To make a disciple, you must be a disciple. What does that mean?

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

John 15: 5-8

In the “Great Commission” in MATTHEW 28: 16-20 discussed in the previous blog post, Jesus commanded His followers to:

• make disciples of all nations,
• baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 
• and teach them to obey everything He commanded.

Notice that He didn’t command people to make converts or new believers. He commanded them to make disciples. Of course, conversion is the basic underlying foundation of becoming a disciple. So what does to convert or to believe mean?

What does it mean to “believe”?

Well, the first words Jesus preached in Matthew 4:17 were, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The Greek word “Repent” used here (μετάνοια, metanoia) means “to change one’s mind; to have a transformative change of heart; to take on a completely different way of thinking; to have a conversion; to utterly repent.” Jesus went about speaking this message before He spoke the Sermon on the Mount, the verses in which we often think of as Him explanining how we are to live in a Christ-like way.

Yes, the Sermon on the Mount teaches how we are to live, but first came the message to “repent, change, convert, think completely differently.” Jesus wanted followers who were committed to turn away from the old patterns toward His Kingdom values, the new way to think, speak, and act, which He unfolded through His Sermon on the Mount. To believe means that we need to accept that we are first of all, putting behind us our old ways, doing this before we can put on that new life that Christ calls us to. Yes, you might call this conversion, because it means that there is a complete change of inner being for those who believe in Him as His followers.

But the word believe doesn’t mean the same thing today, as it did in when Jesus used it to His followers. Today, we think of believe as more like a wishful thought or whatever we happen to be thinking about. Something like, “I believe my sports team will win,” or “I believe that I am the best flute player here” or “I believe that Coke is better than Pepsi.” Those things are opinions or preferences.

What Jesus means by “to believe” is very different than an opinion or preference. The word believe (πιστεύω, pisteuo) in Greek, means “trusting in, relying on, and adhering to,” which is much more than just a casual acceptance of fact. This concept is much more like the Biblical meaning of faith, which would be the Greek word, πίστις, pistis. As you can see, the Greek words are related. Faith means a lot more than we think of it meaning today. Today, you might say, “Good job, I had faith that you would win the game,” but in that, we are really just expressing an opinion or preference or hope or wish.

Both believe and faith are more like the person who is willing to actually sit down in a chair, believing that it will hold them up or the person who is willing to personally jump-in to something, rather than just expound about it with their mouth. One might compare this to the difference between an aerialist walking a high wire hundreds of feet up in the sky vs the person standing on the sidelines watching. Both might believe in a modern sense that the aerialist can walk that tightrope, but only the person walking it believes it in a Biblical sense: that person is doing it, living it out, experiencing it, committing to it, knowing it is real, trusting it and knowing that all will turn out. Taking the risk, in other words, that what they are trusting is true and worthy of the trust.

Does this advocate for people to do crazy things like walk on tight ropes? No. But rather, it does mean that believing and having faith has to do with doing the things that Jesus commanded. If we believe in Him, we need to model ourselves on His thoughts, words, and deeds—and His motivations.

Sometimes we can do something that we think is what Jesus would do, but our inner motivations are nothing like those that motivate Jesus. This, too we must beware of! He is looking at our hearts, from which all our actions and words will flow. To be a disciple first and foremost means to focus on doing what Jesus would do and for His reasons, not our own.

Following Jesus and doing WWJD must start with a heart that is converted and turned to Him. We must do as He said in His first proclamation: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”