I identify myself as a Christian. Perhaps you do as well. But what does that mean?
The earliest Christians were most commonly referred to as “followers of Christ.” A “follower” is understood to be one who accepts the influence, guidance, or direction of another. At the most basic level, a follower of Christ would be one who accepts the influence, guidance, and direction of Jesus.
Our English word, “follower,” comes from the old English “fylgan,” which meant “to accompany or to move in the same direction.” Further back, “follower” derives from the proto-German “fulgojanan,” from “full” and “gan,” meaning “full going.” Perhaps it would be good to understand a follower of Christ to be not just one who gives intellectual agreement to certain theological beliefs about Jesus, but as one who is “full going” in trying to walk in the ways of Jesus.
The Greek word translated as “disciple” in the Bible is “mathetes,” from which we get the words “math” and “mathematics.” “Mathetes” refers to a learner, a student, or an apprentice. The root word, “math,” indicates thought accompanied by endeavor. In other words, a disciple is one who applies effort to learning from his or her teacher. Indeed, Jewish people at the time of Jesus understood a “mathetes” to be one who attached himself or herself to a rabbi to absorb the rabbi’s teaching, to imitate the rabbi’s character, and to adopt the rabbi’s way of living. A disciple of Christ, then, would be one who attaches himself or herself to Jesus Christ to such an extent that he or shes absorbs Christ’s teachings, and imitates Jesus’s character, and adopts Jesus’s way of living.
Philip Bliss summed this up in a brief poem: “At the feet of Jesus is the place for me. There, a humble learner, would I choose to be.”
William Barclay stressed, “All his life a Christian should be learning more and more about Jesus. The shut mind is the end of discipleship!”
Yet, since a disciple does not just learn theological beliefs about Jesus, I would expand on what Barclay wrote: All his or her life, a Christian should be following closer and closer to Christ, absorbing Christ’s teaching, imitating Christ’s character, and adopting the way Jesus lived. A shut mind and heart and will are the end of discipleship!