Is Every Christian and Disciple?
I was reading in the 10th chapter of Matthew where Jesus was giving instructions to those first disciples. Heal the sick and drive out demons. Don’t pack any suitcases; scrounge food along the way. If they don’t listen to you, leave ‘em and move on. “Shake the dust off your feet” was the expression Jesus used. Think of yourself as sheep among wolves. I’ve never liked the way wolves kill. Lions go for the throat and strangle their prey, and then they eat them. Wolves eat on their prey when they are still living.
I think “being cunning as serpents” means learning to read the intents of others. Being dove-like seems to imply being sincere with no hidden motives. But when Jesus warns His disciples that being His disciple might turn fathers against sons, brothers against brothers, it seems like an unchristian thing to do.
This is the point in Christ’s instructing His disciples in the manner in which He did. He wanted them to understand that when they took up their cross and followed Him, they would be proclaiming the message of the cross.
This would not be their message. We read in Acts chapter eleven that The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch. Acts `11:26 This was the work of the Holy Spirit that bound these two words together–Christian/Disciple.
Having this in mind, that “to be a Christian is to be a disciple,” one can better understand what Jesus meant when He told His disciples So do not be afraid of those who can destroy your body. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. Luke 12:5 To be a Christian is to be a disciple of the One who is the Word of God. The more we search the Scriptures, the more we grow in the faith that will affect our eternal salvation.
Lurking in the shadows of our lives are the hostile voices that tell us salvation must be earned. As faithful followers of Christ, the salvation that God offers us is free. And the Holy Spirit has authored the Scriptures in such a way that the more we study them the more the Spirit leads us. Dan van Voorhis writes about intertextuality “meaning the Bible referencing itself.”
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
John 13:35
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Matthew 28:18-20
