Making Followers… Not Fans
After considering baptism’s involvement within discipleship, not just as a starting point but as a necessary component throughout one’s life, we can then consider the next portion of Christ’s Great Commission, and the second ideal within the command to make disciples. We are not only to saturate everyone that we meet in the presence of God and teach them about the nature of God and the work of Christ, but we are also to teach them to obey everything that Christ commands. So, we first teach them about who God is, and then we teach them how to follow God, not just be a part of His fan club. This places us in quite the situation as believers and causes us to wrestle with a few questions concerning our own relationship with the world around us. If we are to make disciples of all nations, not just the Christian population, then are we to hold all people to God’s standard, even if they choose not to subject themselves to that standard? Is someone who claims to be a Christian really a disciple if he or she does not obey the commands in scripture? If we are to make disciples of all nations, does this mean that we also teach non-Christians to obey Christian law, and at what point does our lifestyle come off as us simply judging everyone else on the face of the planet?
Holding the world to God’s standard
So, is it necessary for us to hold the world around us to God’s standard, since we are to make disciples of all nations and since making disciples consists of teaching others to obey what the Lord, Jesus Christ commanded?
“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. Do not give dogs what is holy and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.”
Matthew 7:1-6 ESV
Jesus commands His disciples not to judge people, and follows His command with a teaching about how the relationships should be between His followers. Do not point out your brother’s problems without first working to overcome your own. Then, and only then, do you have a right to help your brother overcome His problem. After this, Jesus tells His disciples not to give dogs what is holy and not to throw their pearls before pigs.
Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, is notorious for picketing the funerals of America’s heroes and for protesting in the streets of American cities. The church’s one message is this, “God hates America and fags.” The members of the church continue to militantly hold the world to what they believe to be God’s standard. In fact, in a paper in which their argument is made for God’s hatred, it is recorded that “This writing provides the details that support the sayings of the prophets of Westboro Baptist Church, in the Last of the Last Days, to wit, God Hates Fags and God Hates America.”15
The above example reveals to all those who observe that, at least in extreme cases, holding the world around us to God’s standard, or what we believe to be God’s standard, is a dangerous thing. This is why Christ, when speaking to His disciples, said, “Do not give dogs what is holy and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.”16
If Christ is speaking of us working to keep God’s standard before we help our brother to keep God’s standard, then He is also commanding His followers not to hold a non-"God loves everyone" Christian world to the standards of God. After all, God’s standards are a treasure for God’s people. When we begin holding a non-Christian world to the standards of God, the world tramples on those standards and then turns to the Church, calling it a hypocritical and judgmental institution; instead of seeing the love of God that we are to portray. Still, there is a problem if the world apart from God is not held to a Godly standard. If we are not to hold the world to God’s standard, then what standard is there for people who choose not to subject themselves to God’s law? What standard, both moral and intellectual, is there for the world apart from Christ? Are the people of that world free to do as they wish? Are they not bound morally? Do they have no accountability? Are we to just allow them to determine what sort of religion is acceptable? If we do not hold them to God’s standard, is it possible to bring them to God or to disciple them at all?
According to the Gospel of John, chapter one, Jesus Christ, who was with God and who was God in the beginning, came to Earth to reveal the grace and truth of God to all men. Now Jesus, who was God, is telling His disciples not to hold the world to God’s standard, which was also Jesus’ standard. If we were to read into the passage, we could almost say that Jesus was accusing the disciples of taking His job, “Do not hold people to my standard because that is mine to do!” Since we are good Christians, though, we will not read into scripture what scripture does not say. Instead, we will look at what scripture does say concerning God’s authority to hold people to His own true standard. Paul writes to the believers in Rome, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.”17
It is God’s place, and God’s place alone to hold all people to His standard. Even though we, God’s people, have an obligation to pursue that standard and even though we have an obligation to help our brothers and sisters to pursue that standard, God alone has the authority to enforce that standard, and He does. This means that many Christians are guilty of making themselves out to be God.
For if anyone works to enforce God’s standard in a world that denies God’s authority, especially considering the fact that God alone can enforce His standard, then that person assumes the position of God and, therefore, blasphemes the name of God. God sets the standard for all people, and God enforces that standard, whether His judgment comes soon or whether He chooses to postpone according to our limited perception. We must not be guilty of undermining God’s authority. We are God’s image, why do we assume, on many occasions, to be more: to be God?
Disobedient disciple?
I know a young woman, who will remain unnamed, that was a leader in her youth group. When she revealed publically her preference for same gender romantic relationships, her youth sponsors talked with her about the sinful nature all people are born into and the need for all people to overcome that sinful nature, however it might manifest itself. After thinking about what they said, and agreeing with them, this young woman decided that, despite what scripture said regarding the subject and despite her inability to be who God created her to be, she would continue to practice homosexuality while, at the same time, pursuing a relationship with God. Is it possible for her, or any of us, to actively pursue a relationship with God while also being disobedient? Is it possible for us to be disobedient, but true, disciples?
What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
James 4:1-6 ESV
The answer to the questions posed above should be obvious, especially according to the passage above. No. It is not possible for anyone to live in disobedience to God while also pursuing God as a disciple. Fights and quarrels are caused by our own desires; the same desires we are to overcome in order to gain a greater desire for God. It is no coincidence that James equates our giving in to our own desires as being a friend of the world, or of the ideals and philosophies of the world apart from the presence of God. It only makes sense then, that a true disciple has such a yearning for God that if he or she learns that personal desires are conflicting with desires for God, he or she will overcome his or her selfish desire in order to gain a greater relationship with God. That is what separates a follower from a fan, an adorer from an admirer, a disciple from a member of some baseless religion.
What of sin, then? Can we not sin and still be a disciple? According to Christ’s own words, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven, except for blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.18 Jesus also states throughout His ministry, that whosoever believes in the one and only Son of God will gain eternal life.19 This means that the only way that any person can blaspheme the Holy Spirit is by ignoring His invitation to Christ throughout his or her life on Earth. Every other sin will be forgiven. Of course, though all sins are forgiven, we choose to hold on to sin by not moving on from the sin that has been forgiven of us. We choose to live in the sin that Christ conquered.
Living in sin is growing complacent with the sin in our lives and trying to hold on to it while also trying to serve God. We know, according to James, chapter four, that we cannot be a disciple and live in sin simultaneously. Is it possible to live in sin and still receive the eternal life that Christ promised?
For about three years I lived in this type of backslidden state. I was ignoring God, or at least trying to. I gave my life to Christ and He didn’t let me forget it. For even though I belonged completely to God, I waged war against God because I chose to live as a friend to the world apart from God, and God opposed me. Though I lived a life pitted against God, He did not allow me to grow content with that life. Now, as a result, I am waging war in God’s name against the ideas, beliefs and attitudes of this world. That, I believe, is the difference. A Christian will be convicted. An imposter will be content with sin in his or her life. An imposter is just what the Pharisees were whom Jesus was talking to in the twelfth chapter of Matthew’s Gospel.
If we choose to live as though we are holy without accepting the power of Holy Spirit in our lives, then we presume the place of the Holy Spirit and, once again, assume the position that God should have. To be this way until our earthly bodies dies is an act of blasphemy toward the Holy Spirit and earns us an eternal death, even in the face of Christ’s sacrifice for all sin. Other than this, all sin is forgiven. So, one can sin and still be a Christian. Even so, if a person chooses to live in sin and is not convicted to the point where he or she is wholly miserable, I am convinced that they do not belong to Christ. If a brother or sister chooses to live in sin while constantly being convicted by the Holy Spirit, he or she becomes incapable of being a true disciple, or of being able to mature in the faith and therefore fail to represent God in the fullest manner possible.
As Christians we meet God and are satisfied once, only to be met with dissatisfaction in the faith because we try and hold on to part of our lives. As Disciples we meet God and are satisfied indefinitely because we hold nothing back. We forsake our own agenda, system of beliefs, attitudes and actions in order that God may impart His character upon us.