So those who hear me and do what I say are like those intelligent people who build their homes on solid rock, where rain and floods and winds cannot shake them. – Matt. 7:24 – 25
Train them to do everything I have told you. – Matt. 28:20
These words from Jesus show that it must be possible to hear and do what he said. It also must be possible to train his apprentices in such a way that they routinely do everything he said was best.
Because that is so, and we have insisted upon it, we now must deal with the question of ways and means. What could we teach apprentices to Jesus, and how could we train them in such a way that they would routinely do the things he said were right? Indeed, what can we do to put ourselves in position; actually, to do what he has said?
The fact is that there now is lacking serious and expectant intention to bring Jesus’ people into obedience and abundance through training. That would be discipleship as he gave it to us. Somehow the seriously thought-out intention – not just vague idea or wish – to actually bring about the fullness of life in Christ, must be reestablished.
One must recognize that numerous programs in local congregations and wider levels of organization are frequently spoken of as discipleship programs. However, the emphasis all too often is on some point of behavior modification. This is helpful, but it is not adequate to human life. It does not reach the root of the human problem. That root is the character of the inner life, where Jesus and his call to apprenticeship in the kingdom place the emphasis.
We do not just hear what Jesus said to do and try to do that. Rather, we also notice what he did, and we do that too. We notice, for example, that he spent extended times in solitude and silence, and we enter solitude and silence with him. We note what a thorough student of the scriptures he was, and we follow him, the Living Word, into the depths of the written word. We notice how he used worship and prayer, how he served those around him, and so forth. We have Bibles with red letters to indicate what he said. Might we not make a good use of a Bible that has green letters for what he did? Green for “go,” or “do it”?
If we are to succeed in “putting off the old person and putting on the new,” then, or in having the mind or inner character of our Lord, we must follow an order of, life as a whole that is appropriately modeled after his. This should be, and has been, something that is practiced by his people and taught by them to those who enter their ranks. It would be a plan that incorporates whatever is necessary to enable us to have the character and then do the deeds indicated in the teachings of Jesus and his immediate followers. For simplicity’s sake we could just say “the character and deeds indicated in Colossians 3.” Our plan for a life of growth in the life of the kingdom of God must be structured around disciplines for the spiritual life.
Apprenticeship is knowing one’s self in a way that works from the inside out to build the character, the habits, and the outward activities based on the experiences of life, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Christ. These are the gifts of grace for a transformed life in the name of God.