Disciple: Schwarzenegger with a Bible? Chris Adsit, Associate National Director of Discipleship, Military Ministry The kid next door is really weird. I keep telling my neighbor he ought to put that child in an institution. He refuses. "Look," I say, "He crawls in the dirt, he's incoherent, he's disgusting when he eats, howls when he doesn't get his way, and he can't control his bodily functions! Give it up, pal!" But he's stubborn and naive. He thinks that because the boy is only six months old, I shouldn't judge him too harshly. Yeah, right. You think I'm weird, because I'm condemning a baby for not meeting the criteria of a gown-up. Yet Christians condemn themselves and others in the same way all the time, because they don't understand the "person-in-process" facet of being a disciple of Jesus Christ. In my previous column here, I had started work on a Biblical definition of the word disciple. You learned that a mathetes owns a certain attitude: "an eagerness to learn by use and practice." In this column, as promised, you'll discover what actions we need to look for in a growing disciple. Usually, if you want to learn the meaning of a word in the Bible, check how it's used in context. I did this with the word "disciple" and almost blew a gasket--so confusing! Jesus placed high standards on those who would call themselves disciples of His. They must take up their crosses and follow Him, give up all their possessions, be willing to die for Him, and more! What does He want, Spiritual Schwarzeneggers!? But when I examined the actions of the disciples in the four Gospels, I found them to be more like Spiritual Fred Flintstones! They were dull, powerless, faithless, prejudiced, uncommitted, compassionless, wrathful, violent, ashamed of Jesus, immature and they deserted Jesus in His greatest hour of need! Yet they were called "disciples"--238 times in the four Gospels! So what is a disciple, anyway? Cosmic wonder or comical wimp? The answer is: both. A Biblical disciple is a person-in-process, moving gradually toward maturity. That process begins at the moment of new birth and will continue as long as he keeps learning. He starts out as a baby; he doesn't meet the criteria of a mature Christian, nor is he expected to right away. The growth continuum won't be smooth and steady--it'll be full of fits and starts, set-backs and leaps. But the general direction will be upward. In this respect, the Bible is a photo album. Jesus was showing us pictures of grown-up disciples. He was saying, "If you belong to Me, this is what you're going to look like; this is where you're heading." As we look at the actions of the Apostles in the Gospels, we're seeing pictures of baby disciples--constantly falling down, but with Jesus right there to pick them up, dust them off, kiss their owies and send them on their way. In the book of Acts, we see that they've grown considerably, looking more and more like the photos Jesus had shown us. By the time they're writing the Epistles, the similarities are precise. From time to time in this process of educating His learners, Jesus will increase the course load. If a disciple wants to remain a disciple, he must respond positively. You can see a good example of this in John 6:60-69. Jesus was increasing his demands on His disciples, and it says that, "As a result of this, many of His disciples withdrew, and were not walking with Him anymore." These disciples said, "That's enough. You've gone to far. We don't want to learn any more." Then He turned to the twelve. "What about you? Are you going to leave too?" "Where else can we go?" asked Peter. "You have the words of eternal life!" They agreed to His demands. They wanted to keep learning, to keep growing. To the growing disciple today He will say, "You're doing well! Now it's time to graduate to the next class. It'll be harder, but Oy! What you're going to learn! Are you ready to go?" If we say no, Jesus says, "Then you cannot be My disciple. It doesn't alter My love for you, or your eternal destiny, but as far as what I can do in you and through you, this is as far as we go--for now. If you won't learn from Me, you're not My learner." So the actions we're looking for are not necessarily the perfect 10's on the floor-ex mat of life, but simply increasing commitments to Christ along the road to maturity. Combining the attitude and the actions, we arrive at our formal definition of a disciple: "A person-in-process eager to learn and apply the truths that Jesus Christ teaches him, resulting in ever-deepening commitments to Christ and to a Christlike lifestyle." More Articles --> Special thanks to Gospel Communications Network for the use of the Bible Gateway!
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