What is Christian Discipleship?
In contemporary popular Christianity, many church members are nominal Christians. They are ignorant of the faith’s biblical foundations, the history of the church, and the content of classical Christian theology. They promote a popular brand of Christianity that makes no strict demands on its followers. The mood of the times is that the “self” and its tenacious pursuit of acceptance and comfort must be pampered at all costs.
Perhaps such people give formal assent to the church’s historic creeds and catechisms. However, practically, neither the Holy Scriptures nor these documents inform their personal decisions, vocational commitments, moral convictions, and worldview. If they are not officially atheists, they are not far from it.
The radical departure of our generation from the truth in favor of an anemic Christianity must be answered with a radical return to orthodoxy and orthopraxy. The God of the Bible affirms His holy purity by revealing that He is light, with no darkness in Him at all (1 John 1:5). Every regenerate and forgiven believer is summoned to practice a holiness that will testify to their identification with God’s holiness, even though their holiness is imperfectly expressed. Because God is holy, God’s people must also be holy (Lev. 11:44).
In the New Testament, the apostle Peter quotes this passage from Leviticus, giving us a clear picture of the rationale for a return to a more radicalized Christianity (see 1 Peter 1:13–16). He points out that we must be radical for Christ in separating ourselves from this world and imitating God, knowing that our time here on earth is short and this world is not our home.
Anticipating the Future
Peter writes, “Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:13). The central thought in this verse is expressed in the command, “hope to the end.” We are called to wait for the Lord in joyful anticipation of the completion of the good work He has begun within us (Phil. 1:6). This hope is strong, wholehearted, and unwavering in its expectancy and desire.
The focus of our gaze must always be upward and forward, not backward or around us. There must be a longing in our hearts for the beautiful city of God, combined with a holy indifference to the things of this world that we will all inevitably leave behind us. Even the good things in our lives should not be allowed to own us. There must be a readiness in the twinkling of an eye to trade this mortality for immortality and the corruptible for that which is incorruptible (1 Cor. 15:51–52).
Separation from the Worldliness
Peter goes on, “As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance” (1 Peter 1:14). Peter’s gentile hearers were to mortify the evil desires that characterized their past pagan lives. It is a totalitarian call to turn one’s life in a new direction, ceasing to conform to the manners and morals of pagan society. Peter’s readers were to be motivated and incentivized by the new paradigm in which they now lived, as obedient children of God. They rejected the pretentious autonomy that is the essence of rebellion against the true and living God. In its place was a call to integrity—to be known consistently for their obedience to God.
True believers in Jesus Christ have no interest in blending in with the status quo. Because obedience to Christ is our new identity, we will, of necessity, become subversives who are determined to undermine the wicked and perverse patterns of the world in which we must now live. We are biblical separatists and radicals, and we will never accept the corruption of this world, no matter how strongly it infiltrates the environment around us.
Imitating Our God
God has not only commanded holiness; God Himself is the standard for Christian holiness. We are only to do what is consistent with God’s character. Peter concludes this section of his epistle by saying, “But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:15–16). He admonishes the believers to be dedicated to the God of the Bible, a God of absolute moral purity. They, like their God, are to be marked by moral purity in a way that makes them quite distinct from people around them.
When believers sin, they forget who they are. We are a royal priesthood, a peculiar people, God’s special possession (1 Peter 2:9). We must not forget that we are joint heirs with Christ and that our inheritance is secure in Him. Thus, we cannot allow ourselves to become common and profane.
A radical call to holiness does not imply that we are proud or part of a pretentious spiritual aristocracy. We are not looking down on anyone, but we are looking up at the Lord Jesus and so we cannot be ordinary, for our Savior is extraordinary—He is altogether lovely. We cannot engage in the works of darkness, for our God is light, and in Him, there is no darkness at all. We cannot be profane, for we have an exalted calling to share in Christ’s ministry of reconciliation. Our life must be consistent with our eternal destination. We will dwell forever in the very presence of the immortal, invisible, only wise God. As the Scottish pastor John Brown once wrote, “Holiness does not consist in mystic speculations, enthusiastic fervours, or uncommanded austerities; it consists in thinking as God thinks and willing as God wills.”
This is an adapted excerpt from Pastor Hensworth Jonas’s latest book, Radical Discipleship.
