Defining Discipleship

We are commissioned to make disciples of all nations. But what does discipleship look like? What is the process and outcome of discipleship? In other words, how do we define discipleship?

Romans 8:29
For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;

Discipleship must be understood in the light of God’s workmanship on sons, which is the same light as God’s workmanship on the firstborn Son in the days of His flesh; for the outcome of discipleship must be the image and likeness of the Son in the flesh of sons. In other words, as an outcome, discipleship says, “‘You are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect’ (Matthew 5:48), and ‘it is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, and the slave like his master'” (Matthew 10:25).

As such, even as discipleship cries out, “Be imitators of me, just as I am of Christ,” (1 Corinthians 11:1), discipleship is the person, the source, the content, and the process for forming Godliness, which is Christlikeness, in the flesh of sons, until sons attain to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of the Son (Ephesians 4:13) as an outcome.

In addition, discipleship must be understood in the light of God’s ongoing and consummating work on earth through His Son, specifically, through the body of Christ. Discipleship must be seen as the work of God expressing in and through us, “both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13), “with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth” (Ephesians 1:10). It is in this light that discipleship is a person, a source, a content, and a process of obedience to God who works all things through the body of His Son after the counsel of His will, on earth as it is in heaven.

2 Timothy 2:2
The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

Thus, from the Christ-centric perspective, discipleship is a person, a source, a content, and a process of sanctifying (or forming) Christ in our body, and expressing ourselves in Christ’s body. It is at this level of discipleship that we become followers of Christ.

Galatians 4:19
My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you—

With the Christ-centric perspective of discipleship in mind, let us consider another perspective of discipleship.

1 Corinthians 4:15
For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.

Much of today’s discipleship is modelled after tutors and mentors. However, Apostle Paul went beyond tutoring and mentoring; he went into spiritual fathering.

Philemon 10
I appeal to you for my child Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my imprisonment,

1 Timothy 1:2
To Timothy, my true child in the faith: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

Titus 1:4
To Titus, my true child in a common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.

Spiritual fathering is premised on spiritual fathers begetting, or bringing up, spiritual sons in their image and likeness, of which are and must be begotten in the image and likeness of the Father.

1 Corinthians 4:16-17
Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me. For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and he will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, just as I teach everywhere in every church.

In general, disciples are tutored and mentored, while sons are fathered. In the days of His flesh, Jesus was not a disciple, but He was a Son; Jesus was not tutored or mentored, but He was fathered.

Just as the Father had set Joseph and Mary over His Son until the appointed time (c.f. Luke 2:48-51), the Father has set earthly guardians called spiritual fathers to bring up His sons on earth until the set time has come for their revealing as matured sons (c.f. Galatians 4:1-2). Spiritual fathering, that is, fathering sons of God through human lives who accurately express the Fatherhood of God, is possible because the Spirit of the Father by whom we cry out “Abba, Father!” has been poured out on Pentecost. Therefore, discipleship must move progressively from tutoring and mentoring into fathering.

So, from the Father-centric perspective, discipleship is a person, a source, a content, and a process of fathering sons who express the image, likeness, and ways of the Father fully.

In summary, discipleship is the workmanship of God and Father in and through human lives. It involves a person, a source, a content, and a process. Its purpose is to bring up sons in the image and likeness of the firstborn Son, who is the perfect representation of the Father.

Through discipleship, let us form Christ in sons until we have begotten full-grown sons in whom the Father is well-pleased, to the praise of the glory of His grace.

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