LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
The Testimony of a Disciple
"By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13.35).
When a man or woman receives the Lord Jesus and believes in His name, he or she becomes a child of God, born of God (John 1:12-13). Every child of God is a servant of Jesus Christ, but is not yet a disciple. Jesus makes this distinction in Matthew 10:24.
The servant is related to his Lord, the disciple to his Master. Every child of God, born of the Spirit, is a servant of Jesus Christ, because it was for this that He died and came back to life: "For if we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So then, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. For to this end Christ died and rose and came to life again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living" (Rom. 14:8-9).
Every child of God is a servant, but not every servant is a disciple. The servant is called to be a disciple, and for this, it is necessary to listen to his Master (Matt. 11:28-30). To be a servant, it is only necessary to believe; but to be a disciple, it is necessary to take up the cross; it is necessary to renounce everything you have, even your own life: "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters —yes, even his own life— he cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not take up his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple... So therefore, whoever of you does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:26-33).
Among us believers, Jesus' testimony as a servant is well known; for this reason, God made him both Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36). If this is not true in us, we cannot even be called Christians. We have the testimony of a servant, but not that of a disciple. We may be called his servants, but can we be called his disciples? With our lips, we may call ourselves his disciples, but Jesus said that there is a testimony in his true disciples: love for one another.
Perhaps, at first, we should feel ashamed when we hear those words, but Jesus shows us the way, the way of the cross. Deny ourselves, take up our cross daily, and follow him.
In Luke 9:23, Jesus tells us that being his disciple is not an imposition, but a personal decision. But for this, it is necessary to take up our cross and renounce everything we have, even our own lives. Only when we long for Him, deny ourselves and take up our cross, can we love one another, and then we can say that we are truly His disciples.
It is only through the testimony of disciples that the world will believe that He was sent. May the testimony of the Father's love, which was in Christ, be in us also: "…that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them" (John 17:26).