Seven Marks of a DiscipleSample

Mark Seven: A disciple puts Christ first.

“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.” —Luke 14:26

“So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple,” Jesus adds (Luke 14:33). Life is full of things that compete for our loyalty. They promise to give us what we desire. In my early days of growing in Christ we talked about the four “Cs”: Cash, Careers, Cars, Cuties. There are certainly more than four “Cs” that battle for our allegiance, but we can consider these four a start. We desire these things because they can give us success, happiness, security, love, significance, respect, honor, etc.

We could call these things idols. We give our loyalty to them, sacrifice for them, and they give us what we want—sometimes. They are our hope for seeing the longings of our hearts fulfilled. But idols are deceitful. They do not produce what they promise. The psalmists tells us the idols have eyes but can’t see, ears but can’t hear, hands but can’t handle. They can’t do what they seem to be able to do for us (Psalms 115:3). When we give our allegiance to an idol we are chasing a mirage that will evaporate when we get close to it.

Jesus on the other hand is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6). He is the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep, not the thief who comes to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10,11).

Jesus is the only one worthy of our allegiance. This is not only because of what He does for us, it is because of who He is. Jesus is the beginning of all things and will be the end of all things, (John 1:1-3; Rev. 1:8,11; 22:13). He is the judge of human beings (John 5:22). He is seated at the right hand of God with all majesty and power (Hebrews 1:3). Jesus is worthy of our allegiance like no one else, like nothing else. He is Lord, and He invites us to acknowledge Him as such in all that we do. A disciple puts Christ first!

We would like to thank Eddie Broussard, representative of The Navigators, for this reading plan, with the editorial assistance of Dean Ridings. For more information on helping people “To know Christ, make Him known, and help others do the same®,” visit The Navigators.