Discipleship is Discipline

Discipleship is Discipline.

Discipleship is learning from a master towards becoming like him. Discipleship to Christ Jesus is learning from Him to become like Him. The goal of discipleship isn't to become an attendee of a religious gathering but to live like Him in our society.

It demands total allegiance to the principles of the Master and the applications of those principles in day to day life within the host communities.

It is a narrow and strait way and door. It doesn't give room for any serious maneuver. It is a yoke, howbeit an easy yoke. It would demand cutting off of excesses that won't fit in into the strait way. You can't come in with everything.

Yet, it is freedom. It removes the heavy yoke and frees the follower of the weight of the world's worries, anxieties and cares. The narrowness is made of guardrails to keep the follower from the dangers of excesses that may trip one over the cliff and not made of fences to restrict freedom. Freedom has boundaries, beyond those boundaries are dangerous snares. Discipleship is meant to keep us from those snares.

One day, Jesus Christ was going somewhere and a large crowd followed Him. One should be glad that a great crowd follows you'll think. But suddenly he stopped and turned to them and gave a speech.

Anyone who wants to follow must be ready to 'hate' father, mother and every social connection including self. Such a person must forsake all he possesses, such must deny self, carry his cross in readiness for crucifixion and then follow Him... Anyone who wants to follow must sit down and count the cost of following vis a vis the Kingdom to gain and then make the decision either to follow or not to follow. Luke 14

This is the discipline of the disciple. It is such that these conditions have to be considered in every decision to be made in order to remain in discipleship. If I have to choose between the principles I'm learning from Christ and the comfort or the pleasures these things bring to me, my discipleship demands that I deny myself of those enjoyments to maintain my stand as a disciple.

Putting any other person, including oneself, before the Master, makes that person or oneself the master. In that case discipleship allegiance changes. You can't be a disciple to two masters same time.

If you have a possession or an opportunity to possess something that you cannot leave or forsake, if you have to choose between it and your allegiance to Christ and His principles, then discipleship allegiance changes from Christ to whatever that possession or opportunity is.

If you have to be crucified for your allegiance to Christ, you are to offer the cross you're already carrying for the purpose instead of denying Christ.

Every opportunity isn't a good one for a disciple, except it protects your allegiance to Christ and to His principles. Self denial is part of the discipleship deal. It is the discipline of discipleship.

The world knows this and would offer opportunities with conditions that negate our allegiance to Christ probably to even demand allegiance to other ways of life.

Improper discipleship is the foundation of falling away from Christ under unfavourable conditions.

Apostle Paul prophesied that in the last day, perilous times would come. Some other translations rendered it as, in the last days, it will be difficult to be a Christian. And these are the days. 2Tim 3

Each one of us would have to ask ourselves if we are merely part of the hosanna shouting crowd or those who believe to the saving of the soul and are ready to die for what they believe?

Ask if the things you enjoy from the world are compatible with your convictions of Christ and decide what you want to do about it.

Know this, that this is where our faith is tested. Reading through Hebrew 11, we see that faith and conviction are matters of making choices between things that are compatible with one's convictions against things that offer pleasures and comfort but aren't compatible with what one believes.

And we see how God came to the defense of each of those patriots of faith and how He rewarded their steadfastness, even those who laid down their lives, as they joined the cloud of witnesses, in that better country with foundation, where the maker and the builder is God, a heavenly city, prepared for us by God.

How are you doing with the disciplines of discipleship? Are you a disciple of Christ or of something else? It isn't by being born into a Christian family or bearing a Christian name, attending a big church or being a minister with a big title... It is by your convictions about Christ...and how strong they are in making you able suffer discomfort in maintaining your stand for Jesus Christ.

Good day to you!

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