Thoughts on Making Disciples 2
... which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Colossians 1:27
About making disciples, I've been asked, "How do you get started?" Like a lot of things, my answer is, "You get started by getting started." A couple weeks ago, I offered a kick out the door. You have to decide. You have to hear it as a command... and it is. For you. And you have to make a commitment.
But usually, commands aren't enough. Sometimes a command will get me out the door, but rarely does it have enough juice to keep me out there.
Lately, I've been thinking about the word "glory". I'm trying to gear up to do a bible study on the word.
It's not the first time I've thought of the word. In the first pass with it, I came away thinking that glory has a good deal to do with righteousness. It helped me rethink righteousness -- less adherence to the law; more the type of goodness, rightness that is universally seen and experienced as radiant beauty.
Recently, our friend Jessup sent me a quote from CS Lewis about glory. If you want the transcript to the whole thing, you'll find it here. Here's an excerpt:
But not fame conferred by our fellow creatures—fame with God, approval or (I might say) “appreciation’ by God. And then, when I had thought it over, I saw that this view was scriptural; nothing can eliminate from the parable the divine accolade, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” With that, a good deal of what I had been thinking all my life fell down like a house of cards. I suddenly remembered that no one can enter heaven except as a child; and nothing is so obvious in a child—not in a conceited child, but in a good child—as its great and undisguised pleasure in being praised.
When I do this study, I think I'm going to see that glory -- radiant righteousness and praise from God -- come together in Christ. Why make disciples? Each person is supposed to be righteous. Just think about that. And every human ought to flourish in the fullness of having showered on them the praise that comes from the one and only God.
And here are the very next words in Colossians: He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.
Sounds like disciple making to me.