Discipleship Defined
Before Jesus ascended into Heaven, He told His disciples to go and make disciples of all nations. Jesus Himself had set a perfect example of what discipling others practically looks like. But what is “discipleship” at the most basic level? My goal for this post is for you to leave with discipleship defined clearly in your mind. Discipleship is a rich Biblical concept and Christians must know what it is, and what it isn’t in order to properly obey Jesus’ command.
What does the Greek word mean?
The word “disciple” in Greek means “follower.” Simple enough. If you have heard any good teaching from the Gospels, no doubt you already know this basic definition. A “disciple” is a person who follows another person. But this following is not merely a physical walking behind another person. Rather, a disciple seeks to learn from another person.
What does a disciple want to learn? Most likely a number of things: learn about the world, learn a way of life, learn about the divine. But in the New Testament, all true disciples follow one person: Jesus. The 12 apostles physically followed Jesus during His earthly ministry and disciples throughout the history of the Church have looked to Jesus as the source of truth, grace, and eternal life among other things.
Therefore, to disciple someone else is to make them a follower. But Christian discipleship is not focused on getting people to follow you per se. Rather, the goal of Christian discipleship is to call another person to “imitate me as I imitate Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1).
If you want to disciple someone else, your goal should be helping them become a more obedient follower of the Biblical Jesus.
This is why true discipleship always points back to God’s word: it is only through studying the inspired Word of God that anyone alive today can come to know the resurrected Jesus.
What discipleship isn’t
“Helping other people better follow Christ” is a good starting definition of “discipleship”. But if we want discipleship defined, we are going to have to consider what discipleship isn’t.
First, discipleship is not focused on drawing people to yourself. Your aim in discipleship is not to amass followers for yourself or to convince people of your particular “brand” or “flavor” of Christianity. Paul critiqued this kind of discipleship when the Corinthian Church was dividing itself by people saying “I am a follower of Paul” or “I am a follower of Apollos.” Biblical discipleship, however, is primarily concerned with pointing people back to the Word of God so people can know Christ better and then obey more fully His teaching.
In a modern world full of the pursuit of fame, it is very easy to miss this point. Sin can distort your discipleship efforts so that you become more focused on the good feelings which accompany people listening to you rather than focusing on “Christ being formed” in the other person.
The only barometer of success for discipleship is the extent of which those who are listening to you are loving Christ more deeply and obeying Him more fully.
All your authority in any discipling relationship is derivative: you have no truth, no insight, no wisdom to give apart from what you can show from Scripture. This is another key point: discipleship is not focused on displaying your great insight to others. Oftentimes when people come to listen to your thoughts on Scripture or the Bible, pride can creep in and you end up using God’s truth as a way to stroke your ego rather than to display Christ. Don’t make this mistake. You have nothing to offer except what has been granted to you from God. Steward it humbly instead of using God’s good gifts as means to puff up your pride.
Finally, discipleship is not merely meeting up with other Christians. A group of Christian friends can go to coffee or watch a movie together, but this is not discipleship. It is good to have social meet ups, it is good to have friends at Church, it is good to talk about general topics like work or music or family. But for discipleship to actually occur, there must be a direct, explicit spiritual focus. That doesn’t mean that discipleship is only teaching: some of my most profitable times of discipleship have been observing other believers in action. But whether you are discipling in action or teaching explicitly, the person observing or listening to you must walk away with some greater sense of who Christ is in order for it to be “discipleship.”
Discipleship defined by way of two summary sentences
Now that I have given you the most basic definition of discipleship and gone through what discipleship is not, I want to close this post with two summary sentences defining discipleship. The first sentence is more focused on you, the discipler, while the second sentence is focused on what God is doing through you.
Discipleship is investing your time and effort into someone else’s life for their spiritual good.
The metaphor of “investing” is one of the most helpful metaphors I have found for what discipleship is. Most people in the modern world have a general understanding of what investing is. If you were to invest your money into a stock, you are giving up something in the present in hopes of gaining something in the future. This is exactly what you do on a spiritual level by discipling another person: you give up your time and energy in the present in hopes that the other person will gain a greater understanding of God’s truth.
This “investment” language makes it explicit that Biblical discipleship will almost always involve sacrifice on your part. It isn’t always easy, and just like when you give up your money to invest in a stock, you often will need to give up your time or your comfort or your schedule in order to disciple others. But the upside of this investment is tremendous; “the harvest is plentiful.” Now for the second summary definition:
Discipleship is when God uses you as a means to bring about Christlikeness in another person’s life.
Discipleship is not merely something you are doing. God is using you: in discipleship you become a tool of sanctification God uses to shape someone else. If you only focus on what you are doing in discipleship and lose sight of what God is doing, you will either become easily discouraged or worse: you will focus on drawing people to yourself rather than pointing them to Christ.
Always remember: you are the instrument, not the main goal. Worship of Christ in heart and action is the goal of discipling someone else.
As a tool, you are not important in and of yourself. But you are useful when God uses you to build up those around you.
So invest yourself in other people’s lives. Grow to love Christ more yourself and then help others to do the same. Discipleship is costly, time-consuming, exhausting, exhilarating, magnificent, joyous, astounding, humbling, and worth it.
This post is part of an ongoing series called “Becoming a Discipling Christian.” Click here if you missed a previous post. If you found this post helpful, please share on social media below and subscribe to The Average Churchman email list. Follow The Average Churchman on Instagram to get further content.