As I reflect this week on the question, “What now,” as in “What do we do now that Holy Week is over,” I have come back to a word that I have wondered about, “discipleship.” I had a hunch that it has become at the least unpopular, at the most, truly distasteful, in church circles.
I am launching a study, so of course I asked my youngest son, the Latin scholar, for word origins. He tells me the word “disciple” comes from the Latin “discipulus,” which simply means pupil. The original disciples were students of Jesus — they followed him to learn from him.
The word “discipline” comes from the Latin “discipulere,” “instruction given to a disciple.”
My conclusion is that as followers of Christ, we are all to be his disciples, to study him and learn from him, to submit ourselves to discipline, meaning “instruction.” In a broader sense, Webster’s Online Dictionary tells me, discipline means “training that corrects, molds, or perfects the mental faculties or moral character.”
Perhaps it is this definition that gives us trouble as Christians who trust in salvation by grace. We wrong-headedly begin to think that if we were saved simply because God loved us, we don’t have to do anything else. Of course Jesus did not seem to think this was the case. He tells Peter to “feed My sheep” three times. He tells the disciples to “go and make disciples of all the nations.” He tells the disciples that they will suffer but their suffering will turn to joy.
I’ve got much more to say on this topic, and I will add a few thoughts tomorrow and more in the coming weeks. For now, I will conclude by going back to one of the Wright quotes from last week. He suggested that we might consider “taking up” something for his season, just as we fasted from something for Lent. I have decided to “discipline” myself by silencing some of the techno-noise that has become such a part of my life and using that time to read real books more. I am beginning with one hour of solid reading of one book every day (as opposed to internet reading, in which I read parts of this article or blog and parts of others, or study, in which I am appropriately gleaning from several sources at one time.) One chair, one book, one hour. I have done it three out of four days this week so far, and it has been so RELAXING. I love to read, and I began to wonder when I forgot how much I loved it. It is a discipline for me, and my hunch is it has something to do with discipleship. Oddly enough, it is also a gift to me from God.
What do you think? Do you think discipline and discipleship have become “distasteful” words to the Christian? If so, why do you suppose that is?
Have you ever experienced discipline as a gift (“The Lord loves whom he disciplines…”)? How so?
What new “discipline” might you take up with the power of resurrection moving you?
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