Okay, I have a question for all of you out there to ponder and give me your best responses on:
What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus?
I’m ready to learn from you, so knock it out of the park.
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Matthew Erickson 
To learn from Him and then to go out and be like Him. For it is not enough to just learn and grow but we are to display Christ in our everyday life. So how do we do this? First and foremost we need to understand what the Bible says and how it applies to us, for if we don’t know what it teaches how can we do what it says. So Matt was this what you were going for?
Foremost, fully, faithfully, forever, follow Him! “To live is Christ…” Philippians 1:21
Just interested in people’s thought on it. I’d love to hear from more folks.
I beleive we are disciples when we live in unity as a diverse community, no longer following the patterns of this world, but instead commit to living as Jesus, sacraficially giving up ourselves for others in love. We participate with God, living in the kingdom story today, working together and serving one another as we model after the members of Trinity. We become living sacrafices and continue the story of God’s people into eternity.
Leslie,
I appreciate the way that you weave together community and self-sacrifice around Christ in your reflections on the life of a disciple. I’d like to dig into further questions of what it means to live sacrificially and how we actually step outside the patterns of this world, but I’ll save that for another post.
To be a disciple means to be a follower of Jesus; willingly obedient, and disciplined in God’s Word. We must fix our eyes on Jesus, die to earthly desires, and be willing to deny our own selves and pick up our cross daily to follow the Lord. We are to be willing to lose our life for the sake of Him. (Luke 9:23-24) “And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:27). A disciple experiences newness of life in turning away from selfishness, pride, and pursuit of one’s own ambitions. God has challenged me personally to love Him more than my very own life ~ to live to glorify Him.
Kristine,
Like Leslie, you give the clear picture of moving from one way of living (self-focused) to another way of living (selflessly God-focused). I appreciate the centrality of the Cross in what you said, as well as the aim of glorifying Him.
to be a student of Jesus in the best sense of the word. To be with him, to learn who he is, what he knows, what he does, and to take his word and to put it into practice. A disciple doesn’t just admire Jesus (though there must be admiration), he/she follows Jesus – moves in his company, goes where he goes and calls.That means giving your heart and yielding your will
Love God. Love others. The rest happens as God ordains!
Ann, you have nailed the essence of this. Jesus focuses is in on these two commands as the central truths of what it means to live life with God.
I like this definition. It is simple and easy to remember and basically covers it. But the issues come up in the details. Those details are important for both the individuals groups that the individuals participate in.
We all can think of details that other groups leave out, but we often are not as good seeing the details we leave out from ourselves and our own group.
My short version what include faith and abiding. I think if you get the relational tie to Jesus well, you learn, listen, and follow along the way.
Thanks for putting the emphasis on the relationship with Christ, Brian. I do believe that we can over-complicate things at times. If we actually learn to walk with Jesus, much of what we hope to see in others will follow.
To be a disciple of Jesus is to go where He tells you to go and live like He tells you to live…. to follow His commands and do His work like the disciples that walked alongside him during His life on earth. to be His disciple is to walk alongside him and show his light to the people we come in contact with. He has given us a job to do here, while we are on this earth. …and He gives us the power to do it too!
Anne,
As you said at the end, “He gives us the power to do it too!” Thank the Lord for not only the call to follow and the direction for living but for the power for living by His indwelling Holy Spirit, as well.
A disciple is one that continually keeps the glory of God as central to all they do. They continually behold Jesus so that they become more like him.
Disciples use their “beholding of Jesus” to lead into “doing”; that is, as they behold Jesus more and more, they start doing the things that Jesus did. They bring his love and mercy to others because Jesus did that. They pursue God in all they do because Jesus did that. They seek God’s glory in the great and mundane things of the day because that’s what Jesus did.
Short answer: A disciple is one who is becoming like Christ!
I would suggest that to be a disciple of Jesus is to have His heart. In Christianity we seem to be focused on knowledge – memorizing scripture, Bible Studies, sermons… None of that is bad BUT I believe it is important to remember that the curse in Genesis 3 involved the knowledge of evil and GOOD. Too often Christians are guilty of using good knowledge in a way that is bad. According to I Corinthians 13, it is possible to have all knowledge and have it mean nothing. To avoid that we must have God’s heart. I believe that is why Jesus came and lived with the first disciples and God gave us a book about relationships. He could have just given us a book with instructions (actually that is what some of the OT is). God knew we needed to understand His heart so He came to this earth so we could see His heart first hand. To live as His discipleship we too must have His heart. A heart that is broken for the broken and willing to reach out to the hurting and filled with grace for those who are walking in ways that dishonor God. In my own life I have often been quick to judge those who needed understanding. I have been slow to recognize that God is working in the lives of those I want to straighten out and fix with easy answers. I am slowly learning the importance of having God’s heart and allowing Him to be God. In trying to follow the Lord in a way that allows others to see His heart – no matter whether they agree with my narrow and limited version of life or not – I believe I am growing as a disciple of Jesus.