What is a Disciple?

Pastor Gary Oser

Before Jesus returned to His Father in Heaven, He gave His followers and the Church some clear “marching orders.” They are found in the words of what is known as the Great Commission. It is found in some form in each of the four Gospels and the book of Acts. I will share the words from Matthew’s Gospel:

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20 NASB).

Female holding a mug sitting across from man holding an open Bible

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez | Unsplash

We often emphasize the word “go,” but the command is to make disciples. If we are going to obey this command, we need to understand what a disciple is. Over the next few months, I want to share about disciples. To start, a broad definition of the word would be a follower. More specifically, a disciple is a learner, one apprenticed to a teacher to learn from him. We could say that for Christians, disciples are “people learning Jesus.”

The authors of the book, The Vine Project, share the following words about disciples:

“But in the case of Jesus’ disciples, the outcome of this learning was not simply the mastery of a certain body of knowledge—what we would associate with classroom or academic learning. What the disciples were learning was a way of life…The not only listened to the Teacher’s (Jesus’) words, but saw His words in action in His life and sought to learn that way of life by being with Him constantly.”

Are you sincerely trying to learn and live out Jesus’ way of life? I would make just a few simple suggestions as to how you can better do that.

Green book with "walking with God" written on spine

Photo by Jon Tyson | Unsplash

  1. Meet together with believers regularly in order to be accountable. Hebrews 10:25 tells us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together but to encourage one another.

  2. Put the Word of God into practice. Along with reading God’s Word (the Bible), we need to allow it to influence our priorities and our behavior.

  3. Pray regularly. “Lord, change me to be more like Jesus.” Pray the words of the chorus of a great hymn, “O, to be like Thee! O to be like Thee, blessed Redeemer, pure as Thou art! Come in Thy sweetness; come in Thy fullness. Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.”