My mind has been heavy on the idea of “training” today… as I had a 10+ hour drive, I had ample time to ponder this week’s devotion and many other things within our ministry. I was drawn back to the camp I did a couple of weeks ago (and the devotion I shared) that dealt with hard work and preparation (execution of the plans.) “Recruiting” (evangelism) and “Training” (discipleship) continue to be the pillars of what we do!
Yet in some ways, they seem opposed to one another… one is absolutely free, not the result of work on our part… the other is costly, hard, and requires discipline. I know that Jesus said His “yoke is easy” and that His “burden is light.” So how could I say that discipleship is hard?
First of all, understand that in Matthew 11, when Jesus made the easy/light statement, He was dealing with the incredible weight the pharisees had laid upon the people for them to be close to, or pleasing, God. (There were hundreds of laws to obey just to try to get right with God.) Jesus in turn said that in order to be “yoked”/attached to Him and pleasing to the Father, it would be “easy” and that the load would be “light.” Jesus was, I believe giving a glimpse of salvation that is “by grace through faith” and also referring to the fact that pleasing God didn’t require hundreds of laws, but in Jesus’s own words He would share a little later just “love God… love people.” (Matthew 22)
But what about the hard stuff? I thought about multiple passages that came to mind on the idea of training for maturity… throughout the New Testament we see references to this training process…
Hebrews 12:1 telling us to “lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us”
1 Corinthians 9:25 says that one that “competes… is temperate in all things” (exercises self-control)
2 Timothy 3:16-17 tells the value of the Scriptures in “training” and the goal of being “complete” (mature) and “equipped (furnished) for every good work”
Evangelism/Salvation (being on the team) is free and totally dependent upon placing one’s faith in the work of Jesus… Discipleship is the training process of growing and maturing to be used by God.
One other verse that jumped out at me was 1 Corinthians 9:27: But I discipline my body, and bring it into subjection…
Paul here uses an interesting choice of words… he is
making a boxing reference in the passage and the word “discipline” has the idea
in Greek of beating the body black and blue (picture the boxer having the trainer
hitting him in the stomach between each sit-up) so that he is taking his
body/life and “bringing it into subjection” which literally means making it a
slave… THIS IS HOW PAUL DESCRIBES THE DISCIPLESHIP PROCESS... THAT IS MOTIVATED BY
THE DESIRE TO HAVE NOTHING STAND IN THE WAY OF BEING ABLE TO SHARE THE GOSPEL
WITH OTHERS!
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