THE BOTTOM LINE OF BEING A DISCIPLE

Do you remember being in love? I’m talking about the crazy goofy silly “in love.” The kind where you do not want to be the first to hang up the phone or the one who finally ends the date. What do you do in those times? You do things for the other person that you love because you are walking “in love.” Therefore everything you do is motivated by and colored by that love. They are not things that you are trained to do. You simply do them because you are in love. Unfortunately those intense feelings wear off. They have to or we would not be able to function correctly. What should not wear off are the actions that love induces. Those actions continue to build the love over time until it is greater than you ever could have imagined when you were “in love.”

Remember when you first got saved? When you realized what a sinful person you were and how wonderful and gracious God is? You did not need someone to tell you to pray. You just prayed; all the time. You did not need a class on the importance of Bible study. You carried it with you and read it every time you go the chance. You were at the church every time the doors were opened. You looked for opportunities to share your faith with others. Why? Because you had the zeal of the newly converted. You loved God so much and you were so grateful to Him for what He did for you. Over time those feelings fade as we spend more time as a disciple of Christ. Unfortunately too many of us have accepted as normal the diminishing actions as the feelings diminish.

Once I met a Pastor who was lamenting this very phenomenon in his church. He led a church that was had a preponderance of retired folks. The church was in a wonderful location and had great potential for reaching their urban community with the Gospel. The Pastor shared that the vast majority of the ministry was actually carried out by the younger families in the church. These families often had little time due to the raising of young children and working to make a living. So most of the work was done by those who were least equipped to do it. The older folks in the church had no interest in teaching Sunday School, being Deacons and Elders, leading in outreach, or even participating in many of the ministries of the church.

“I’ve done my time. Let someone else do it,” was their sentiment when asked by the Pastor or others to be a part of the ministry of that church. Even though they had the time, money, wisdom, and resources they were unwilling to use those because they had lost their vision of being a disciple.

Paul told the church at Colossae that they should continue to do the works that they did when they first came to know Christ:

Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. (Colossians 2:6-7)

Galatians 3:11 also says that the just shall live by faith. Therefore, if we are going to be disciples, we need to continue in those things that were a part of our lives as we walked in faith as a new believer. Jesus is our life source. He is the one that guides our steps and builds our faith. We have to be committed to the actions of a disciple that build our faith so that it can be firmly root and built up in Him.

How do you build a muscle? Do you go to the gym once a week and reflect on your past glories as you go through the motions of working out? That is a feeble attempt and yields poor results. No, when you want to build a muscle you work it every day. You begin to eat correctly so that you allow into your life the things that build the muscle and avoid those things that hamper such growth. Though you often cannot see the progress, each day your muscle becomes stronger and stronger, bigger and bigger. Do you always WANT to go to the gym? No way! But you go anyway because you are committed to building that muscle. Over time your efforts pay off. There are no short cuts and no easy fixes, just hard work over a long period of time.

That is a picture of discipleship. So many of us have convinced ourselves that as long as we show up at church on Sunday we are walking in faith. Not true. We have to incorporate the things of God in our lives daily (Luke 9:23). We have to allow in the things that build our faith and avoid those that hamper its growth. We also have to exercise our faith. That means that we are not just people who believe who happen to do some things. It means that we are people who do everything we do “by faith.” As we exercise our faith, our faith grows and we begin to be the disciples that God wants us to be.

As a man who has been married for over twenty years, I remember what it was like to be “in love.” Though it was wonderful, I would not trade it for the loving, intimate relationship that I have with my wife now. I hope I never get to the point where I accept that it is ok for me not to do those things that I did for her when we were on that emotional high. Why? Because I love her. I also remember what it was like to be a new Christian at the age of twenty five. I am going to work hard to make sure that I do not get to the point where I accept that it is ok for me not to do those things I did when I first got saved. If I am going to be the disciple that He wants me to be, then as I received my Lord Jesus Christ, I must also walk in Him. That is the bottom line of being a disciple.