As we begin a new series here at EMBC we're focusing on the subject of discipleship. I like what Tony Payne and Colin Marshall say about discipleship in their book, 'The Vine Project'--they talk about us Christians as 'learners', learning the way of Jesus:
"What the ‘learners’ were learning from Jesus was a way of life based on an understanding of certain truths about reality. The goal was for them not only to know what their teacher knew, but also to be like their teacher, to walk in his ways. They weren’t learning a subject; they were learning a person, if we can put it like that—his knowledge, his wisdom, his whole way of life…Jesus wanted his learners (disciples) to walk with him, and to learn to be like him. But the significance of following Jesus goes deeper than that in the Gospels, because of who Jesus was and where his ‘learners’ were following him to. Jesus repeatedly tells people that following him is an exclusive, life and death commitment. To go with him means to leave everything else behind, including your very life…to ‘learn’ Jesus—to submit yourself to his teaching, to walk in his ways—will mean leaving behind all your current loyalties and commitments. It will mean walking the road to Jerusalem with him, and facing up to the cross that is waiting there. As Jesus makes very clear, saving our old life is not an option; its only by losing our lives that we save them”
Colin Marshall and Tony Payne
