What is a Disciple - 8

For the past eight days we have been attempting to discover from the Bible what a disciple is.  We started down this path because of the Lord’s command to make disciples.  We have not looked at this exhaustively, really cannot in three paragraphs a day.  We have painted with some rather large brush strokes a picture that a disciple is a follower of Christ, who is steeped in His Word, has an intentional prayer life, is engaged in a world focused community, is sharing his love for Christ for others, and is obedient to Christ.  So if one is doing all of those things, does that make one a disciple?

No.

These are not checklist items.  This is not a spiritual do list.  In fact there were people in the Bible who were doing all of these activities that Christ rebuked and told them that they were seeking glory for themselves – read John 5:39 – 42.  Here Christ was speaking to the leaders of the Jews, Pharisees.  These folks had the first five books of the Bible memorized – steeped in the word, they prayed every day, they were engaged in an intense community, they were actively involved in proselytizing, and they took obedience to a new level, read Paul’s description of his life as a Pharisee in Philippians 3:1 – 6.

But you say, the Bible says we are to do all of these things.  Yes it does.  So what makes the difference?

What do you think?  Stay tuned.