All successful disciple-makers seem to work from a common list of best practices and, over time, learn when and how to use each one. 

How do you know if you’re making progress as either a disciple or as a disciple-maker? To borrow from our tree analogy, what kind of fruit should we expect?

Looking at Western Christian culture, the answer might appear to be knowledge. “What have you been getting from the Word?” has always seemed like a good question to ask.

But what did Jesus say was the goal? What was the principal fruit for which He was looking?

Two answers clearly rise to the top, one from the Great Commission and the other from the Great Commandments. In the Great Commission, Jesus called His followers to obey all that He said. In the Great Commandments, He enjoined a love for God and a love for people. Often He put obedience and love together, saying things like, “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12).

But if there is a principal fruit, which is it — love or obedience? Love certainly seems like the more appealing of the two. Who doesn’t want to love and be loved? And Jesus did say that love would distinguish us as His disciples (John 13:34). The apostle Paul, too, affirmed the preeminence of love when he said “the goal of our instruction is love” (1 Timothy 1:5), and that the greatest of all possible virtues, including faith, hope, knowledge, prophecy, generosity, is love (1 Corinthians 13:13).

Obedience, on the other hand, doesn’t sound too appealing — especially in a rules-averse world. It sounds a little harsh, even legalistic. Yet Jesus didn’t falter when He asserted His authority in heaven and on earth, and followed it with a command to teach His disciples total obedience (Matthew 28:18-19). On one occasion, He questioned the legitimacy of people who called Him “Lord, Lord” but did not do what He said (Luke 6:46).

So is the primary fruit love, or is it obedience? I think it’s both — what I call loving obedience. The double meaning is intentional. Jesus-followers love to obey what He says and they obey what He says to love. There is no discipleship without obedience, and there is no obedience more important than love. In fact, the yardstick of whether or not we’re growing in obedience is how we love people. 

Loving obedience is not harsh or legalistic. As the apostle John said, “His commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3). Why not? “Because everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world” (1 John 5:4). In other words, obedience is a joy — not a burden — because it’s born of God’s indwelling Spirit, not of self-effort.

Paul Maconochie, former pastor of Sheffield Church in England and lead spokesman for 3DM (a disciple-making movement), says this about discipling people to obedience: “As far as I’m concerned, there is only one methodology: find out what God is telling you to do next, and do it.” This isn’t complicated! Hearing God speak to us through His Word and doing what He says is at the heart of discipleship, and love is at the heart of obedience.

Emperor Hadrian once sent a man named Aristides to spy out the movement of Jesus-followers that was spreading through the Roman Empire. His reply to the emperor revealed a disciple-making movement that was bearing the kind of fruit Jesus commanded: “Behold how they love one another!”

What might Aristides say today if he were sent to spy out your disciple-making relationships and bring back the report? 

View the full blog series, watch the video and download The Discipling Tree infographic.

Dale Losch joined Crossworld as a disciple-maker in France in 1988, and has served as Crossworld’s president since 2009. He loves to motivate people to use their God-given passions to make disciples wherever life happens. Hear more from Dale.