We as Christians have been called to make disciples (Matt. 28:18-20) are we doing so?  For many, maybe most for that matter, the concept of “making disciples” seems a little bit abstract; kind of hard to nail down as a concept.

A disciple in the Biblical sense is easily understood as someone who knows what the master knows and who does what the master does.  Many teachers, scholars and leaders had disciples.  In a time when young people didn’t have universities for their instruction, a great teacher would take on a group of younger men to teach.  They would live together, eat together and learn together and after a period of years, the disciple would know what his teacher had to teach… in every area of life. If they were a good disciple, the young man would go forth and behave like his master and teach others the same way.

As disciples of Jesus Christ, we are supposed to be in the same situation.  We should be working with others to teach them all about Jesus, how He lived, what He taught, how He behaved toward others.

As Christians then, we are either learning discipleship or teaching others.  This is not something that we can simply leave to the “professionals” and call the job done; in the Bible there are no “professionals”  Jesus took on simple people as His disciples; fishermen, workers and so forth.  They were largely uneducated, they were common folk, and yet they went on to found His Church and lead it through its most difficult years.  If they can learn from Jesus and go on to teach the faith to others, then so can we!

Here are three questions, let’s call it a discipleship self-assessment test…

1. Are you learning to become a disciple of Jesus Christ?

2. Have you already become a disciple of Jesus Christ?

3. Are you teaching others to be disciples of Jesus Christ?

Answer Key:

If you answer “yes” to number one, that is great: keep it up!.  If you answer “yes” to number two, see number three.  If you answer “yes” to number three that is fantastic, you are truly His disciple and you are doing His work.  If you answer “no” to all three, it’s time to get busy!