What is a disciple? Well, the simple answer is that he or she is a learner or a student of another person. A disciple is a person who follows after a particular teacher and commits themselves to learning everything that they can from them. And a disciple is someone who invests large amounts of their life trying to become like the one they are learning from.
Now in the Bible, a disciple was someone who followed after the teaching of Jesus Christ and who sought to learn everything they could from Him. But, that never meant learning only information. You see a Biblical disciple was someone who followed Jesus Christ with all of their senses. They ate with Him, slept near Him, heard Him speak, saw Him teach, felt Him and interacted with Him in ways that went far beyond what normally occurs in the academies. They got to experience Him! And as a result, His disciples were people who followed Him with the totality of their person and being. They were people who completely reoriented their way of life away from the old way of doing things onto the “Jesus” way of doing things.
How could they do that? Not by simply memorizing an endless slew of facts and details about Jesus but by orienting their lives so closely to Him that they got to see Him! So close that they got to experience Him! And when that happened, when they finally saw Him for who He truly was, it shattered their entire existence!
They were no longer people who were training to act like their mentor, but they were people who deeply loved Him. And, the more they saw who He truly was the greater they loved Him. And the more they loved Him the more they began looking like Him, acting like Him, and even speaking with authority like Him. Their growing love for Him even caused them to abandon all of the en vogue thinking and reasoning of their day in order to follow after Him. You see, when they really saw Jesus for who He really was, it was their joy to follow Him, even if it did not always make sense! But, what does that mean for us today?
For me, when I hear the term disciple, I often think about being a better version of myself. Reading the Bible more, praying more, tithing more, doing more, more, more, more, and MORE! But, that is not what it means to be His disciple. You see, Jesus is not calling people to be better versions of themselves or even more religious. He is calling them to be more in love with Him. He is calling them to see Him for who He truly is so that we will want to follow Him. So that it will be our greatest joy to follow Him!
When that happens, we will not need to worry whether we are acting like Jesus; we just will. We will not need to try harder to perform; we just will. Not because we have that power but because He will be working these things out through us! We will act like Him because our love for Him will be changing us and allowing Him to work through us!
Can we do this perfectly? Absolutely not! But, a disciple is not made on how perfectly they perform, but in how deeply they conform. They are not made through self-help and religious self-improvement. Disciples are made in an encounter with the living, breathing, beautiful Son of God.
How can we experience Him like this? By asking Him to show us who He is! By praying that God would make Him more and more beautiful to us! By asking the Holy Spirit to show us the beauty that is found in Jesus Christ and to soften our hearts to be captivated by it. Then, we will be disciples whose greatest joy is to do everything He taught us.
That is what a disciple is made out of!
