The More You Know

Would you say that you are a disciple of Jesus? If I were to ask you what makes someone a disciple of Jesus, what would you say? Would others use the phrase “disciple of Jesus” to describe you? Why or why not? Would you like to be described this way? 

Matthew 4:18-22 introduces us to discipleship. Jesus was walking along the shore of the sea of Galilee when He called His first disciples, Peter, Andrew, James and John. I’m not sure if you noticed this, but Jesus did not hand these men a Bible and tell them to memorize it. He gave them a command to follow. He invited them into obedience. 

Many people on our side of the globe seem to equate discipleship with biblical knowledge these days. We feel like if we are going to become better disciples, we have to memorize more scripture. We have developed and cultivated a knowledge-based discipleship world and moved away from the obedience-based discipleship model that Jesus began when He started His ministry. 

Jesus commanded those first disciples to follow Him. They were to drop everything and obey, and that is exactly what they did. They left their jobs and their families to follow Jesus; no questions asked. When was the last time that you dropped everything to obey what Jesus was commanding you to do? 

The early disciples had no Bible to study and memorize. They had Jesus. The early disciples did not have a church service to attend every Sunday. They had Jesus. They lived with Jesus. They watched His every move. They heard all of His stories. Most importantly, they obeyed Him. Their obedience was what made them disciples. Obedience is the key to true discipleship. 

As you know, Jesus drew large crowds wherever He went. He taught thousands of people at a time sometimes. So why doesn’t the Bible tell us that He had thousands of disciples? Because hearing His word and memorizing His stories and lessons is not true discipleship. Obedience is. 

Here is the interesting thing, after Jesus died His disciples still had no Bible to study or memorize. They had no Bible to teach from or give to people to read and study. All they had was their lives. The way that they lived their lives taught others about Jesus. Their obedience is what caused Christianity to spread like wildfire, not their knowledge.

We have the freedom to choose whether or not we will be obedient to Jesus and His commands, just like His first disciples did. I’m not sure where this idea came from that in order to be a true disciple of Jesus, you have to know the most, but it is simply not true. Jesus did not gather the most educated scholars in the villages to be His disciples. He gathered fishermen. Jesus didn’t give His disciples a list of things to memorize or countless things to study. Jesus commanded His disciples to obey. Obedience was, and still is, the most important thing. 

Don’t misunderstand what I am saying here. Reading, studying, and memorizing scripture is very important. I am not saying that these things are not important. I am saying that these are not the most important things. Reading, studying, and memorizing scripture mean nothing if we are not obeying what that scripture says. 

Try it this week and see what happens. Read a passage of scripture this week and commit to going out and doing what it says for the whole week. See what happens when you obey scripture before you even memorize it. See how your relationships with friends, family, and coworkers change. See how your relationship with Jesus changes. See how your faith changes. Changes will come, and I would love to hear about it. Post what happens to our Community Page on Facebook or email us with details. Not many things are more encouraging than stories of obedience, so make sure to share yours with someone. I know you’ll be glad that you did.