Understanding and Reclaiming Biblical Discipleship: The Historical Context

J. M. Pendleton in his Church Manual defined a church as “a congregation of Christ’s baptized disciples, united in the belief of what he has said, and covenanting to do what he has commanded.”[i] The unity and the covenant that he mentions are predicated on the concept of the church being composed not of baptized members, but of baptized disciples. This idea is based on the command to “[g]o therefore and make disciples” given by Jesus in what is called the Great Commission, located in Matthew 28:19.[ii] This begs two questions: what is a disciple and how is a disciple made?

The Historical Context of Discipleship

Before examining the relevant passages, it is important to understand the terminology in light of its historical meanings and context. The most important word for the purposes of this paper is the term maqhtής – mathetes - , which is translated as “disciple.” This term can be boiled down to the basic meaning of “apprentice.”[iii] There is much more weight to the term, though, as it implies a binding of oneself to “someone else in order to acquire his practical and theoretical knowledge.”[iv] To be a disciple requires that there be a master/teacher, a didaskoloς - didaskalos.[v] Discipleship, then, is to be understood as an intentional relationship, whereby the disciple gains from the teacher’s knowledge and applies those insights to his own life.[vi]

The teacher would gather around himself a group of disciples. This group of disciples would be committed to the teachings of their master, a commitment which lasted beyond the death of the teacher. This commitment was tied with a responsibility to pass on those teachings.[vii]

Moving from the Greek world to the Jewish world, one finds that the Old Testament does not contain the idea of a learner to a teacher, as in the Greek context, though there is a call for teaching what God had said on to the next generation: “you shall teach [these words] diligently to your sons…” (Deut.6:7).[viii]  It is only in Rabbinic Judaism that the concept of pupil/teacher comes to the fore, probably as a result of contact with Greek philosophy. Here the relationship is of the talmid to a Rabbi, where the talmid places himself under the Rabbi in a servile manner.[ix] The Rabbis, like the Greek teachers of philosophy, would gather around themselves students whose aim was to learn with the purpose of being able to teach others.[x]

Our next post will look at some of the passages relevant to understanding discipleship.

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[i]J. M. Pendleton, Church Manual : Designed for the Use of Baptist Churches (Philadelphia, PA: The Judson Press, 1950), 7.

[ii]All Bible references are from the NASB, unless otherwise noted.

[iii] Karl Heinrich Rengstorf. “maqhtής.” Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. ed. Gerhard Kittel, Geoffrey William Bromiley, and Gerhard Friedrich. Volume 4. (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1967), 416.

[iv]Dietrich Müller. “maqhtής.” New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology.  ed. Colin Brown and David Townsley. Volume 1. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1986), 484.

[v]Rengstorf, 416.

[vi]Müller, 484.

[vii]Rengstorf, 423.

[viii]Duane L. Christensen, Deuteronomy 1, 1-21,9, 2nd revised ed., Word Biblical Commentary 6a (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2001), 143.

[ix]Ibid., 485-6.

[x]Ibid., 488.

Understanding and Reclaiming Biblical Discipleship: Introduction

Over the last year, I have come to see the need for a reclaiming of a biblical understanding and practice of discipleship in our churches. We have too many people who treat church as if it is a social club. Too many church members aren’t really saved, or if they are, they are certainly not living like it. Too many churches have serious problems and conflicts. Too many of Christians are ignorant of what the Bible actually says.

My realization of this began last summer when I taught a Sunday School lesson giving an overview of the book of Jude. He writes about contending “earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints” (Jude 3). He warns against false teachers. He then goes on to write: “But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life” (Jude 20-21).  This prompted within me questions regarding how to contend for the faith, how to build oneself up, how to keep in the love of God.  And so the process was begun.

The next step occurred when I taught a lesson on the Scriptures, using 2 Timothy 3:16-17 as a base text for exploration. This study made me see the need for us to return to and hold up the Scriptures and the study of them, in response to the biblical illiteracy all too common in our churches today.

But it wasn’t until this past semester that it all came together. Thanks to two classes in particular: one on conflict in the church and the other a disciple-making class, where I’ve been working with a friend, going deeper into God’s Word and developing spiritual disciplines. These made me realize that discipleship is a necessary part of the Christian life, but that it has been neglected for far too long.

Over the next several weeks, we’ll explore together what discipleship is, its historical context, and what the Bible says about it. We’ll offer some conclusions and insights along the way that will hopefully prompt you to see what I see: Discipleship is key. Thank

Children of God, Part Five: Loving Each Other (1 John 3-5) and Concluding Remarks

The concluding post for this series.

And now we come to one of the more convicting passages that I’ve come across. We’re going to take a look at 1 John 3-5, specifically chapter 3, with select verses from 4 and 5.

First of all 3:1-3.  God’s love is so amazing. He loved us so much He not only died for us, redeeming us from our slavery to sin, and granting us new birth by the Spirit, He adopts us and calls us His children. And we are His children. Our rebirth and adoption occur at the same time. We are both reborn and adopted. We have new life spiritually and we become members of God’s family. As we are children of God, we have the hope that we will become like Him. We are children now, but there will come a time, when Jesus returns, when we’ll see Him in His glory, and we ourselves will be glorified. And this hope should play itself out in our lives. We are to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, and in doing so we will purify ourselves (that is, we will seek to live out a pure and holy life, in imitation of Him.

3:4-12. The continual practice of sin is lawlessness, and sin is itself lawlessness; that is, rebellion to God’s law and authority. Jesus took away our sins. He was the only one who never sinned. And since we abide in Him, we will not live a life of sin. The Greek for the verb “sins” in verse 6 implies a continual aspect, such that “No one who abides in Him keeps on sinning/continually sins.” As such a believer’s life is not characterized by sin.

John goes on to say that we shouldn’t be deceived (just as Paul warned us in Ephesians 5). Only those who have been adopted into God’s family, been spiritually reborn, can practice righteousness, because we partake of Jesus’ righteousness as part of the privilege of being in God’s family. Those who keep on practicing sin are of the devil (John 8:44). And Jesus came to destroy the devil’s work.

In verse 9, we see that those born of God keeps on practicing sin, because His seed is in us. Indeed we cannot keep on sinning, because we have been born of God, that is born again. Verse 10, makes a clear distinction between the sons of God and the sons of the devil. Righteousness can only be practiced by the children of God. And those who do not love their brothers are also not of God.

3:13-24.  Verse 14 makes it clear that our love for each other is a mark by which we know that we have been born again. And our example for love, as seen in verse 16, is Jesus Himself and His sacrifice for us (echoing Eph 5:2).  As such our lives should be sacrificed for each other.  And this love is not merely something we say or talk about, saying “I love you,” but rather it is to be lived out and should be sincere, flowing from our hearts (v.17-18).

In verse 23 and 24, we see reflections of what Jesus Himself said. We are told that He commanded us this – to believe in the name of Jesus as the Son of God, and to love one another. And we will do what He has told us to do if He truly abides in us. And we can be sure that he is in us, because the Spirit is in us. And what does the Spirit do within us, He cries out and testifies that we indeed are children of God, and He enables us to live in the power of God, as we have access to our Father through Christ, in the Spirit (Eph 2:18).

4:7-14, selected verses. Beloved – basically “You who have been loved” – love one another. Love is a gift from God, and true love (as Jesus loved) is born of God. As such, the Spirit is within us and we know God, as He reveals Himself to us by the Spirit and by His Word. Verse 8 tells us that God is love; love is one of the basic characteristics of God. Not that all love is God, or even that to love is to know God. But those that truly love can only be born of God, and as we imitate Him (Eph 5:1), we will act like Him. Verse 11 points out that if God so loved us, we should love each other, for His love is perfected, is being made complete, in us (v.12).

5:1-4. We see here that being born of God is through faith in Jesus. And if we love Him, we will love His children. And we know we love the children when we obey Him. For we know that we love Him, when we keep His commandments. And they are easy. What does He tell us to do: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).

And because we are born of God, we can overcome the world, overcome sin in our lives, because, we have faith. Faith in Jesus (v.5).

5:18-20. John returns once again to application. No one born of God continues to sin. Jesus, the only begotten of God, keeps us, and the devil cannot touch us. A Christian cannot say “the devil made me do it.” He can’t touch you, unless you yourself give in to sin, and allow him too. We are the children of God, adopted by Him; we share in His family’s legal rights. The world does not, and is in submission to the devil.

Verse 20 tells us that Jesus has come and given us understanding that we might know Jesus Himself, whom we are in. And Jesus is the true God and eternal life.

Conclusion:

We are born into God’s family when we place our faith in Jesus Christ. At that same moment to, God ordained that we would be adopted into His family, receiving His familial and legal rights. His Spirit is in us, and testifies to this, that we are reconciled to God our Father. And since we are part of God’s family, we are His children, He will discipline us in His great love. We will also strive to imitate Him, as children do their parents. In doing so we will love one another as Christ has loved us.

Books Consulted:

Allen, David. Hebrews. The New American Commentary. Volume 35. Nashville: B & H Publishing Group, 2010.

Archaeological Study Bible. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005.

Bickel, Bruce and Stan Jantz. John: Encountering Christ in a Life-Changing Way. Christianity 101 Bible Studies. Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 2003.

Comfort, Philip W. and Wendell C. Hawley. Opening John’s Gospel and Epistles. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2009.

Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary. Nashville: Holman Reference, 2003.

Lightner, Robert. The Epistles of First, Second, & Third John & Jude: Forgiveness, Love, and Courage. Twenty-First Century Biblical Commentary Series. Chattanooga: AMG Publishers, 2003.

McGee, J. Vernon. Ephesians. Through the Bible Commentary Series: The Epistles. Vol. 47. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1991.

McGee, J. Vernon. Galatians. Through the Bible Commentary Series: The Epistles. Vol. 46. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1991.

McGee, J. Vernon. Thru the Bible: Volume IV: Matthew through Romans. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1983.

Wiersbe, Warren W. The Bible Exposition Commentary: New Testament Volumes 1 and 2. Colorado Spring: Cook Communications Ministries, 2001.

Children of God, Part 2: Being Adopted into God's Family

This series of posts was developed as a Sunday School lesson that I taught on November 6, 2011.

As we have seen, belief, that is faith, in Jesus is the only means by which we become children of God. There are some verses that go into more detail as to the process, if you will, by which that happens.

Romans 8:12-17; Galatians 4:1-7; and Ephesians 1:3-6

In Romans 8, verse 14, we’re told that those that the Spirit leads are sons of God, and that the Spirit testifies that we are children of God, and thus heirs with Christ, and will be glorified with Him.

It is by the spirit that we are adopted into God’s family. Adoption here has the idea of “being placed as an adult son.” As soon as we are born into God’s family by the Spirit, we are also made “adult sons,” and as such we can draw on the spiritual wealth of God because we are heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ.

In Galatians, we see a similar passage. In verse 5 of chapter 4 we see that Jesus came, became God in the flesh, in order that He might redeem us from under the Law, so that we could receive adoption as sons. And we see again that the Spirit testifies, cries out in our hearts, “Abba! Father!” We are no longer slaves but sons and heirs.  As Wiersbe note’s “we enter God’s family by regeneration [being born again], but we enjoy God’s family by adoption.”[1]

In Ephesians, we see that our adoption as sons comes through Jesus Christ and our adoption is to Him as well, and it was done this way according to God’s good pleasure.

Before we move on, I think that it is important to understand what we mean when we use the word “adoption.” In the Roman world, there were two types of adoption. One was where a man and those under his authority (his family and household) were adopted into another family, and ceased to be considered a separate entity, but rather part of their adopted family. The second type was where a man or a boy was adopted by another. He no longer belonged to his biological father’s household and he legally became the child of his adopter. A will was often drawn up as part of this adoption ceremony. Adoption was connected with not just the legal and familial status of the adoptee, but also with inheritance rights. In applying this system to us, God is the authority over His adopted children and we find our identity in Him. [2]

Notes:
[1] Wiersbe, Warren W. The Bible Exposition Commentary: New Testament Volumes 1. Colorado Spring: Cook Communications Ministries, 2001. p 705

[2] "Adoption in the Roman World." Archaeological Study Bible. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005. p.1849.

Books Consulted:
Archaeological Study Bible. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005.

Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary. Nashville: Holman Reference, 2003.

McGee, J. Vernon. Ephesians. Through the Bible Commentary Series: The Epistles. Vol. 47. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1991.

McGee, J. Vernon. Galatians. Through the Bible Commentary Series: The Epistles. Vol. 46. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1991.

McGee, J. Vernon. Thru the Bible: Volume IV: Matthew through Romans. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1983.

Wiersbe, Warren W. The Bible Exposition Commentary: New Testament Volumes 1 and 2. Colorado Spring: Cook Communications Ministries, 2001.

Scripture: The Very Word of God, Part 2

This series of posts was originally developed as a Sunday School lesson that I taught on August 28, 2011.

The Nature of the Bible:
What is the composition of the Bible? What “physically” makes the Bible the Bible?
The Bible generally accepted by most Protestants, including us Southern Baptists, is divided into two main parts: the Old Testament and the New Testament, with a total of sixty-six “books,” thirty-nine in the OT and twenty-seven in the NT. Other groups include a collection of works called the Apocrypha, but as Protestants do not hold that these books are a part of the canon.[3]

A “canon” is a rule of measurement, or in this case an authoritative list. Our belief is that the canon was not chosen by the church, but rather those books in our canon set themselves apart because of their spiritual authority.  The Old Testament is generally divided into three main sections: the Pentateuch, the Prophets, and the Writings. The Old Testament had definitely reached canonical status by the time of Jesus and the beginnings of Christianity. The canonicity of the New Testament was achieved by certain tests. The early church did not “choose” what books were to be in the NT, but rather applied a series of criteria to books that were already being used in the churches to determine a list of these authoritative books in order to keep out false teaching and error. The three criteria are:

    1)  Conformity to the “rule of faith” – that is Christian truth that was recognized as standard teaching in the churches. It was important to keep out false teaching so that believers would not be led astray in their beliefs.
    2)  Apostolicity – that is, were these books written by the apostles or people close to the apostles, such as Luke and Mark?
    3)  Widespread usage in the churches – Were these books widely and continually accepted and used by churches everywhere?

The books that we have in the New Testament fulfill all of these criteria, whereas other works, such as the Gnostic gospels – i.e the Gospels of Thomas, Mary, etc – do not. They were written years after the apostles and those directly in contact with the apostles had died. They were not accepted throughout the whole church, and they did not conform to what the apostles had taught and passed down. Therefore, they were not authoritative, and not to be included in the canon.

The Bible then is a collection of works written by different authors over a long period of time. To name just a few, there is Moses, David, Luke, Paul, and John. The Old Testament was written over several centuries. The New Testament was written within a period of about 60 to 70 years.  The books that make up the Bible also belong to different genres. By this we mean that some are histories, some are laws, some are poetry, some are letters (of encouragement and teaching), and some are prophecy. Some books contain multiple genres. Some critics of the Bible use this information to say that the Bible is merely a library of stories, written by different men at different times. Merely this and nothing more. However, we have to stand and say an emphatic “No, it’s not!”

We believe that there is a “metanarrative” – a big story – that runs throughout the Bible. There are several themes, all a part of “the bigger picture,” that says that Bible is one big story: the sinfulness of man, the holiness of God, the need for man to be redeemed, the coming of the Messiah (the Christ) and Redeemer, God’s activity in and love for the world.

The Scriptures themselves attest to this in its descriptions of itself. How does the Bible describe itself? We'll take a look at that next time.

NOTES:
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_canon    NOTE: I did not get my information in the lesson from this source, but I believe that it does a decent job of presenting you a little more information on canon and it does provide avenues for you to continue your search. Always remember, though, that you MUST take Wikipedia articles with a large grain of salt, and never rely on it as your only source. It's a good starting point, but you must always dig deeper! Much of this information on canon came from class notes, with reference to Carson and Moo's An Introduction to the New Testament.