‘I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will
give you whatever you ask him in my name’ (John 15:16).
Are we just believers in Christ or are
we disciples of Christ? There is an important distinction to be made between
the ‘believer’ and the ‘disciple’. It is true that we would like there to be as
many believers in Christ as possible. It is much preferable for there to be
many genuine believers rather than just notional believers. St Paul tells us in
2 Corinthians 5, ‘Therefore
if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things are passed away;
behold, all things are become new’ (2 Cor. 5:17). Or as the New Living Translation of 2007 has
it, ‘The old life is gone; a new life
has begun!’
And yet Jesus makes this distinction between believers and
disciples. Every
disciple is a believer, we may claim. However, not every believer is a
disciple. Being a disciple is something more. There is a greater maturity;
there is a greater commitment; above all there is greater knowledge and with
it, greater understanding of the issues at stake. There are, it has been suggested, at
least four distinctions of a disciple: (1) abiding in the Word; (2) loving
other disciples; (3) bearing fruit, and (4) being prepared to pay the price of
following Jesus.
‘If you hold to my
teaching, you are really my disciples’ (John 8:31). You must know and live in His
Word to be His disciple. A Christian who does not know and abide in His word is
a believer, but not a disciple. Some authorities (e.g. Andreas J. Köstenberger
in The Encyclopedia of Christian
Civilization [2011], i. 694) emphasise that discipleship refers to ‘a
person’s life commitment to a body of teaching as exemplified by the teacher [or
rabbi] himself’. By being in a privileged group around Jesus, the first
disciples came to know ‘the truth’, and that the truth would make the believer
free (John 8:32). For a disciple of Jesus, profound knowledge of, and
reflection upon, his teaching is the starting point.
As for the second distinction of
discipleship, many Christians love one another in word but not in deed: they
pay lip service to the command that ‘all men will know that you are my
disciples, if you have love for one another’ (John 13:35). The self-giving or agape love taught by Jesus requires
fidelity and sincerity. As Paul observed, we must ‘be devoted to one another in brotherly love’. We must ‘honour one
another above ourselves’ (Rom. 12:10). Our attitude should be the same as that
of Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5). We must cease being self-centred and become
Christ-centred.
A believer in Christ may nevertheless be a fruitless
believer. A fruitless disciple is a contradiction in terms. ‘By this is My Father
glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so become – or prove to be – My
disciples’ (John 15:8). The branch abiding in the vine and bearing fruit in
John ch 15 is the believer becoming a disciple of Christ. Paul declared to the
Romans that he wanted to ‘reap some harvest among’ them as he had ‘among the
rest of the Gentiles’ (Rom. 1:13).
The final distinction between a
Christian and a disciple is a particularly hard one, and one where most of us
fail: the Christian puts his family first, while the disciple puts Jesus first.
Jesus made it clear that His disciples must put Him first above their own
families or they could not be His disciples (e.g. Luke 18:29-30). There is no
discipleship without cost, Paul says: we have to make ‘a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God’ (Rom 12:1). ‘…none of you can be My disciple
who does not give up all’ (Luke 14:33) – that is, it is suggested, ‘all claims
to human relationships, self, and possessions’. We
are required to be good stewards of what God leaves us with, but we must
remember it is on loan for His glory.
For a time our primary duties may be to
our families, because we have a duty of care for sick parents or we have to
care for our children. As one pastor puts it, ‘... As God has added more children to my “quiver” (Psalm 127:5),
it has become all the more important that I “redeem the time” – not merely
“balance” time between family and work, but prioritize my family and in
particular seek to share with my children the good and gracious things of the Lord.
But we are not called to do this all our lives. Our children grow up and
leave the nest. In large measure we have discharged our duty of care. Then, we
are no longer called to remain believers. Jesus calls each and every one of his
believers to press on to meet that fourth test, willingness to accept
sacrifices, in order to become His disciple.
‘Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from
me you can do nothing…’ ‘My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much
fruit and become my disciples.’ In so doing, we receive Christ’s grace or love
ourselves. A new life has begun and we
move on to strengthen our common life in church, accepting one another’s
failings in a spirit of love, and working towards change to the new life for
the whole people of God.
We remember that each one of us has been given a
special gift. ‘Each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift.’ The
‘measure of Christ’s gift’ in Eph. 4:7 is rendered in the Revised English
Version as a ‘due portion in Christ’s bounty’. This is what we all receive
through the love of Christ. It is not for us to hide that gift under a bushel.
For us to ‘bear much fruit’ in becoming God’s disciples, it is for us to
discern that special gift which each of us has and use it here and now in his
service, in the mighty task of trying to build up God’s kingdom in this world
and not the next.
