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The Language of ‘Discipleship’ in the New Testament
Father, wife, sister, son: the words we use to describe ourselves (and others) are frequently relational in nature; they describe a person’s identity with respect to other people. Given that these words are relational, they often occur in pairs, where one’s identity is relative to – and implies the existence of – another person holding the other identity: husband-wife, father-son, mother-daughter, brother-sister, master-servant, employer-employee, and so forth.
The term ‘disciple’ (μαθητής) is no different. The relational word-pair to which this word belongs is that of ‘teacher-disciple’. The existence of a disciple implies the existence of a teacher (διδάσκαλος). To be a disciple is to be a student or pupil (μαθητεύω) of a particular teacher and their distinctive body of teaching, engaging in the learning of that teaching (μανθάνω) from that teacher and adhering to it. A disciple identifies with and follows a teacher (e.g. Matt 8:19-23), never surpassing but ever hoping to attain to the teacher (e.g. Matt 10:24-25; Luke 6:40).
All Christians are disciples of Jesus (cf: Acts 11:26). They follow Jesus (e.g. Luke 8:19-23) and are taught by him (e.g. Matthew 5:1-2, 11:1, 12:48-50, 13:10, 13:36, etc.). During Jesus’ ministry, they could be distinguished from the ‘crowd’ or the ‘people’, and Jesus often taught them privately, explaining things, answering their questions, and asking questions of his own (e.g. Mark 4:34, 7:17, 9:28, 9:30-31, etc.). They often called him ‘Teacher’. Jesus declared that true disciples would ‘abide’ in his word (John 8:31). The evidence of their discipleship of him is that they would love one another, bearing fruit (John 13:35, 15:8).
It is important to pause and observe that nowhere in the New Testament are Christians ever described as disciples of a fellow believer. Throughout the Gospels and Acts, ‘disciple’ is used as a term for believers exclusively with relation to Jesus. Nowhere in the epistles does the word disciple even occur, let alone find expression in relationship with a fellow believer. This is unlikely to be reflective of a skew the evidence we have available. With the myriad of relational terms employed of believers in the epistles, along with the continuance of a variety of ‘teaching’ words (including the διδάσκ- word-group), the lack of discipleship language between Christians is telling.
This aversion to perceiving Christians as disciples of other Christians is made apparent with the conflict in the Corinthian church. In their spiritual immaturity, the Corinthians sought to identify with specific teachers in the church. Paul repudiates such behaviour, expressing gladness that he baptised so few there, lest people think of him as making his own followers there by baptising them into his own name. Instead, his priority was to proclaim Christ (1 Cor 1:10-17).
The intention therefore seems clear: disciples of Jesus make other disciples of Jesus (synonymous with conversion in Acts 6:17, 14:21, etc.), not of their own. Disciples make other disciples of Jesus, baptising them into the name of Christ and teaching them to obey everything Jesus commanded (John 4:1-2, Matthew 28:19-20).
Growing to Maturity Through Mature Christian Relationships
Despite the exclusivity in New Testament usage, ‘discipleship’ language is regularly employed in churches as a means of describing a particular type relationship between believers. Further, it is often used to describe a specific format between those believers: that of regular one-to-one or one-to-few meetings whereby one Christian ‘disciples’ another Christian.
To my mind, both the generalisation and the application of the term are unfortunate. By holding out ‘disciple’ as a word to describe our relationship to Jesus only, we affirm the trajectory of the teaching relationships we do have with fellow-believers: we point away from ourselves to Jesus, even if we ourselves are involved in the task. We remind ourselves and our churches that we are nothing, mere labourers in a field where God gives the growth (cf: 1 Cor 3:1-18). Also, it frees us to think of the teaching-pastoral relationships that areexercised between believers in the church beyond mere one-to-one ministry, as valuable as this type of ministry may be.
If not ‘discipleship’ relationships, what is it that the New Testament promotes as ‘teaching relationships’? There are four broad categories, with some degree of overlap between the four.
i. Teacher-Shepherd (Appointed Responsibility)
Teaching and shepherding are paired in Ephesians 4:11. Those suitable believers with the ability to teach are appointed not to merely teach the flock, but to shepherd it also. That is, they guide, correct, nurture, sustain, protect, rescue, and sacrifice themselves for each of those under their responsibility (e.g. Ezekiel 34). They teach, but lead by example also, setting a pattern in belief and life for the flock to imitate as they see the outcome of their leaders’ faith (1 Peter 5:1-5; Hebrews 13:7; 1 Timothy 4:12, 4:16).
ii. Eldership (Appointed Responsibility)
Not every elder in the church is in a formal teaching-shepherding situation (even though they are able to teach); they are still recognised as elders since their speech and character model Christ. The church is aware of them as those worthy of emulation.
iii. Older-Younger (Informal Responsibility)
As a broader principle, however, it is enjoined on older Christians to be responsible for the growth to maturity of younger Christians. They might not necessarily be teaching doctrine, but they ought teach and model what accords with sound doctrine (e.g. Titus 2:1-8). This can happen within the household, but happens within the dynamics of church-life more generally.
iv. Mutually Speaking the Truth (Informal Responsibility)
A characteristic of the mature Christian is that they are able to teach others (Hebrews 5:12; Ephesians 4:15), speaking what is edifying for the building of God’s church to maturity (Ephesians 4:15-16, 29; Colossians 3:16-17).
