Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
1 John 5:1-5
As we begin the final chapter of John’s letter, John continues to tell us that we must love God and love each other. He’s been doing this for dozens of verses now; for some who read this, John is going to throw you another curve!
The curve is in verse 2: This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. I’ve never heard anyone argue with the loving God part; that seems easy, almost abstract, but carrying out His commands is often a sticking point. As we have stated many times going through this letter, God’s commands can be summed up very easily. We are to love God, and love one another.
Oh, hold on, did I forget one? Yes, thank you for reminding me, it’s love God, love one another and make disciples. That’s the one many people get stuck on… There are all kinds of criticisms for this, as though I (or someone else) made it up or something, but that is simply not the case! What was Jesus’ final command?
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Matthew 28:18-20
No, dear reader, I didn’t make this up! Since I have blogged on this so many times already, rather than to explain it again, let’s just try a new approach. First, how can we ever say that we love God, but we won’t follow His command to share that love with others? How can we say we love others, and not share the love of God with them? Come on now, that wouldn’t even make sense, would it? God first loved us, so He sent His Son to die for our sins. Lots of “likes” for that one, and lots of nice comments, too. So if we don’t share God’s love with others who are lost, are we not sharing because God really didn’t love them as much as He loved us?
OK, fine. We share with the lost and they enter into relationship with Jesus Christ; now they are our brother or sister in the Lord. So what then? Will we just stand by and watch them struggle with their new faith, or will we help them along their way? Which choice demonstrates love in action?
John goes on to mention that obeying His commands isn’t burdensome because in Him, we have overcome the world. Ever wonder what that has to do with anything? What is it that would hold us back from making disciples? Go ahead and make a short mental list of what might hold you back. Got it? OK, good. Does it have things like being afraid they’ll say no? How about not wanting others to think you’re weird? Maybe you’re afraid that you won’t know all the answers. Yes, there are other possibilities, but in my experience, these are the kinds of things people usually say. In Him, we’ve overcome the world, and these are thoughts of the world, not His thoughts. Was Jesus ever afraid of rejection or embarrassment or afraid of anything this world could do to Him? No. Why would we be concerned about such things? We have overcome the world! We have overcome the world because of our faith! Sometimes, like you, I need to remind myself about that!
To carry out God’s commands is not burdensome, because it is a joy! I can tell you from my own experience that there is no greater joy in this life to see a person I have mentored, grow in the their faith, and step up to serve God because of their love for Him. Yes, it is by far the greatest joy there is!
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Don – it is this one point. Applied discipleship as opposed to academic discipleship: the phrase you use … “if we don’t share God’s love with others who are lost”
It is the applied (popular) application I step back from. “God or bust” … “Save the sinners” seeming the accepted way of doing things (anything from “full strength” to “dilute well”).
Mentoring I get (and have got with love). Submerge with love I get (and have got). “Making disciples” and this reference to the “lost”?
I still pick-up “go get em” messages (in all shapes and sizes). Still question the difference between Love and “Enthusiasm”. Still veer away from enthusiasm as “loving the doing” – but not necessarily loved by the “target audience”. Still too often “bible basher” being he “lost’s perception” of this discipling thing.
The answer’s love, my question is help!!
A disciple, simply put, is one who knows what the Master knows, and who does what the Master does. When the Master, Jesus, gave us his command in Matt. 28, there are two parts to his imperative. First is to go the “all Nations” and bring people (the lost) into relationship with Jesus. One can’t be expected to know what the Master knows, without ever knowing the Master. No matter how anybody wants to phrase it, this involves sharing the love of Christ with those who haven’t known Him. We can do this lovingly as Jesus did it, or we can go out and make a jackass of ourselves, as is the habit of some. Personally, I don’t endorse the latter! However, the fact that some might behave badly is no reason for us to decline to carry out the command, for if we do, we have a problem, and people die without having an opportunity to hear about Jesus and see his love in action.
The second part is the part that comes after baptism, the “teaching” part. This is where we take the new brother or sister in Christ and help them to grow in their faith and understanding, so that the day comes when they know enough of what the Master taught us, to go and make disciples on their own. I hate to say it, but both aspects of this command require “enthusiasm,” for “enthusiasm” means “God in us.” Without “God in us” nothing good will happen, or so it seems to me.
Many people have this notion, sadly, that they can’t share, because you need to be a jackass. Nothing could be further from the truth! Nobody that I know of ever brought someone to relationship with Jesus by bashing them about with the Bible. Instead, they did their best to give the Gospel a bad name! At the same time, I’m not aware of anyone ever coming to Christ without some brave soul having shared lovingly with them the love of Jesus Christ. Those brave souls shared while knowing that sooner or later somebody would call them names; the world’s been doing that a very long time, but they went ahead anyway because they realized that they had already overcome the world through Christ.
A lovely reply, Don, thank you.
I have read and pondered since reading your words. And still am. Something is still itching away here. Not your words. Not your truth. Not you. But something. Inside. Not yet inside words.
Thank you.
He’ll show you when y’all are ready
I say! Is that English? 🙂
It’s an improved version. I could never figure out how you guys forgot a plural “you!” 🙂
“He’ll show you when y’all are ready” I think he has, and I hope you are okay with yoiur words above being a central core to my writing today (and in a different way than usual – apologies if my etiquette is missing).
LOL Not at all! I’m looking forward to reading it
I won’t say I “disagree” or mean that you are “wrong”, because that’s not my role… but I see “disciple” a bit differently than you do. 🙂
“A disciple, simply put, is one who knows what the Master knows, and who does what the Master does.”
I “almost” agree on this definition of “disciple”. I see disciple more as “student”, and “master” (magister) as “teacher”. Therefore, I’d phrase this more as…
“A disciple, simply put, is one who is learning to know what the Master knows, and who does what the Master does. When he/she attain that goal, they become ‘friend’, and ‘master themselves’, at which point they are prepared to teach, and make further disciples.”
Grace — LM
LM, I don’t want to seem contrary at this hour of the morning, but it seems to me that we agree entirely… other than the fact that my “short form” is a less detailed than yours! 🙂
Lord’s prayer, disciples prayer?? 🙂
I have a sense this word disciple and its popular verb format: discipling, is at the very core of this god stuff. A sense a discomfort somewhere deep inside. That the short/long IS important (sorry it is late morning here and the brain cells are hopping). That the “lost world” is not only immune to being discipled (in the popular sense), but it adds another protective layer everytime it hears others “damaged” by “church” (and then church and god and love and faith all get liquidised into one gunk).
Important disillusioned phase one and twos are still disciples. And far more eloquent and enthusiastic with this new message. And the saddest thing to me? They are also “of god” in a yearning loving way. Yet unreachable and unconnected in the main. Fully “insulated” from togetherness for what they see as their own soul, their god, and their own safety. Neither in one “world” nor another. No man’s land.
I see and hear little that tells me it is different.
Paul, you’ve hit on a critical point here. “Making disciples” is the key activity for the believer; it’s why we’re here. To present ourselves to learn, grow and mature as Christians, and then to share what we’ve learned and lived with others is the Kingdom is built. Yet this whole concept has been damaged by the foolishness of some. Last fall I was a speaker at a conference, and my topic was, you guessed it, making diciples. A guy came up to me after and said that he cringes at the mention of the word because in his church background it had been so abused that he just had a negative view of the whole thing. As it happens, this guy is a leader in a congregation where nothing like “discipling” is going on. They are listless, adrift… and the congregation is dying; an all too common situation. Personally, I think John gives us lots of insight into the “who” and “why” of this situation in his letter!
We need a whole new approach to this, an approach of love and relationship as core values… only this isn’t new, it’s really old! Believe it or not, it’s what I’m trying to lay out in this blog, although I fear not well enough. But this I know, and have seen: With patience, relationship and love, those who may have been jaded to the whole “church” thing will come into relationship with Christ when they realize that the love is real.
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Ok so the question then would be, if we do a partial job is the job done then? For example do I love someone, tell them I love you, then refrain from mentioning the author or giver of love and that is acceptable.
I think if a job is half done it isn’t done, so many folks who are believing that they are disciples and followers of Jesus, really aren’t. Sad case I believe it is.
I agree with you. It seems like John is trying to urge us forward to finish the job, and to work together as a team in getting it done; love requires it.
it sure does.
Sorry to butt in 🙂
I was listening to a sermon this morning. A parable. The Rich Man one. The old camel and needle. And looked at my life and wondered. That rich man. 1, 2, 5, 10 years later … was there a slow-burn consequence to that conversation? The same sermon: we meet Jesus as the transformer between the “whopping huge current” of god, and the “domestic circuit” we have. So we don’t explode when we meet him (and my brain has a little experience of that recently).
And back to your point VW – would any of us ever know whether the job was half done or not? My thought is not “blowing people up” with a naff imitation of this god stuff we think is a really cool transformer. Allowing him to work whilst we do. Maybe a discipling certificate. Like a teaching certificate. Like a driving test certificate. Think we need some logistics here. 🙂
Well Paul, you and your exploding brain keep on raising good questions! If I might presume to add to your sermon, Jesus is the transformer, but even DC current can be quite the shock! The disciple is a bit like the adapter that moderates the current further, so that the other person only gets what they can handle. (Shifting metaphors) It’s an investment in time and genuine caring about other people that does the adapting until the other person is ready to plug in without the adapter any more…
WOW! That is beautiful! That is personal and that is love! “The flexi Adapter”! Totally knocked out with this. “Until …they are ready.” That batman theme is running really loud in surround sound right now!!
Mr M! Thank you!
🙂
Ok you are so wrong, I hv to do more than one sentence with you:) Just joking. But going by DM classification of discipleship and love, sometimes some folks do part of the effort and stop halfway. Not talking about specific directions you get in assisting someone, but take for instance the guy who finds guy in the ditch, takes him to the inn, orders whatever it takes to restore him; but he doesn’t leave it there, he told the inn keeper, when i return if there are more charges I will square it (paraphrase). That was holistic and complete. Many of us today leave off after we drop the guy at the hospital or when we call 911 (just ex.)
W
You’re right, many do. Many also work with teams, where someone is really adept at initial phases, someone else is good somewhere in the middle, and another is good at the ‘advanced’ stuff; sort of a community approach, using gifts each has. In the example you used, maybe the first guy gets the man to the, and then sends another, to square the damages with the innkeeper and help the man get back home, and then another to check in on him to be sure he’s recovering ok. I absolutely agree with you that we mustn’t take half-measures, we must really invest in caring about people to get them through a process.
Great point as always, W!
🙂
For me it has been a “disciple” day.
Mentored and connected. And you add to the learning earlier by reinforcing the “commitment” content. Thank you.
With grave reservations at the “drive by” style, with sadness seeing so many feeling damaged, and yet still seeing “we are commanded” reinforced over and over – this day has been one of enlightenment for me. .
I think I am starting to get it. with reservations still.
I can only head towards the end of this day (what else) enthralled! 🙂
Delighted:)
“work with teams”
Don, for me you have just slotted the last piece into my unfinished jigsaw. Before my brain explodes I am to sleep on this one. Let him have a chance to move stuff around overnight.
>>> VW – I have just been “super-sized” enthralled!
Pleasant dreams! 🙂
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