are deeply concerned over misrepresentations of scripture. We are concerned for the members of the body of Christ that may be in the Seventh-day Adventist Church and therefore willingly set aside time to help those who may be open to the leading of the Holy Spirit in their Christian walk.
- A disciple bears witness, as John stated at the end of his gospel account.
*All scripture quotations are from: The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. 2001, Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.
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