On becoming and making disciples...part 2

The previous post came perilously close to obsessive focus on what's wrong with the church. Let me try to shift our eyes toward some more positive thinking.

When Jesus told us to go make disciples, he immediately followed that command with a series of statements that reveal the complexity and holistic nature of what that process involves. If you break it down phrase by phrase, several things slowly (at first for me anyway) become clearer; kind of like a long, slow gaze upon the facets of a polished gemstone.

Jesus said "go" make disciples; it's a command that implies intentionality.

The scope of this command is global; "all nations" are the focus. Not just people like me!

"baptizing them in the name of the Father...Son...Holy Spirit." the idea here includes, but is not limited to dunking. New insight for me here; to baptize in the metaphorical sense means to immerse. One of the most effective ways to learn a foreign language is called "Immersion;" where all that the person hears is, say, Spanish for an extended period of time. Doing so allows the student's ears to adjust to the tempo, sound and inflection of the language. Jesus commands us to immerse ourselves in a way of existence shaped by the very Trinity itself! We're to dive into a way of life that is patterned after the same love and power experienced by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; that's what is meant by "in the name of..." As we order our lives around the same things that Jesus did, our ears (in a spiritual sense) get used to "hearing" God's voice.

"...teaching them to obey..." with an ever increasing capacity to "hear" God comes the responsibility to actually DO what He's telling us. When I played football in college we had a constant parade of freakish, musclebound guys who would show up on campus wanting to tryout for the team. They were huge, strong and mean, but most never made the cut because, while they had built up enormous muscle mass (some, I'm sure with the help of pharmaceutical substances of a dubious nature!) they lacked core physical and mental strength.

They looked like Tarzan and played like Jane. Learning without obedience produces the same kind of Christian.

And notice, Jesus doesn't say "teach them to enjoy creative sermons,"

or "teach them to be titilated by sophisticated theological discussions,"

or "teach them to evaluate the presentation like a spiritual food critic."

He said "teach them to obey;" nothing less is acceptable.

"...and surely I am with you..." its both a shot of encouragement and a hint of warning. In Him is the power to learn, to obey, to become a disciple. But with that comes a sobering thought; He is watching, expecting, insisting that we actually do it.