Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote, “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.” That is an accurate assessment of the discipleship to which we are called. There are benefits, and they are far more wonderful than can even be comprehended. Even so, true Christianity is a life of sacrifice where we no longer live for ourselves but for Him.
When Jesus called men, He started with the most difficult requirements, not the benefits. In fact, He hardly mentioned the benefits until they were already disciples. Some obviously think they can do better than the Lord by trying to compel people to follow Him because of all the benefits, but this may be one of the main reasons why Christianity has fallen to such a low state and why it is so rare to find a true disciple of Christ.
The first statement of the Lord recorded in Scripture about discipleship was how His disciples would be persecuted just as He was. The next one is in Luke 14:26:
“If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.”
The word “hate” in this text is a bit stronger than it should have been translated, which would have more accurately been “love less.” However, what it states clearly is that our devotion to Christ must be preeminent over any other relationship in our life. The Lord will be the Lord of all, or He will not be our Lord at all. We are servants of the one whom we obey. This has to be because it will almost always be those we are the closest to who will bring the greatest pressure on us to compromise our full devotion to Christ. Whether we will esteem any other relationship above Christ is likely to be the first test we will face as a disciple, and for many, it will be the greatest test of their Christian walk. As the Lord makes clear in this text, those who fail this test cannot be His disciple.
When one converts to Christ from just about any other religion, they are likely to be disowned by their families. Some will even be at risk of being put to death for the perceived dishonor to their families. This has been true of most converts to Christianity throughout history—even in our own times. How can we complain when just our friends and close relations reject or ridicule us? At the very least, those who seek to be disciples of Christ live the life of the cross and are almost certain to be persecuted and ostracized by their closest friends and relatives.
Because there is almost always a high cost that must be paid right away to become a disciple, we are doing those a terrible disservice who would follow Him and not explain this to them right up front. The true Christian life is the greatest adventure one can have on this earth and the most fulfilling life, but it is also the hardest. Not telling the truth about this is one obvious reason why there are so few true disciples, even among those who claim to be Christians and those who think of themselves as devout. One can be very devout but not follow or obey the Lord.
In Christ we begin as slaves, can rise to become friends, and then can even go on to become sons and daughters. If we do not get the foundation right, being a servant, then our actual spiritual growth has been stunted regardless of how much knowledge we acquire or how many good works we do. I have met many who claim to have already attained to sonship, but it seems they skipped the first two stages of maturity. Maybe not with all, but with most of these that I have met it is still all about them and what they’ve attained, rather than being all about the Lord and what He deserves from us. That reveals a basic immaturity even for a servant, much less a son.
There is obviously a high calling of God or texts like Philippians 3 would not make any sense. However, the highest that we can attain is to be able to honestly say as the apostle did in Galatians 2:20, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” True disciples become like their master, and our Master emptied Himself to become a servant for the entire time He walked the earth. There are ways that we can receive promotions of friendship with God, and even sonship, but this does not negate that on this earth, in this life, we are called to be servants.
A goal of this study is to lead to true biblical discipleship. This will be most evidenced when we are not living for ourselves, not even for our rewards but for Him, so that He gets the reward for which He paid such a price. We cannot become instantly mature, and even the Lord endured the cross for the glory that was before Him, so there is a place for receiving and appreciating the rewards. We will examine these too, but our goal is that this would be a lesser purpose and that our ultimate purpose would be that He receives His rewards, which are the nations and a bride without spot or wrinkle.