Last week was Spiritual Emphasis Week at BFA, and this weekend was the annual Teacher Retreat in Adelboden, Switzerland. The topics overlapped in an incredibly God-orchestrated way. Let me sit here with you and reflect on these thoughts on discipleship.
In his ministry on earth, Jesus made disciples who were to make other disciples. He called them for that specific purpose – to become “fishers of men.” He taught them by example. His 12 disciples followed him around and watched every aspect of his life, and learned to reflect his actions.
The first disciples continued Jesus’ example of discipleship. In Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians, we see how they did this. Paul, Silas and Timothy shared “not only the gospel of God but our lives as well” with the Thessalonian church (1 Thess. 2:8). True discipleship does not end with the gospel; it ends with showing your disciple how to live out the Christian walk.
The Thessalonians “became imitators of us and of the Lord” (1 Thess. 1:6). We learn by imitating, whether it is a baby imitating its mothers language, or a boy putting on his father’s shoes and pretending to shave, or a girl pretending to put on her mother’s makeup.
At first, our imitations can be rather silly, but as we grow, we begin to look more like the real thing. Girls begin to look like their mothers, boys begin to look like their fathers, spouses look like each other, and pet owners begin to look like their pets. We become like what we look at. This is what is meant by 2 Corinthians 3:12-18 – Moses had a physical veil over his face representing the spiritual veil separating humans from knowledge of God, “but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. . . And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (v. 16, 18).
The word “beholding” can also be translated “reflecting.” As we behold, or look at God’s glory, we ourselves reflect that glory. We are transformed into glory-reflectors!
There is a big chain of reflectors and imitators. Jesus is the image of the invisible God; his disciples reflected that image to their disciples, and their disciples had disciples who in turn imitated them.
In the Great Commission, Jesus calls all of us as believers to do the same: to make disciples. As Francis Chan said, “Don’t just memorize what Jesus said. Do it.”
As teachers at BFA, we are in the position of both disciples of Jesus and disciplers of the students. As we reflect God’s glory, our students are reflecting us. They see how we live every minute of the day – especially at a boarding school where home and work are constantly overlapping! Luke 6:40 says that “everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.” That is a sobering thought; who are my students reflecting? Are they imitating my sinful, prideful nature, or am I letting Christ shine through me?
Pray with me that in my teaching I would not proclaim myself, “but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us” (2 Corinthians 4:5-7).
