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Today we’re going to continue our look at John 13: 31-35.  Today in our reading I want to talk to us about what it means to be a disciple. Jesus tells us here that the world will know that we are his disciples but how we love each other. We are told in Matthew that we were to go forth into all the world and make disciples. One of the mistakes that we’ve made is that we have focused more on making believers in Jesus then we have focused on being disciples. Our job is to make disciples.

Well, how do we do that? When you think about the concept of a disciple what you think about is someone who follows the teachings of their master. If we’re going to be disciples of Jesus then we have to follow his teachings. One of the ways that we know his teachings is that we spend time with him. The first step for us being a disciple of Jesus is that we spend time with our master. We cannot follow a master that we do not know. We are called and are alive to spend time with him through prayer, reading the scripture, worshipping, fasting, receiving communion, and being in sustaining relationships with one another. The more we encounter Jesus through his grace, the more we know him. The more we are shaped by him. The more we follow him. In the more, we know not just his teachings, but we know him. Our primary duty in discipleship is to spend time with Christ and allow him to form and shape us.

Then we are to go into the world and make the cycles of Jesus. That means we are not called to just get people to believe that Jesus exists, but we are to train them to have an encounter with Jesus and follow him daily. That means we are to teach others how to spend time with Jesus that they can be formed and shaped by him.

We see in this passage that the primary marking that the world will see upon us to know that we are his disciples is that we have love for each other period they will know that we are his disciples by our love. Not by our correct theology, not by our worship styles, knocked by our church or denomination. But by our love for each other I think about something Dr. Bryant used to always tell us in class, he told us that our theology is useful only in that it makes us a better disciple of Jesus Christ. I want everything in my life to be something that forms me into being a disciple, and my devotion to Christ is seen truly and how I serve you and serve others.

That is the mark of discipleship. 

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