Jesus commanded His disciples to go and make disciples of all nations and teach them to observe everything that He had commanded.
The command is to make disciples
We live in a day where we judge the success of churches by baptisms, buildings, bodies, and bucks. Unfortunately this means that Jesus’ command is neglected. Jesus wanted the disciples to be disciple makers. He desired for each believer to mature in their faith until they could make disciples of others. This is the process that we see repeated throughout the New Testament.
Each believer should be able to make disciples
It is abundantly clear from Scripture that the goal of the Christian life is to make disciples for the glory of God. If we produce converts who do not grow to produce converts we have failed. We must disciple every believer to the point of maturity where they can in turn make disciples.
Discipleship is Christianity
The call to follow Christ is a call to learn of Him and to grow into His likeness. We are commanded to not only follow everything that Jesus has commanded, but we are also called to teach others to do the same. This is the essence of Christianity.
Discipleship is life on life
Jesus taught His disciples by living with them, eating with them, sharing possessions with them, praying with them, and teaching them the Word of God. Is it any wonder that as soon as the disciples had a new group of believers that they did the same thing?
Think of it this way. In three and a half years the disciples would have spent close to 15000 hours learning from Jesus. To learn this much information by only attending church for an hour a week would take you close to 300 years. The only way to produce mature disciples in anything close to a timely manner is to continue daily from house to house in doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer.
Application
Are you a disciple? Are you whole heartedly seeking to become more like Christ? Who are you discipling?
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