Being the Bible geek that I am, I decided to look up the Greek words used for disciple in the New Testament too. One is math-ay-tes’ – this means learner or pupil. The other is math- ayt-yoo’-o – this talks about being a student or a pupil, but also a teacher too. It is about learning and also passing it on to others. Today I want to have a look at what the Bible says about being a disciple and what things are expected from a true follower of Christ. Here are some of the things. 1. A true disciple is willing to follow the call to discipleship When Jesus called the first disciples we see that He came and saw the fisherman by the lake in Mark 1:17-18 . He simply said to them to, “Come and follow Me”. We see that they heard the call, received it and simply left everything to follow. He called them to be His followers or Disciples. In New Testament times a disciple was someone who wanted to learn from another person. You could become a disciple of a Rabbi, a Craftsman or a Philosopher. The learner would attached themselves to the person and learn the particular skill. Often the pupil had to beg over a period of time to be the “apprentice”. If accepted, they would watch, learn, practice and eventually do it by themselves. When the skill was fully transferred they would go on their way. This was very different to Jesus – He chose His disciples, not the other way around! He turned the whole process upside down when He chose His disciples! As we have seen, being a disciple was about connecting with someone else to learn their ways. This is how it was for the 12 disciples that Jesus called at the beginning of His public ministry. They stayed with Him for three and a half years. The watched, learnt and were sent out to do things themselves.
Posted on: Fri, 07 Jun 2013 07:25:48 +0000
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