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Stories & Blog
Discipleship: It’ll Cost Your Life
Read the series: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
The task of disciple-making as Dale Losch describes below reminds us of our utter dependence on God to satisfy us with His grace, which enables us to move toward others for their well-being. Otherwise, “Who is adequate for these things? ... But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ” (2 Corinthians 2:16, 14, NASB). As we learn to trust in the perfect love of God that casts out fear, we can then freely invest our lives in others, knowing that the streams of God’s life will flow from within us to those around us.
Jesus may well have had this in mind when He said, “A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher” (Luke 6:40, NIV). He must have thought of it when He said, “Go and make disciples of all nations … teaching them to obey everything…” (Matthew 28:19-20, NIV).
The task of a disciple is to make disciples who are like the master in character and practice. The task is not mere knowledge. It’s obedience. It’s reproducing the life of the master. It’s spiritual multiplication. It is what Paul said to the Corinthians: “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1, NIV).
As children, we played “follow the leader.” The goal was to imitate as precisely as possible whatever the leader did. To walk like him, jump like him, hop like him, talk like him. The winner was the one who kept his eye on the leader and imitated him best.
Yet when it comes to being disciples of Jesus, imitating Him is only half the task. The other half is helping others to imitate Him. It’s not just about me following Christ. It’s also about me helping you to follow Him. It’s not just about obeying all that Jesus commanded me. It’s about teaching you to obey Him also. That is why we have defined a disciple as “one who is learning to live and love like Jesus and helps others to do the same.” Disciples make disciples.
How? Through relationships. Two to be exact: their relationship with God and His Word, and their relationship with people. The disciple’s task is to love God supremely and to love people sacrificially. Jesus called those tasks the two greatest commands.
The task of disciple-making as Dale Losch describes below reminds us of our utter dependence on God to satisfy us with His grace, which enables us to move toward others for their well-being. Otherwise, “Who is adequate for these things? ... But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ” (2 Corinthians 2:16, 14, NASB). As we learn to trust in the perfect love of God that casts out fear, we can then freely invest our lives in others, knowing that the streams of God’s life will flow from within us to those around us.
Discipleship: It’ll Cost Your Life
by Dale Losch, President of Crossworld
Apprenticeships. They used to be the way one learned the skill or trade that would become their way of life. The apprentice spent time with a “master,” an expert in the trade who would pour his life into the learner until he could reproduce the work of his master. This was no online university diploma. This was no part-time internship. This was no Wednesday night mentoring. Apprenticing was doing life together so that the apprentice became like the master.Jesus may well have had this in mind when He said, “A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher” (Luke 6:40, NIV). He must have thought of it when He said, “Go and make disciples of all nations … teaching them to obey everything…” (Matthew 28:19-20, NIV).
The task of a disciple is to make disciples who are like the master in character and practice. The task is not mere knowledge. It’s obedience. It’s reproducing the life of the master. It’s spiritual multiplication. It is what Paul said to the Corinthians: “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1, NIV).
As children, we played “follow the leader.” The goal was to imitate as precisely as possible whatever the leader did. To walk like him, jump like him, hop like him, talk like him. The winner was the one who kept his eye on the leader and imitated him best.
Yet when it comes to being disciples of Jesus, imitating Him is only half the task. The other half is helping others to imitate Him. It’s not just about me following Christ. It’s also about me helping you to follow Him. It’s not just about obeying all that Jesus commanded me. It’s about teaching you to obey Him also. That is why we have defined a disciple as “one who is learning to live and love like Jesus and helps others to do the same.” Disciples make disciples.
How? Through relationships. Two to be exact: their relationship with God and His Word, and their relationship with people. The disciple’s task is to love God supremely and to love people sacrificially. Jesus called those tasks the two greatest commands.
And it will only happen if we are willing to get close and personal. An apprentice cannot learn to be like his master from a distance. As my former seminary professor, Howard Hendricks, often said, “You can impress people from a distance, but you can only impact them close up.” Disciples are not made in classrooms. They are made in living rooms. They are made through close-up, life-on-life relationships. And relationships cost. They cost time. They cost sacrifice. They cost a willingness to be transparent. Author Neil Cole rightly observes, “It doesn’t cost a dime to make a disciple; it only costs one’s life.”
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