Being a Disciple (1): Loving the Lord

The essence of discipleship is a love relationship with the Lord Jesus (Matt 22:37-38, Mark 12:30, Luke 10:27). A true disciple loves the Lord and seeks to express that in his life by pleasing and glorifying Him. This is not a legalism, but the obedience of love. The keeping of commandments is an expression of love (John 14:15). Without the motivation of love our Christian life just becomes outward performance, and loses its meaning and excitement, but when we live in an overflow of love, it is all joy. The motivation of a true disciple is loving the Lord, so the heart must first be converted to Christ through the Gospel. The purpose and effect of the Gospel is to win our hearts to Christ, bringing us into a love relationship with Him, in which we receive His love, causing us to give our love (heart) to Him (Rev 2:2-5). Mary demonstrated this love, manifested in worship, when she anointed Jesus (Mark 14:3-6, John 12:3-5). He connected her act of extravagant love with the preaching of the Gospel (Mark 14:9), as it demonstrated its purpose - the total conversion of our heart, so that we give Him our heart, love, devotion, worship, surrender, and life. God’s love for us is extravagant, excessive and uninhibited, so our only appropriate response is to return that same kind of love to Him, giving Him our whole heart. That is the response the Divine Lover desires from His Bride. His love for us is prodigal (over the top, excessive, plenty too much) - Luke 15:20. The joy to which Jesus looked forward, that sustained Him through the Cross, was to have our heart, so we would be united with Him forever (Hebrews 12:2). True discipleship (obedience to Christ and His Word) follows on and flows out from a converted heart of love for the Lord, the fruit of the Gospel. Its essence is loving the Lord. It is the outworking of our love relationship with Christ, in the details of our life. Once we love Him, we want to please Him, to be like Him and do what He says. A disciple is a dedicated follower of Christ and learner of His Word, which teaches us how to live a life that glorifies Him. All true believers are His disciples, which is why Christians were originally called Disciples. It is not an optional extra. You can’t receive Christ without your life changing and starting on the life of discipleship. If you are not a disciple, your heart is unconverted, and you are unsaved. Without true conversion, there can be no true life of discipleship. The 2 STAGES of (1) the personal conversion of our heart to Christ, through the Gospel, followed by (2) a lifestyle of discipleship correspond to the 2 PARTS of the Great Commission: (1) preaching the Gospel (the Good News of His love) unto salvation (Mark 16:15-16), and (2) making disciples by teaching His Word (Matthew 28:19-20). (1) The Gospel is designed to convert hearts to the Person of Jesus, not to a religion. Conversion is sealed by water baptism, the first ordained response of a convert, by which he publicly declares his faith, love and commitment to Christ. (2) This initial act of obedience also officially marks him out as one who has entered into a new life as a disciple, who follows Christ, learning and obeying His Word. The 2 parts of the Great Commission are connected by baptism. Part 1 results in baptism, and baptism is the initial official act of part 2. The heart of the Gospel is the declaration, revealing God’s amazing unconditional LOVE for us (John 3:16), designed to convert our heart to loving God: “We LOVE Him, because He first LOVED us” (1John 4:19, Rom 5:8). The more we realise how much He has forgiven us, the more we will love Him (Luke 7:47). Trusting in His saving love, results in us giving (surrendering) our hearts to Him, receiving Him as our Lord and committing our lives to Him. We are His beloved Bride (2Cor 11:2-3). This devotion is created by Christ declaring His wonderful saving love for us in the Gospel. When we believe in His love for us, it produces love in our hearts for Him, so that we want to be with Him, be like Him, serve Him, glorify Him, and be united with Him forever. FAITH in Christ begets LOVE for Him, both of which together produce HOPE, the vision of a glorious future with Him (1Cor 13:13, 1Thess 1:9-10). This love of God in Christ for us began in eternity past, when God chose (foreknew, set His love on us, Jer 31:3, John 15:16). He loved us from eternity and will love us forever. In His love, He predestined us to glory, and then effectually called us to Himself by the Gospel, so that when we received Christ, He justified us (forgave us, put us into right-standing with Himself, and declared us righteous, based on the imputed righteousness of Christ). Justification then put us on the path of sanctification, where His Spirit changes us to become more like Jesus, through His imparted righteousness and life, as we trust in Him and obey Him, which will result in our glorification, when we are fully united with God (Romans 8:29-30).