How Jesus Made DisciplesSample

Day 5: Jesus understood discipleship as more than simply dispensing information.

In some approaches to discipleship, the assumption is that the more information we have, the more transformation will occur. We have no shortage of information! We have a plethora of sermons, blogs, books, and articles, and most of them contain important and useful information. Our problem, however, is not information—​it is action.

Most believers are familiar with Jesus’ commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves. It isn’t revolutionary new information. The challenge, however, is to actually do what Jesus tells us to do.

When Jesus made disciples, He certainly gave them information. But true discipleship is about being transformed. The great commandment from Matthew 22 is to love God with our hearts, souls, and minds. The core concept here is that being a disciple of Jesus involves more than simply engaging the mind.

At the end of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7:24‑27, Jesus compares two people who build houses. One person is wise and builds his house on the rock, and one is foolish and builds his house on the sand. When storms come, the house on the rock remains standing and the house on the sand falls. Jesus says that in this analogy, the person who builds on the rock is the person who hears the Word and applies it, and the one who builds on sand hears the Word of God and doesn’t apply it. The application is clear: Simply having enough information isn’t true discipleship—​true discipleship involves application and transformation.