What Does it Mean to be a Disciple of Christ?

If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it — lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.  Luke 14:26-33

One writer says:

If the closest relationships of a disciple’s life conflict with the claims of Jesus Christ, then our Lord requires instant obedience to Himself. Discipleship means personal, passionate devotion to a Person — our Lord Jesus Christ. There is a vast difference between devotion to a person and devotion to principles or to a cause. Our Lord never proclaimed a cause — He proclaimed personal devotion to Himself.

Is this what it means to be a disciple of Christ?

The basic definition of the word “disciple” is “a learner or student.”  I have, for most of my Christian life, given no more thought to this word.  A disciple is a student — I am a student of God’s Word — therefore, I am a disciple of Christ.

There is comfort in such an easy understanding — and yet, any thinking person can read the passages where this word “disciple” is found and know that it means much more.  This study is dedicated to knowing more and, by extension, being more.

Based on our initial text, one might think this study is about counting the cost.  It is not.  It is about being a disciple.  Yes, we will consider the cost along the way, but the thrust of it will be in the being.

What I mean by this is that we can talk about the cost of discipleship — discuss it, debate it, ponder it — but eventually, we just have to do it!  What concerns me most as I do an honest inventory of my life is that I may not have been, at times, the disciple I thought I have been. We all need to take that same inventory. (2 Corinthians 13:5)

Being a Disciple

When I think of the word “being,” I am returned to God answering Moses’ question, “Who should I tell them has sent me?”  God’s reply is “I AM.”  Inherent in this answer is “I have always been and I always will be.”  Remembering that we are comparing the temporary (ourselves) to the Eternal (Himself), we are still left with the idea that “being” a disciple is continuous.  It is not a Sunday thing, it is not a “when I am with other Christians” thing, it is always.

Also, being a disciple of Christ (or Christian — we will use these terms interchangeably for the remainder of the study) is a total commitment, not just to our time, but our actual being:  our character, beliefs, practices, and associations.  I would like to look at these, individually.

Our Character
What is character?  Webster defines it as the way someone thinks, feels, and behaves — someone’s personality — a set of qualities that are shared by many people in a group — a set of qualities that make a person, place, or thing different from other persons, places, or things.

The ideas of personality and character are similar, but not the same.  My personality would seem more movable but my character less movable. Discipleship speaks to our character — the less movable.  Hopefully, we can see that our beliefs, practices, and associations cannot be removed from our character — and though we will discuss them separately — they can only be separated in discussion, not deed.

Notice that I have said that our character is less movable — not immovable!

By nature of our relationship with Jesus, becoming and being His disciples … we will see our character change — though sometimes quickly — often slowly, but distinctly.  In a manner of speaking, this is what is asserted by Peter in 2 Peter 1:5-8 NKJV

But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

If we give diligence to being His disciples — we will see our character change — to become like Him.  Then we will see in our character the essence of Jesus — the Fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Galatians 5:22-23 NKJV

Our Beliefs
How are our beliefs impacted? This is such an important marker or indicator of our discipleship.  What do we believe?

Do we believe that “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made?” (John 1:1-3 NKJV) or do we believe the chorus of unbelieving scientists that insist it had to take billions of years and life happened by accident?

The reason this matters is because a disciple of Christ understands that to believe it all happened by accident over eons means that there is no right or wrong, nor moral certainty, and no everlasting God who is the “I AM.”

If the Christian does not believe that Jesus was present at creation, speaking the world into existence — is he, then, a disciple of Christ?

Do we believe there is sin and sin will keep us from an eternal home with God?  In Galatians 5:19-21, Paul says that sin — or the works of the flesh — are:

Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Time does not permit for us to define all these sins, but we can understand what sin is and know it is enmity with God.  

Do we believe this or do we believe as the world teaches that we can all do whatever we choose without eternal consequences?

Our Practices

What about what we practice then? Jesus tells us in Luke 14:27, “And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple” and in verse 33 He says, “likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.”

Hearing these things and understanding the immediate context of Jesus’ own crucifixion, certain questions must arise in our minds — Are we willing to die for our belief in Jesus?  Is there ANYTHING that stands between us and Him?

The first question may seem easier to answer than the second.  I think we all believe we would rather die than turn away from Christ.  But isn’t it ironic that there may be many lesser things than death that we may just let stand between us and our Lord — discomfort, inconvenience, selfish ambition, or our associations — we will come back to that last one shortly, but what about the rest?

Don’t we sometimes modify our walk with Christ because what He asks causes us discomfort or doesn’t really fit our routine or stands between us and our plans?  Maybe we don’t always realize these little course corrections in the moment, but we see them when we honestly look back — in what feels like the safety of “well, it already happened, I can’t change it now.”

Do we sometimes make changes in our Christianity because we think, “but if I meet the world halfway, I will have a better chance to convert the lost,” only to find that we, ourselves, are slowly converted to the world?

Being a disciple of Christ means that because our character is set in Christ we are moved only to serve Him and accept the consequences of our convictions.  We are committed to following Him — to the cross if need be — and nothing stands between us and Him.

Consider Olympic athletes who train their whole lives to achieve the corruptible crown — a gold medal — they are disciples of their trainers.  They do all that they are told, forsaking anything that would prevent them from attaining their goal.  They are wholly committed — mind, body, and soul.

Are we so committed?

Our Associations

Often our greatest source of divergence from the Way is found in our relationships.  This is why Jesus says,  “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.” Luke 14:26

Most of us understand by now that He does not mean “hate” the way we use the word in modern English, but He means that we have to love Him more than anyone else (including ourselves — which we covered a few moments ago).  We have to put Him first in our lives.

What is truly interesting about this is that if we will make this our dedicated practice, we will find that all of our important relationships become better.  But for those who simply cannot accept Christ in our lives, they will have to fade into the background to those who we love, perhaps, but with whom we simply can’t spend substantive time.

Let’s take a more positive look at this. In every educational setting in my life, I either desired or was compelled to spend a great deal of time with my fellow students in the interest of being a better student and achieving the goal.

• When I worked in grocery, as I was studying to become a cashier, I spent every night after a full shift with my fellow want-to-be cashiers memorizing and reciting the 100 produce codes we had to know to pass the test.  We leaned on each other — depended on one another.  None of us went home until we had spent, at least, another two hours together studying during the week before our test.
• In the classes I took seriously in my short college career, I joined or created study groups to master the material we needed to know for the upcoming tests — spending much time with those who shared my goals.
• In my early Christian walk, I spent endless hours with other Christians talking about the Word, to the exclusion of all other “spare time” activities.  I would often travel a couple of hours to visit with preachers who I trusted could impart more of Christ’s Word to me.  I had an insatiable appetite for the Bible and wanted to spend all my time with other Christians.

How many of us take our associations as seriously as any of these examples today?  Who do we spend the most time with when we have the opportunity to choose?

What does it mean to be a disciple of Christ?

Are we interested in the answer?  It may be uncomfortable.  It may mean, no matter how long we have been “in the church” that we have some major changes to make in our lives.  The changes will likely have to be immediate.

Being a disciple of Christ means that we have chosen to follow Him to the exclusion of anything — ANYTHING — that would prevent us from following Him with everything that we are.  Nothing is off limits to be removed from our lives:

• Not our family relationships
• Not our friends
• not our careers or would-be careers
• not our education
• and not sports or any other hobby or interest

Being a disciple of Christ means that we have chosen to fix our whole lives on being like Him.  We may experience extreme discomfort, inconvenience, limited choices in our careers, and limited relationships.

But Jesus asks, “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost?” Luke 9:25

None of us, hopefully, decided to become Christians because we thought it would be interesting, open us up to new friends or experiences, or because we had nothing better to do on Sunday mornings.

Hopefully, we chose to be Christians or disciples of Christ because we couldn’t imagine anything — ANYTHING — better to do with our lives.  Once we learned about Jesus, we began to realize that there simply was no other choice.

Are we truly disciples of Christ?  We can only answer that question for ourselves — and I suspect we know the answer without too much thought.

We will falter, we will make mistakes, but we will not accept this as the norm in our lives.  We will walk away from sin and those who would encourage us to sin.  We will leave jobs and relationships that prevent us from living fully for Him.  We will recognize those people, places, and things which distract us or endanger us and our everlasting souls.

If we have wandered from our commitment or have not yet made the commitment — let us become disciples of Christ today!