Without a doubt, this is the best description of discipleship I’ve ever heard!
“John wants those who have believed in Jesus to understand the new truth about themselves: “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13). Note where he goes next.
This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him. (vv. 14–15)
John is talking about eternal life in the framework of discipleship—in this instance, prayer. Eternal life is not in the category of funeral preparations and what happens after one dies. Eternal life is the whole tamale. In fact, I’m beginning to think of discipleship in a new way.
Discipleship is nothing more or less than the retrofitting of a human being with the gift of eternal life.
Eternal life was lost as a consequence of the fall from grace. It is now gained as the gift of God, given to those who place their faith in Jesus Christ.
Discipleship is the process of learning to express in reality what has, in fact, become real and true.
Discipleship is not preparation for eternal life; it’s practicing eternal life!” – JD Walt, Seedbed.com Wake Up Call, 6/4/2025
Way back in about 2005-ish a representative from a denominational board of discipleship spoke to an area conference. She spoke of having been in a meeting of discipleship board members who were brainstorming “what is discipleship?” They came to no conclusion. Her hands went up into the air in a gesture of surrender, “Who can say? It is so broad and undefinable,” she never provided an answer. It annoyed me at the time as small groups coordinator of our church. Subsequently, I engaged in several days of correspondence with her earnestly attempting to secure a more definitive understanding of her position, which seemed to be urging us to simply “Do more in foreign missions” as discipleship. She seemed ignorant of the multitude of ways our conference members were living out discipleship in many ways, in many places daily, including some foreign missions partnerships. I got a call to come to my pastor’s office, who had been instructed by a conference leader to get copies of all my correspondence with her. She had reported me as harassing her. My emails were reviewed and ruled appropriate and not harassing, simply seeking CLARIFICATION! (Remember JD talking about clarity recently?)
THIS ….. today’s Wake Up Call is the most succinct and inclusive description of discipleship I can imagine having received. And yet, in 2005, no one talked about eternal life and discipleship this way, at least in my experience. It’s only been in the course of seeking to live as a disciple, following Christ (and failing often, just as they did!) and to introduce others to a life of discipleship that I discovered this truth of eternal life…. Knowing, loving, worshipping, serving, celebrating, and enjoying continual intimate fellowship with God in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit IS eternal life, here and now and, I expect there and then in glory, as well.
another participant in the Seedbed.com group, Scott Maddox, observed:
”The only thing eternal is our triune God. So, eternal life is God’s life.
God, the Trinity, is by his very nature – relationship. The holy love of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, all sharing life together. So, this is eternal life, the shared life of God.
Wesley taught that on creation Adam had, participated in, this shared life with God and lived in unspeakable joy. With the fall, Man lost the image of God, the Holy Spirit, and with it, eternal life (shared life with God). God created man to be in relationship with him.
Through our faith in Jesus, and the love of God shed abroad in our hearts, the image of God, through the Holy Spiritual indwelling in us, we can once again participate in eternal life. Eternal life, the shared life in a holy loving relationship with the Lord, provides us with the same unspeakable joy that Adam had in Eden before the fall. It provides this now, not after we die; and this joy comes with all the other fruit of the Spirit as well.
As it says in Colossians 1,
“This message was kept secret for centuries and generations past, but now it has been revealed to God’s people. For God wanted them to know that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory.”
Colossians 1:26-27 NLT”
These thoughts bring clarity to my own vision of learning to live discipleship, and I’m doing so, grow into eternal life in Christ .
CBB 6/4/2025