“To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.'” (New International Version, Jhn. 8.31-32)
There are three passages in the Gospel of John that teach what the “marks of a true disciple” are. We will spend the next few weeks examining each of these passages to help us understand, with more profound conviction, how Jesus defines what a disciple is. The first mark of a disciple is someone who holds to Jesus’s teachings! We see this in John 8:31-32.
In the Greek, the root word for the word “hold” is μένω (pronounced “menō”), which is defined as to remain or abide. The Kings James Version translates it as “to dwell” and “to endure” around eighteen times.
The importance of a disciple remaining, abiding, dwelling, and enduring in the Word of God cannot be understated. A disciple in the word is comparable to a fish in water. For a fish to stay alive, it must abide/remain in the water to draw oxygen out of its gills. If you remove a fish from the water, it will die. In the same way, if the disciple is removed from dwelling in the word of God, they will soon spiritually perish.
There are three things we must do to remain in Jesus’s teachings.
- Receive the Word: The word is received when it is read. As disciples, we must be like the Israelites in the book of Exodus who fed on the Manna every day that God gave them to survive (Deut. 8:16). Every morning, we should have a time scheduled to receive our daily manna (our Bibles) and plan specifically on what we are going to study. When we are consistently nourished in the word of God, we are healthy, happy, fruitful, and faithful disciples of Jesus. Spending time in the Word daily is the only way we will persevere till the end (Mt. 24:13).
- Contemplate The Word: Contemplating happens through memorizing the word and thinking about it often. The goal is, for our minds to always be on the word of God (Col. 3:2) so we can develop the mind of Christ within our own (1 Cor. 2:16). Then when temptations come, we will be able to remember the scriptures and say no to sin (Matt. 4:1-11). Decide today, not only to read The Bible, but think about it daily, deeply, memorize it, contemplate it, listen to it, and ultimately fall in love with it! We can do this by writing down multiple scriptures for multiple topics and reciting them daily! The more we contemplate the scriptures, the deeper we will grow as disciples!
- Apply The Word: The difference between following Jesus and religion is the expectation of application. Jesus expects us to hear the Word and put it into practice (Jam. 1:22). The challenge for us, no matter how old or young we are spiritually, is to decide continually apply the Word personally in our lives every day, whether it is from our morning quiet times, a sermon, or a discipleship time with your discipleship partner.
The Lord has been moving powerfully in the Denver International Christian Church as we all continually hold to the teachings of Jesus, showing the mark of true discipleship. However, in order for God to continue to multiply the Denver church, we must continually develop the marks of discipleship.
To God be all the glory,
Jason T. Woody
Evangelist
