Discipleship And The Commands of Christ

"And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. God therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen" -Matthew 28:18-20

At SSBC this year (and hopefully every year hereafter), our them verse has been 2 Timothy 2:2 - "And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also." Our focus has been discipleship. I find that discipleship is a word that not many people know the meaning of. Sure, we know what the word is, and we know that it has something to do with helping others follow Christ, but we seem to miss the mark in discipleship all the time.

In thinking about discipleship, inevitably, I began to think about Matthew 28:18-20. Of all the 'great commission' verses, these give us a clear definition of what discipleship is. We know that Jesus has commanded us to make disciples of all the nations. We know that we must baptize in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And we know that we are to teach them to observe all things that Jesus has commanded. But what does that even mean?

Do we even comprehend what it means to teach all that Jesus commanded? As I thought about this, I began to see the need for a full understanding of what this pivotal phrase means. Indeed, you cannot be an effective disciple of Jesus without obeying His commands. So over the next few weeks (maybe months), it will be my aim to read through the four Gospels and other short passages where we find the words of Christ (ie. Revelation 2-3) to look for all of His commands.

As we embark on this journey, commit to obeying what we find. Perhaps we will discover some things that we have never known and never been taught. Let's seek to become obedient to all that Christ has commanded, and then teach others to do the same. That is the essence of discipleship.