17 June
DISCIPLESHIP IN LINE WITH THE GOSPEL
We have shared the task of God’s corporate servant, the church – carrying out the marching order of the Lord Jesus in fulfilling the Great Commission. We noted in particular that the appointed task is twofold – firstly, the work of worldwide witness, disciple-making, and church planting; and secondly to do it in practicing deeds of mercy and compassion, a thoroughgoing neighbour-love, thereby keeping the second great commandment and giving credibility to our proclamation of a Saviour who makes sinners into lovers of God and lovers of their fellow human beings. In other words, fulfilling the task given by the Master individually, and corporately, must be in line with displaying the power and reality of the gospel in the lives of the messengers, the disciples of Christ.
As we study the Gospels, we would notice that Jesus always emphasized character transformation; he never focused on outer disciplines and seldom discussed ministry skills. He began discipleship lessons with “be-attitudes,” not “do-activities”; among the “be-attitudes”, the Lord stressed humility (when he corrected the disciples on who is the greatest and who should sit next to him in his glorious kingdom); he demonstrated sacrificial love, meekness, mercy in his quest to be the ‘Lamb of God’ who takes away the sin of the world, reaching out to the outcasts, the ‘poor’, the sinner; as he set his direction towards Jerusalem, knowing fully well that such an objective will mean suffering and conflict; and he demonstrated courage, purity, and “power under control” and an unwavering desire and submission to the will of the heavenly Father. By looking at his life at close quarters, the disciples learned the rudiments of what it means to follow him and to be his disciples. He showed them what it means to be a servant as he, the Lord, washed their feet; he showed ‘zeal for his Father’s house, and he was not afraid to rebuke the Pharisees and the Jewish leaders for being hypocritical and legalistic, without real love for God and for righteousness. At the same time, he warned his disciples to be prepared for persecution and opposition as they pursued discipleship and faithfulness to God. Above all, the Lord demonstrated ‘grace’ in his life and taught what grace truly means in his parables on the ‘prodigal son’, the landowner who gave the same wage to workers who started work early and those who came later; and he spoke of judgment and hell (more than any others recorded in the NT).
What in effect is that Jesus was proclaiming, in his life, in his teachings, in his dealings with various ones, what it means to follow him and to be his disciples. He was in effect laying the groundwork for his disciples to live and uphold a lifestyle consistent with discipleship. and in line with the gospel (as seen in his life and mission).
Legalism divides the grace of God from his commandments. But separating God’s commandments from his grace is not the solution – it turns both grace and law into impersonal realities in which we lose hold of God himself. The God of grace is also the God of commandments; the two belong together and need to be embraced together in Christ – hence we see the Lord Jesus confronting the Pharisees on this and even pronouncing ‘woes’ on them.
What this means is that knowing Christ as Saviour and knowing him as Lord can never be separated; nor can justification and sanctification. They belong together in Christ. Genuine discipleship manifests in a lifestyle that takes on a character that reflects the character of the Lord Jesus Christ; this is needful in the quest of the disciples to fulfil the commission and task given by the Lord. The gospel is the message of the good news of Jesus Christ, and our lives are to be the embodiment of that good news. Paul put it in this way: the gospel is “the power of God for salvation” (Roml. 1:16), and we are to live in a powerfully saved way! In short, the Christian life is to be a version of “heaven on earth.” The privilege could not be greater; and the standard could not be higher!
The grace of God in Christ provides us with a new identity, a heavenly one; it follows that this – and not our natural identity – determines everything we do. Our identity, our citizenship, is heavenly. Our lives are “hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3), and when Christ appears, to bring about our final transformation into his likeness, then our true identity will become clear (Phil. 3:20-21; Col. 3:4; 1 John 3:1-2). What then, could be more logical and more compelling to live in this world as those who are citizens of another world; as true disciples seeking to bring others along with us to become such citizens by proclaiming the gospel and living in line with the gospel.
We need a complete alignment of our heads, our hearts, and our lives with the truths of the gospel; only then are we ready and able to carry out the commission and order from our Lord and Master.
The New Testament gives us virtually no advice about how to witness to Jesus Christ. Yet who can doubt the impact of the witness of the early church – all, apparently, without books, without TV programs, the Internet, or entire organisations and seminars by experts. What explains the difference? Perhaps the simple answer is that we have not lived in a way that is worthy of the gospel of Christ. We have had all too little of the lifestyle, the atmosphere, or the accent of heaven, where Christ is.
Living ‘worthy of the gospel of Christ’ is not a matter of techniques. It involves the development of Christian character. It is about who we are and what we become in Christ. It is a slow, all-demanding and arduous process. The easier and quicker option seems to be to learn how to get your life together and how to do things successfully. But to live worthy is much more a matter of living the life of the heavenly world while we are still on earth; it means to become someone who knows what it means “to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.” It is learning how the gospel of Jesus Christ transforms our character and builds Christlikeness into it – a Christlikeness that cannot be hidden and makes its own impression on others.
22 June
DISCIPLESHIP IN LINE WITH THE GOSPEL (B)
In the previous sharing, we noted that in order to understand and communicate the good news brought to the world by Jesus Christ, Christians have to do more than memorise and refer to Bible verses. We must be able to say why we have news that is good for our world – for today. In order to do that, we must be able to say how God’s love is shown in the gift of Jesus Christ and we must be able to show that love in the way we live our lives.
The church is the community that God calls to bear witness to Jesus Christ. The work of theology is to serve the mission of the church. Theology needs the church; the church needs good doctrine – the primary task of the church is to preach the gospel not produce theology. Theology should help the church learn the language of the gospel so that we may faithfully proclaim it. Theology should also help us learn how to live in faithfulness to the gospel so that not only our words but also our lives bear witness to the reality of God’s love.
The gospel is not an idea; it is a life that Christ’s disciples live today. The church must understand what God has done in Jesus Christ – his victory, sacrifice, the meaning of Jesus’ death and also his life. The cross of Christ shines a light on his life, helping us to understand from the cross the significance of what he said and did leading up to the cross. These images shine a light in the world today. If he is risen, ascended, and present through the Spirit, then the gospel is alive and active in the world today. Our knowledge of Jesus Christ and our life in him does not end with the New Testament; it continues in the world today.
The Christian Church thus embodies a way of seeing the world that is proclaimed, sustained and detailed in the Christian narrative – its controlling words, images and actions. We are thus called to see the world in its true light, by adopting a Christian ‘mental map’ that enables the world to be illuminated and brought into focus, so that it may be seen as it really is. The church serves the world by giving the world the means to see itself truthfully.
The Church has a role to play as a sign, instrument and foretaste of the kingdom of God, pointing towards the renewal of humanity’s hopes and the transformation of its situation through grace. The Church possesses the capacity to disclose this better future and to model and embody this in its witness to the world. The Church both anticipates the coming of the New Jerusalem in its proclamation and worship, and seeks to embody and exhibit its values in the present (through the lives of the disciples of Christ in her midst).
When people become Christians they do not cease to be sinners. Sinners are no more ready to acknowledge God in their thinking by allowing his utterances authority over their judgment, than they are to acknowledge God in their actions by allowing his utterances authority over their behaviour. Sin has its root in the mind, and this attitude of mind is its very essence. And when men become Christians, they are still prone in their pride to lapse into the assumption that there is no rationality or wisdom in merely taking their Creator’s word; they are still apt to demand instead that their reason be permitted to make its own independent assessment of what he says and to have the last word in deciding whether or not it is credible.
Once one succumbs and relapses to any degree into this sinful habit of mind, one is instantly drawn to the conclusion that Christians who continue to base their thinking on an unquestioning belief of what God has said are fettering reason, and stifling free thought. No doubt the devil would have told Eve as much, had she asked him.
But this is not so. The true problem is not between faith and reason (as if believing and thinking were mutually exclusive), but between a faithful and a faithless use of reason. Hence the need for discipleship of the mind as well, in wholesome discipleship in line with the gospel and the revelation of God.
Divine revelation is not about the violation of human reason, but a demonstration of its limits and a disclosure of what lies tantalizingly beyond its limits. It is about the illumination of the landscape of our world, so that we can see things more clearly. For Christians, this capacity to see things as they really are – rather than as they are glimpsed from the surface – is a gracious gift of God. Our eyes need to be opened so that what we once deemed to be an incoherence is recognised as arising out of our inability to see fully and properly.
Logic and facts can only ‘take us so far; then we have to go the rest of the way toward belief’. Human logic may be rationally adequate, but it is also existentially deficient. Faith declares that there is more to life than this. It does not contradict reason but transcends it. A ‘doctrineless’ Christianity is simply impossible, in that Christians need to think about the nature of their faith and its implications for the way they live. Indeed, we may well know God, but to comprehend God lies beyond our capacity!
Christian discipleship is not about mastering God, but being mastered by God – not as an act of craven intellectual submission to someone we fear, but as an act of joyful intellectual enrichment arising from the expansion of our rational and imaginative capacities in response to a captivating vision of God, which ends up setting us free.
This is truly expressed in the following prayer:
Eternal God, you are the light of the minds who know you, the life of the souls who love you, and the strength of the souls who serve you. Help us to know you that we may truly love you, so to love you that we may truly serve you, whose service is perfect wisdom. Amen.
24 June
APOSTLE JOHN ON DISCIPLESHIP IN LINE WITH THE GOSPEL
Several congregations had, as their church-camp study the book of Revelation. This was written by Apostle John, the only one of the apostles who remained alive, but was exiled to Patmos, and it was on this island that God revealed to him what was subsequently recorded in Revelation.
Prior to this, the same apostle John penned 1 John. In both 1 John and Revelation, Anti-christ was mentioned, and also the call to remain faithful to God in the face of opposition was highlighted in both.
What is unique in John’s writings is the simplicity of language he used, and the reference to ‘everyday illustrations’ which were most easily understood by the simple folks of his day; but mark this, the truths and principles he expounded are ‘deep’ and very relevant to living as disciples of Christ in line with the gospel that he and his fellow-apostles received and experienced first-hand.
“God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.”: (1John1:5b-7 TNIV).
Notice that John was referring to holiness and purity of life; there is absolutely no union or relationship between ‘darkness’ and ‘light’. Once light comes in, there is no longer darkness and vice versa; hence God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say we are Christians and we claim to have fellowship with God and yet continue to walk in ‘darkness’, there are several implications – we do not live in the truth and we lie. Also, if we walk in the light, then we have genuine fellowship with one another among believers, and the blood of Jesus his Son purifies us from all sin.
Note the relationship between truth, holiness, fellowship with God and fellow believers, and also the purification from sin (and forgiveness by implication). Often we quote 1 John 1:9 and happily claim that as long as we confess our sin, we would be forgiven (and that is true). But we must not forget that if we deliberately abandon the ‘light’ and continue to remain and walk in ‘darkness’, we lose the fellowship with God and fellow Christians, and we are also guilty of not living out the truth but instead are living a ‘lie’. On top of that, let us not be presumptuous and continue to believe that the blood of Christ will continue to purify us as we busk in ‘darkness’. Hence in simple language and illustration, John impressed upon us the significance and indispensability of walking and remaining in the light i.e. “be holy as God is holy”, and light and darkness cannot mix. The Holy God calls us to be holy – period. There is no ‘buts’ or ‘only if’ – we cannot compromise with sin and ‘darkness’ or the ‘light’ in us will either be dimmed or put off.
Another aspect of living in the ‘light’: “Those who claim to be in the light but hate a fellow-believer are still in the darkness. Those who love their fellow-believers live in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. But those who hate a fellow-believer are in the darkness and walk around in the darkness; they do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them’ (1 John 2:9-11).
Again, observe the simplicity and yet deep revelation in John’s language. If we walk in darkness, we would stumble and fall and surely we do not know where we are going, for the darkness has ‘blinded’ us. We need the light to see clearly.
If we hate our brethren; if we are jealous and envious of them; if we just ‘dislike’ them simply because they are walking well in the light, then we are certainly ‘blind’ and we must not be surprised if we stumble and fall in our walk.
The second great commandment is most relevant here; it is God’s command to love our neighbour, and particularly our brethren. Do we harbour ‘animosity’ in our hearts against our brethren and this can be manifested in our words and body-language? God sees the heart -is the heart darkened and spotted with darkness?
God willing, we will continue to meditate further on the revelation of John in relation to the subject of discipleship in line with the gospel.
25 June
APOSTLE JOHN ON DISCIPLESHIP IN LINE WITH THE GOSPEL (B)
We continue to examine the teaching of John on discipleship. We saw how he prioritised holiness and purity in the previous sharing, illustrating it with light and darkness, and how God is light and there is no darkness in him. He went on to affirm that those who claim to be in the light (i.e.those who claim to be Christians and disciples of Christ) ought to love their fellow-believers, for to hate them is to remain in darkness, which will cause them to stumble and fall.
“We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. Those who say, ‘I know him, but do not do what he commands are liars, and the truth is not in them. But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: whosoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did” (1 John 2:3-6).
Notice again John’s reference to ‘truth’, ‘lie’ and ‘liars’, love, and their relationship with life in God, Previously, love is tied up with light, life and darkness, but all of these are in fact intimately connected.
But now, John highlighted the fact that if we claim to know God, then it has to be manifested by a life of obedience to him; otherwise, we are not living in the truth and we are in fact living a lie, and are liars.
Also note that obedience to God is closely linked to obedience to his word and living according to Christ as revealed in his word.
It is not just a nebulous claim ‘ “O, I try to obey him in my life”. It has to be obedience to his word and living according to his word, following the example and life of Christ, his Son. But how can we obey his word if we do not know what his word is, what it comprises and what it means? There is no way we can obey his word without knowing his word; and certainly, knowing his word requires disciplined study, reading and meditating on what God has revealed in his written word, as well as understanding the Word (Christ himself is the Word as noted in John 1:1-2) revealed and illuminated to us by the Holy Spirit. Only then can we continue to be genuine disciples of Christ, allowing him to continue to work through us by the Spirit in line with the gospel brought to us by him.
Now obeying his word is not just studying Scripture like literature in our own logic and reasoning, and trying to apply them, without the illumination of the Spirit. Memorising Scripture, studying the BIble, researching from commentaries, even referring to Chatgpt, may be helpful in some ways if they are approached with dependence on God; but the tendency is to glean from the knowledge of others, even though they may not be consistent with what Jesus said and taught. Praying, walking in the Spirit, seeking to honour and glorify the Triune God, and not just seeking to increase in knowledge – this is essential. Paul himself declared that knowledge puffs up – implying pride and arrogance as the endpoint.
In 1 Corin. 2, Paul wrote:
“The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God….We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us” (vv 10b,11-12).
Finally, some warnings from John:
“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If you love the world, love for the Father is not in you. For everything in the world – the cravings of sinful people, the lust of their eyes and their boasting about what they have and do – comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever” (1 John 2:15-17).
Note the contrast: if you love the world, love for the Father is not in you. In other words, you cannot claim to love God and yet love the world. This is in line with what Jesus said, “You cannot serve God and mammon” – it will end up with loving one and not loving the other.
The world, and its desires, the cravings and pursuit of sinful men and women – these do not come from God – they belong to the world and the world and its desires would pass away – they are like mirages, illusions – they would not last, and only those who do the will of God live forever (i.e. enjoy eternal life). We have to be very clear about this – do not rationalise with ‘buts’ and “must be realistic”, etc. The devil delights in whispering in our ears and contradicts the word of God; the ‘flesh’ and ‘indwelling sin’ can be easily stirred up and manipulated by the enemy,
“As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son, and in the Father. And this is what he promised – eternal life” (1 John 2:24).
John reiterated the need to persevere in our faith and discipleship. We need to endure and persevere, particularly in the midst of opposition, persecution, and sufferings (recall what John wrote in Revelation). Those who have the spirit of Antichrist will not remain with the faithful -they will leave – even Demas, a co-worker of Paul, in love with the world, left the company of Paul and his fellow workers.
This is a sober reminder – in the past message in church, we are reminded of Peter, who was so confident and impulsive in his declaration of faithfulness to the Master – yet he denied the Lord 3 times.
But thankfully, Peter repented – his tears were tears of genuine repentance and godly sorrow.
But Judas also was sorry for what he did; there were regrets – but his was worldly sorrow and not godly sorrow which leads to genuine repentance. But let us not forget that what Peter did was in fact serious failures, and let us not presume that like Peter, we can always come back. Peter was under intense spiritual pressure, made worse by his pride and self-confidence, and the Lord Jesus was interceding and praying for him, and the Master knew Peter’s heart and knew that he would turn back despite failing the test.
Brethren, we must continue in what we have believed and are convicted of – we need to walk faithfully on the narrow road and narrow path, keeping away from the broad way on which many would travel on. The end of the broad and easy way of ‘discipleship’ leads to death and destruction; the end of the narrow road leads to life everlasting. We need to develop intimate and deep fellowship with the Triune God and with those who are like-minded in God’s community; we need to correct one another in love and humility – for the issue is eternal and of great consequences in the eyes of God.
26 June
RADICAL DISCIPLESHIP IN LINE WITH THE GOSPEL
I have been sharing on discipleship in line with the gospel in some details. This is the essential message we believers need to learn and relearn, especially after studying the book on Revelation.
In the history of the church, the ‘blood of martyrs’ has laid the foundation for the spread of the gospel; and in the final days and hours before the Lord Jesus comes again, Christians would be called to overcome by “the blood of the Lamb, the word of our testimony, and not loving our lives unto death (Rev. 12:11).
“Salvation,” instead of being construed as the gift of a transformed abundant life in the now-present kingdom of God, begins to be equated with an other-worldly reward; it is increasingly viewed as a fire-insurance policy, a “get out of hell free card” guaranteeing an escape from the fires of torment and ensuring the receipt of treasures in heaven (notice how the current evangelism and sharing of the gospel actually promote this). Christianity increasingly loses the biblical emphasis upon discipleship and replaces it with an emphasis upon religious ritual. The “Church,” rather than denoting the New Testament concept of a community of disciples living as “the body of Christ,” begins to connote a hierarchy that protects “orthodoxy.”
Jesus, the Gospel accounts relate, always comes asking disciples to follow him – not merely “accept him,” not merely “believe in him,” but to follow him: one either follows Christ, or one does not. There is no compartmentalization of the faith, no realm, no sphere, no business, no politics in which the lordship of Christ will be excluded. We either make him Lord of all lords, or we deny him as Lord of any.
“Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer).
The call of the gospel is, in other words, ‘radical.’ The word radical simply means “to the root.” The Chrisian faith demands thoroughgoing transformation, thoroughgoing conversion of every realm of human endeavour, in personal relations, economics, and politics, in homes, culture, and social order. The gospel demands radical discipleship (this will explain why sincere disciples find it hard to have fellowship with those of like-mindedness, for there will not be many such fellow-believers).
The call to “radical discipleship” is not a call to a burdensome moral perfectionism, but a call to leave the old ways of death and destruction, to walk in the new way of abundant life and glorious light with the Christ who is Light and LIfe (recall John’s teachings). On the path with Christ we are loved even when we do not deserve to be loved. And on this same path with Christ, we too are called to love those about us who do not deserve to be loved. On this pilgrimage with Christ, we are forgiven with an extravagant love, and we are also called to forgive with such extravagance. On the way with Christ, God’s abundance, provisions, and goods are shared with us, joyfully consumed, for we eat in the kingdom of God. And the goods in our hands are shared with those around us, for we do not live according to the rebellious kingdom of the world which hoard and hold, but according to the kingdom of God, in which God clothes the birds of the air, the flowers of the field, and us too, so that we live with a lightness and ease that befits sons and daughters of God.
Recall God’s plan of salvation: God’s good creation has rebelled against the good purposes of its Creator. This rebellion brought death, anguish, violence, lust, greed. And God, in Christ, has acted to redeem the rebellious creation, restoring it to God’s good, original intentions – the kingdom of God is at hand! (recall the proclamations of Jesus and John the Baptist). But surprise of all surprises, the redemption comes not through power and might, but by his sharing in our suffering, taking the very brunt and blow of our rebellion, the Son was crucified, refusing to be cowed by the rebellious principalities and powers, and in his crucifixion triumphed over them, and in his resurrection was vindicated by the Father. The church, then, a community called to follow in the way of Christ, a community that is “the body of Christ,” exists not to show the world how to be “religious,” but to show the world how to be the world God created it to be. We are to be salt and light – and as he was in the world, so are we to be.
It is this same calling that remains and continues for the church in times of persecution, suffering and pain; we are to follow Jesus in the same path he travelled on earth, carrying the “cross”, denying self, the indwelling sin, the flesh, the negative influence of the world, and the intimidations of the devil, and persevere and endure in loyalty to him who died for us and rose again. This is the call to radical discipleship which would secure victory for God’s church; the church is not alone – the Holy Spirit indwells to enable victory; Christ is at the right hand of the Father interceding; the Father is watching over us in His sovereignty and power. This is how the church would prevail even in the face of Antichrist, the false prophet and the devil! (note the revelation of this truth in the book of Revelation).
29 June
RADICAL DISCIPLESHIP – TRANSFORMATION AND MISSION
We are created for a divine life; we are called to be aware of another world, to join in the “the kingdom of God” and to be partakers of the divine nature. Before we become believers, some of us might have struggled with “Who am I ?” C.S. Lewis shared that in the depths of his heart, he was longing for something that truly satisfies, and this eludes him until he was ‘reluctantly dragged to believe in Christ’.
After believing in Christ, Lewis was perplexed as to why instead of encountering a fairly smooth life, instead, troubles came along- illnesses, money troubles, new kinds of temptation – he felt disappointed. He shared:
“It seems to us all (troubles) unnecessary: but that is because we have not yet had the slightest notion of the tremendous thing He means to make of us…The command “Be ye perfect” is not idealistic gas. Nor is it a command to do the impossible. He is going to make us into creatures that can obey that command….He will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly (though of course on a smaller scale) his own boundless power and delight and goodness. The process will be long and in parts very painful, but that is what we are in for. Nothing less. He means what He said.” (C.S. Lewis from ‘Mere Christianity’)
Lewis was of course referring to ‘radical discipleship and transformation’ which may involve pain and a long process, when God embarks to make us holy as He is holy, ‘perfect’ as He is perfect, transforming us into the image of His Son. Notice that Lewis also emphasised that this is due to the boundless power, goodness, and delight of God, making weak, filthy creatures into radiant godly creatures, reflecting the glory of God – it is God who would do it and He means what He said and promised.
This focuses on the fact that it is God, through His Spirit, power, love, grace, who would institute such a transformation – it is not us primarily – and for the beautiful end result to emerge, the process will be long, painful, involving putting to death the ‘old man’ and putting on the ‘new man’, mortification, self-denial, and vivification.
Lewis went on to say: “That is why God warned people to “count the cost” before becoming Christians. “Make no mistake,” He says, “if you let me, I will make you perfect. …You have free will, and if you choose, you can push Me away. But if you do not push Me away, understand that I am going to see this job through. Whatever suffering it may cost you in your earthly life, whatever inconceivable purification it may cause you after death, whatever it costs Me, I will never rest, nor let you rest, until you are literally perfect – until my Father can say without reservation that He is well pleased with you, as He said He was well pleased with me. This I can do and will do. But I will not do anything less.” I find Lewis’ elaboration very insightful and challenging – God is going to do it, no matter how long and what the cost is, provided we do not push Him away and we learn to depend on Him despite our own weaknesses and failures, in taking the small feeble steps along the road of transformation.
On the one hand, we must never imagine that our own unaided efforts can be relied on to carry us through, if He does not support us, not one of us is safe from some gross sin. On the other hand, no possible degree of holiness or heroism which has ever been recorded of the greatest saints is beyond what He is determined to produce in every one of us in the end. The work may not be complete in this life, but God means to get us as far as possible before death.
This is what radical discipleship involves; this is what it means in daily living and daily outworking of the Christian life of discipleship. Christ’s disciples are to establish beachheads of His Person, word, and power in the midst of a falling and futile humanity, as they increasingly demonstrate their lives as ‘salt of the earth’ and ‘light of the world’, as men and women who have been with Jesus and who manifest the life and love of the Master in their mission, and who know how to convey the “Good News” of the Gospel in all its total meaning and implications.
But the calling of the disciples to fulfil God’s mission is not as individuals but as a community, as Christ’s body, with all its ‘different parts and functions’.
Again, I find Lewis’ comments in ‘Mere Christianity’ helpful:
“Christianity thinks of human individuals not as mere members of a group or items in a list, but as organs in a body – different from one another and each contributing what no other could. When you find yourself wanting to turn your children, or pupils, or even your neighbours, into people exactly like yourself, remember that God probably never meant them to be that. You and they are different organs, intended to do different things. On the other hand, when you are tempted not to bother about someone else’s troubles because they are “no business of yours,” remember though he is different from you, he is part of the same organism as you. If you forget that he belongs to the same organism as yourself you will become an Individualist. If you forget that he is a different organ from you, if you want to suppress differences and make people all alike, you will become a Totalitarian. But a Christian must not be either a Totalitarian or an Individualist.”
A transformational church is not simply a ‘good church’ or a church that does good things. Neither is it necessarily a big church that offers excellent programming, ‘preaching’ and worship. It is a community of believers who are so empowered by the gospel of Christ that they change everything they touch – family, workplace, schools, business.
But they need to be radical disciples of Christ in His ‘body’, each one different from the other but together, as transformed disciples, empowered by God’s Spirit, characterised by love for one another and for those in the world, they go forth (not necessarily overseas) to bring the gospel to those around them, doing their ‘part’ in God’s Church to bring in the kingdom of God!