Discipleship - Faith

According to Paul David Tripp “The church is not a theological classroom. It is a conversion, confession, repentance, reconciliation, forgiveness and sanctification centre, where flawed people place their faith in Christ, gather to know and love him better, and learn to love others as he designed.”

This correlates with the 4th verse of the lovely hymn by Robert Walmsley 

Come to my heart, 

O thou wonderful love,

come and abide,

lifting my life till it rises above

envy and falsehood and pride:

seeking to be

lowly and humble, a learner of thee.

“A learner of thee” - is perhaps the most succinct description of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.

In ancient Judaism, discipleship was taken very seriously. It was taken so seriously that eager disciples would try to follow their rabbi (teacher) everywhere they went. Why? Because they wanted to see the rabbi, not just in a classroom setting (though there were no “classrooms at the time), but in real life.

They wanted to see how their rabbi treated his family, handled his money, did his chores. Disciples would even compete to be present while their teacher made meals and went about day to day activities.

In Matthew 4:19-20 we read “Walking along the beach of Lake Galilee, Jesus saw two brothers: Simon (later called Peter) and Andrew. They were fishing, throwing their nets into the lake. It was their regular work. Jesus said to them, “Come with me. I’ll make a new kind of fisherman out of you. I’ll show you how to catch men and women instead of perch and bass.” They didn’t ask questions, but simply dropped their nets and followed.”

Perhaps we should sometime just sit at the feet of Jesus and learn of him.

Teach us, good Lord,
To serve thee as thou deservest;
To give and not to count the cost;
To fight and not to heed the wounds;
To toil and not for seek for rest;
To labour and not to ask for any reward
Save that of knowing that we do thy will. Amen