I practice torah because I am a student of the messiah and that's what he did.
What does it mean to be a disciple? According to Dictionary.com, a disciple is:
a person who is a pupil or an adherent of the doctrines of another; follower
So... when someone claims to be a disciple of Jesus, what are they actually saying? In essence, they are saying:
I am a person who is a pupil or an adherent of the doctrines of Jesus; a follower of Jesus.
Does that mean that we spend our time learning about Jesus? Talking about Jesus? Retelling the parables he told? Telling of the things he did? Sharing our faith story? Trying to help others come to faith? …show more content…
Those are all things we should be doing, for sure. But is it being a disciple? Not really.
In Matthew 28, Jesus gave us his definition of a disciple as part of, what is commonly referred to as, the Great Commission:
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
Most of the teachings I've heard on this passage over the years treat this passage as if Jesus was only telling the remaining eleven of his original Disciples what they should do. When we look at the structure of the sentence (you may not have noticed that this is one complete sentence), Jesus tells them not only what they should do; he also tells them how to do it.
He tells them to make disciples of all nations by baptizing them and teaching them to observe all that he had commanded.
Don't believe me? Lets try using this exact sentence structure with a couple different set of instructions and see how it works:
Go and make a loaf of fresh bread, sift the flour, and prepare it as I have commanded