Discipleship - What is it?

       Discipleship is something that has been stressed a lot in my life during the past year or so. During my senior year in Bible School, I was an RA, and I was leading a one-on-one Bible Study on I John for counseling class. The responsibility of those two things, coupled with the enthusiasm my counseling teacher had for discipleship, instilled in me a passion for discipling others, and a desire to become a more fervent disciple of Christ.
       Close to a year ago, I began a short study on my own to learn more about discipleship. I wanted to find the answer to the questions, "What is discipleship?"; "How did Jesus disciple others while He was on Earth?"; "What is required to disciple others?"; "How can we learn discipleship?"; and, "What methods can be used in discipling others?"
       I plan to do a short blog series on discipleship, hopefully giving answers to these questions and giving my readers a desire to learn more about being a disciple and about discipling others. I will not pretend to have discipleship completely figured out, so if any of my readers begin studying it and find more answers to these questions, I will always be interested to hear what you learn!
       According to the New Webster's Dictionary, a disciple is one who accepts the doctrines or training of another; therefore, sensibly, what I would term a "discipler" would be someone who trains the disciple. As people who believe the Word of God, what does it look like for Christians to "accept the doctrines or trainings" of Jesus Christ?
       Perhaps one of the most well-known passages in the New Testament is Matthew 28:19-20,
"'Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.' Amen." (NKJV)
       This is only one of the many teachings of Christ, but it encompasses so many. It commands discipleship, and as each believer is to teach other believers to "observe all things that I have commanded you", the disciple should, in turn, obey Jesus' command to be a "discipler".
       This command, usually called "The Great Commission" is often used to promote foreign missions. And while there is definitely not a problem with that, I believe that it goes farther - or nearer - than that.
       The Greek word for "Go", transliterated "poreuthentes", is an aorist passive participle which would be translated, "while you are going". The word for "make disciples" is "mathéteusate", which is 2nd person plural, aorist active imperative, which is translated, "you all make disciples!" In simple English, the idea would be that as we are going about our everyday lives, wherever we are - in our hometown, at college, in foreign missions, anywhere! - we must make disciples! It is imperative!
       Discipleship is not a one-way street, however. As already mentioned, discipleship should produce a disciple that will in turn disciple others. Which means that the one who is doing the discipling must be discipled themselves! I will write more about that in a later post, but to conclude this one, how much do you know about discipleship? Are you yourself being discipled? And are you actively discipling others, or at least seeking someone to disciple?