Disciple: n
- a personal follower of Jesus during his life, especially one of the twelve Apostles. - a follower or student of a teacher, leader, or philosopher
origin
Latin discípulos ‘learner,’ from discere ‘learn’
A disciple is to follow the footsteps of the living Jesus in order to learn His Way. Far too often it is proclaimed that Jesus preached a “gospel of love” and that as long as we just “love everyone” that our lifestyle will be pleasing to Him.
In reality, Jesus’ Gospel preached “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.”
From then on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near!” Matthew 4:17
He taught to
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands. Matthew 22:37-40
The world skews this concept of love and turns it into an enabling excuse to allow sin in our culture. When we “love” our bodies, no matter their condition, it excuses gluttony and is only killing the person who we claim to be “loving.” When we exercise premarital sex out of “love,” and break up and start “loving” another, we put ourselves at risk of deadly diseases. There are countless of other examples in our society today where the term “love” is abused such as these.
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23
Alternatively, those who do not participate in such extreme cases but watch what they eat, are monogomous, and are faithful to their marriage, are loving others, but forgetting to love God. You may think, “What do you mean?! I love God with all my heart!” Discipleship is not a feeling. You can’t “love” God by closing your eyes and thinking about it real hard. That’s not what He meant. The world’s view of love is much different than His. Some in the world spread “love” whole they‘re high on drugs at music festivals. According to these concepts, love is just a thought or feeling. However, the LORD’s command of love is based on action. Again, you may say “Well, I do! I read my Bible, I go to church every Sunday, and Wednesday, and I listen to Christian radio. Of course I show Him my love!” But the LORD says:
Look: to obey is better than sacrifice, to pay attention is better than the fat of rams. 1 Samuel 15:22
In other words, you can make all the “sacrifices” you want - you can do all the “religious things” you want - but He does not appreciate that as much as obedience. Don’t get me wrong. Those religious things listed above are not bad! He still requires sacrifices, but not as much as He requires obedience. To walk the footsteps of Jesus, to be His disciple, is to be the whole package. We must continually strive daily to imitate Jesus’ lifestyle completely in order to be able to call ourselves a disciple of Christ.
Take the Disciple of Christ quiz below to discover how close you are on your personal walk as of now:
Do you pray while it is still dark? (Mark 1:35)
Are you baptized in the Holy Spirit? (Matthew 3:16)
Are you utilizing your gifts of the Spirit?
Are you using the Word to combat Satan’s attacks on your mind? (Matthew 4:1-11)
Do you remain at rest in the storms of this life? (Matthew 8:23-27)
Do you fulfill Torah as a Gentile should?
Do you encourage others to do so as well?
Do you gather often? (Hebrews 10:5)
Can you distinguish the hypocrites despite their esteemed social status? (Matthew 23:13)
Would those around you describe you as a blessing to them?
Take the amount of “yes” answers and divide that number by 10 to receive your discipleship grade. How did you do? What changes can you make today to improve your walk with Him? Jesus said:
Don’t assume that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For I assure you: Until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or one stroke of a letter will pass from the law until all things are accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commands and teaches people to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:17-20
Therefore, He never abolished the Torah, He fulfilled it - not for us to then go and abolish it, but for us to walk as He walked and follow His ways of fulfilling it as well. As Gentiles, we are not expected to fulfill the whole Torah as a Jewish man, but we are to obey as the leaders of the believing community decreed:
Therefore, in my judgment, we should not cause difficulties for those among the Gentiles who turn to God, but instead we should write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from eating anything that has been strangled, and from blood. For since ancient times, Moses has had those who proclaim him in every city, and every Sabbath day he is read aloud in the synagogues. Acts 15:19-21
Therefore, we must stay away from idolatry, sexual immorality (masturbation), from eating anything with blood or that has been strangled (non-kosher), and from blood (intercourse during menstruation). That is the least of our prohibitions, but not the limit. The rest is up to us to determine what we can obey or not because the Torah is proclaimed in every city, “and every Sabbath day [it] is read aloud in the synagogues.” They expected all Gentiles to at least know and respect Torah. Jesus also said:
For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven, that person is My brother and sister and mother. Matthew 12:50
To be in His family and to call Him brother and LORD means to do the will of His Father in heaven. What is His will? He spoke it in the very beginning at Mount Sinai. Jesus did not preach a message of feeling love really hard in your heart, He preached a message of repentance - a return to Torah, for the coming Kingdom. He knew Satan would try to deceive us, so He made it very clear when He said:
Don’t assume that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For I assure you: Until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or one stroke of a letter will pass from the law until all things are accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commands and teaches people to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:17-20
Heaven and earth have not yet passed, and neither has the smallest letter or stroke of a letter passed from the law. Not all is yet fulfilled. The life of obedience is a life of constant repentance to Torah. This is true discipleship of Jesus, not just “loving everyone” and going about our day, as Satan deceives the world that it is. What a lie. What a pathway straight to judgement. “Loving everyone” this way is easy now, but leads straight to death. Jesus didn’t just “love everyone where they were at.” He didn’t take the easy road. He doesn’t do what with us either. He meets us where we are to offer grace so that He can call us out of our sin so that we may return to Torah so that we may live forever in His Kingdom - that is true love. Calling others out of their sin so they may repent is imitating Him, no matter the risk in this life. This is why He warned anyone on this path should expect His fate. Are you on His path?
I came to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already set ablaze! But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how it consumes Me until it is finished! Do you think that I came here to give peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! From now on, five in one household will be divided: three against two, and two against three. They will be divided, father against son, son against father, mother against daughter, daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law. Luke 12:49-53
We should be being the light by walking in our Master’s footsteps if we are to be able to call ourselves true ChristIans. Be the light by obeying Torah out of true faith and obedience to God and separating yourself from the world to model true repentance and lead others to repent as well. This is loving God, “the most important command.” Teach others about Torah and how to repent and obey from their faith in God as well - this is the true gospel message. The fact that the Kingdom is available to all through faith and obedience to the LORD is the good news! This is how to “love your neighbor as yourself.” You appreciate it when you are influenced to grow closer to God, and your neighbor does also. True faith should lead to obedience, which then leads to reward. Not a reward in this life, but the reward that our Master might tell us “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Grace is offered to sinners who choose to repent by Father. Repentance today and modeling it for others is the true mission to make disciples of all nations. “Love” is not a feeling to Him, it is an action - it is a call to repentance. He loves us constantly by teaching us His ways, and helping us obey them. We should do the same for others.
Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His faithful love endures forever. Psalms 118:29
Hallelujah! His ways are the Torah. Regardless of how we “feel” about that remember,
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