Discipleship Relationship

Consider the Lord's example. Jesus made the commitment to invest in the lives of those He called to follow Him. He also travelled, fished, ate, and taught them every day.


Discipleship as a concept is somewhat of a mystery to modern-day believers. It’s so often that we hear that we need to make disciples of all nations. So we go around regurgitating the teaching we receive with the latest updates from our best-liked teacher or preacher.

Personally I am a very strong supporter of self-study of scripture so that we can get our head around the meaning behind the bible verses that we find quoted so often in Christian circles. When we do this something pops up that turns our understanding on its head. We start to realize that the classic version of this verse goes like this.Mat 28:19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,(ESV)


In contrast we see the older translation of the King James version.Mat 28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:


Now I know that we can look at this two translation and argue with massive merit that the new translation exists because the older versions have become out of date. To address these concerns I have already discussed the relevance of scripture and the fact that it is available in so many English versions of scripture. You can find that post here.

Looking into this passage then we start to realize that making disciples was never really commanded but it was rather interpreted from the original text and given to us as a word that for most of us has become vocabulary without real meaning. Now we may think that we understand the concept but when we are asked to explain what a disciple is I have found that the majority of people just give me a blank stare.

So we use the words and sound spiritual but in most cases, we don’t really know what it means or even how its meant to impact our spiritual lives. Lets then break open this verse and get into the essence of it.

The command is to TEACH. It is not possible to teach unless we first learn to understand the foundations of our faith. In fact, Jesus said that we should command them to obey everything that He had taught them to obey. Even when we look at the implied meaning of the concept of discipleship it comes down to us making students of the Gospel.

The impact of discipleship implies two things, to begin with. First, it implies that we are expected and encouraged to become ever-growing students of God’s Kingdom ourselves. Once we get our understanding onto a stable place we then have a duty to teach what we have learnt about the Lord’s Kingdom to those that the Lord has allowed to come across our life path.

There is not a teacher-student relationship that I have seen that did not come with some sort of personal overflow. By this, I mean that we are not able to teach other believers unless we become part of their lives for a season. Remember that value systems are not imparted with teaching but by example. Our responsibility is to teach hungry younger believers with wisdom, understanding and grace not just through our words but also through our actions.

We are meant to live and teach as Jesus did. Those we train up in the Lord are meant to see us grow and mature alongside us as they see not just our strengths but also our weaknesses. Our children learn the management of relationships based on what they see in their lives as children. For younger believers, this principle is true as well.

Not one person is perfect or without sin. Its also not our failures that define us but how we learn, by God’s grace to overcome them. When we live our lives alongside those who look up to us in their journey to maturity in Christ we empower their success by leading the way through our own failures.
About the relationship

Making disciples then is not just about Bible teaching. Its is about living in relationships with younger believers and showing them how to study the Word of God, relate to one another, as well as how to process personal failure to name just a few.

Consider the Lord’s example. Jesus made the commitment to invest in the lives of those He called to follow Him. He also travelled, fished, ate, and taught them every day. Not only was He a formal teacher to them in a formal setting, but taught through everyday experiences and in the middle of all the challenges that He faced.

This commission to teach the world bout the Lord’s kingdom(or kingship, rule, dominion) is one that actually promotes relational living in fellowship with those we share a life with on this world while we wait for His return.