As I sit in my hotel room in southern Jerusalem overlooking the city of Bethlehem, I cannot help but wonder if the Church in its various forms of Christianity is anything like Jesus intended. After His resurrection Jesus commissioned his disciples to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded” (Matthew 28:19).
What does it mean to be a disciple (a student) of Jesus the Messiah? To the first century Jew, was becoming a disciple more than making a decision to follow Jesus? Was it more than joining a church? I believe so. David Pileggi (rector of Christ Church, Jerusalem) says that first-century discipleship involved loving the Torah, loving study, and imitating the one whom you were following. Discipleship involved entering into a relationship with someone who taught you and modeled for you the life of God. Let’s look at his a little more closely.
1) Loving the Torah. The Hebrew word for Torah means direction, instruction, and guidance. If one wants guidance or instruction about anything in life, you go to the Scripture. If one wants life, he or she goes to the Scripture. “You are to perform My judgments and keep My statutes, to live in accord with them; I am the LORD your God. So you shall keep My statutes and My judgments, by which a man may live if he does them; I am the LORD” (NAS, Leviticus 18:4f). The Old Testament mindset was that if you want God’s Presence to be with you, you keep (or obey) His Word.
Jesus illuminates this for His followers when He says that if a person obeys His Word, God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) will be with him. “If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever -- the Spirit of truth” (NIV, John 14:15f). “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him” (NIV, John 14:23).
2) Loving Study. For the Jews of the first-century and in many ways today, study was considered the highest form of worship. For the serious study of Scripture allows one to obey the Lord (you cannot obey what you do not know). Why? It humbles you. It helps you realize the awesomeness of God and the serious deficiency one has in following the Lord. Study enables us to understand the Scriptures and the teaching of Jesus. The Apostle John said: “The man who says, ‘I know him,’ but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did ((NIV, 1 John 2:4f)). How do we know His Word? How do walk as Jesus did? Study. Jesus said: “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). But what did he say just before this well-known verse? Listen to the whole saying… “If you hold to My teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”
3) Imitation. Discipleship is not just intellectual. It is not just loving the Scriptures and loving study or going through a 10-week course. For the first-century Jew discipleship involved life-investment. A person would actually follow a person and he would see how the person applied what he was teaching in his life, in his relationships, in his business, in his personal disciplines, and in his family. The one teacher allowed the disciple to see how the truth lived in his life. That way, the disciple could imitate his holiness of life. The apostle Paul said it this way: “Even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. Therefore I urge you to imitate me. For this reason I am sending to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in very church (NIV, I Corinthians 4:15f). He is saying that as he follows Jesus, imitate how he does it.
These are three basic understandings that first-century followers of Jesus would have understood about what being a disciple means. As you and I seek to be disciples and makes disciples for Jesus, let us be people who love the Scripture, study the Scripture, and imitate Jesus Christ and the life he lived. Let us not be about just making more religious people, but people who are disciples of Jesus.
Dr. Foley Beach is the rector and pastor of Holy Cross Anglican Church in Loganville. The A Word from the Lord radio broadcast can be heard in Gwinnett County each Sunday morning at 8:30 on WGKA (920 AM), 10:00 on WMOQ (92.3 FM), or anytime at www.awordfromthelord.org. You may respond to this article or send your questions to foleybeach@awordfromthelord.org
Is This What Jesus Meant?