For a long while I thought there were only two types of cheese, “grated” or “block”. It wasn’t until my wife introduced these funny looking little “cakes” and called them “cheese” also that I realised just how limited my understanding of cheese was. This was blown apart further still in my introduction to www.cheese.com. There are 300+ different types of cheese in their database! When I said “cheese” I was thinking one thing, but when my wife said “cheese” she was thinking so much more.
I sometimes wonder whether Jesus’ use of the word “disciples” in the great commission in Matthew 28:18-20 has some cheesy misconceptions to it also. I must admit that for me, an ongoing desire that people might be “saved” from sin and its penalty, and start living the eternal life with Christ has had the effect of limiting the meaning of the word “disciple” for me. The word “disciple” had in my mind become understood to mean someone who is “saved”. Like a brie-filled cheese education though, I have recently been come to understand a more fully orbed meaning of the term “disciple”.
It is not synonymous with “saved person”, though Jesus’ disciples are saved. It is not synonymous with a person who has subscribed to a set of wonderful truths, though they certainly have. Discipleship is about being changed into the likeness of Christ (Luke 6:40). Really following him. Loving him enough to investigate the areas of your life that aren’t in step with his life and changing them. Discipleship is costly (Luke 14:25-33). Discipleship changes you.
I knew deep down that discipleship was more than saying yes to a truth and getting my ticket to a Christ-filled eternity. I think you do to. There is such clarity to be had in understanding discipleship as the process of becoming more like Jesus. Gaining clarity here has re-sent me on a journey to investigate my Lord and Saviour in order to be like him, and it has sent me rethinking what the command to “make disciples” in Matthew 28 is really all about.