iscipleship – Servant Hood! In John 13: 34-35 Jesus exhorts,
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have you, that you also love one another. By this men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
Charity! Yes, love gains us our badge of discipleship! True discipleship is the imitation of the life of Jesus Christ in true openness to the will of the Almighty Father, in the serving of others. In Matthew 22:37-39, Mark 12:28-30, and Luke 10:27, Jesus gives evidence of the two greatest commandments: First, to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind, and with all of your strength! Second, to love your neighbor as yourself! In Matthew 7:12 and Luke 6:31, Jesus exhorts,
Do unto others what you would have others do unto you.
This teaching is called 'The Golden Rule'!
Love of neighbor fulfills the divine law of God. The analogy of the teachings of Christ on the Sermon on the Mount and the Sermon on the Plain is the obligation to love your neighbor as yourself. In Galatians 5:14 St. Paul exhorts,
For the whole law is fulfilled in a single command "You shall love your neighbor as yourself".
In Romans 13:8-10, St. Paul exhorts,
Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for he who has loved his neighbor has fulfilled the law.
In Luke 10:30-37 in the 'Parable of the Good Samaritan', Jesus in his infinite wisdom gives a magnificent definition of love and mercy in this teaching. Like the Good Samaritan, our obligation to love and be merciful is mandated. In this parable, the will of Christ was fulfilled. Wisdom 2:23 states,
God made man for incorruption and made him in his image of his own eternity.
The Wisdom Books in the Bible gives magnificent instruction and information in one's walk in Christ. Ecclesiastes 9:13 states,
For this is the whole duty of man. Fear God and keep his commandments.
Sirach 25:1 states,
My soul takes pleasure in three things, and they are beautiful in the sight of God and man. Agreement between brothers, friendship between neighbors, and a wife and husband who live in harmony.
Many Fundamentalist Protestants hold to the heretical doctrine of Eternal Security – 'Once Saved, Always Saved'. This doctrine is a doctrine of demons, a false doctrine that will lead one into perdition. One cannot enter heaven with mortal sin on his soul. He must repent! Remember God separated light from darkness. Grace and sin cannot co-exist. The acceptance and confession of Christ, and baptism is the beginning of one's walk with Christ. The righteous judgment of Christ will be on obedience of faith. Good deeds in faith will determine if one will reach the kingdom of heaven. See Romans 2:5-10, Matthew 16:27, Matthew 25:31-46, John 5:29, 1 Corinthians 15:58, and Revelations 2:10. Through Divine Revelation, the Almighty God chose to show forth and communicate himself through the Incarnate Word, 'the Word made flesh Jesus Christ'. Through faith and the sacramental life let the manifestation of the light of Christ manifest in our hearts. Let our prayer life be genuine and accompanied by a persevering effort to do the will of God, and imitate the life of Christ. The Christian struggle for salvation is a tough walk. A Christian struggle must be unceasing, for interior life consists in beginning and beginning again. If we do sin we have an advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ the Righteous. The surety of heaven, the absolute promise of heaven comes through the teachings of Christ and the sacramental life of faith. If we do fall into the temptations of the devil and willfully sin, yes, fall into mortal sin, we must repent with a contrite heart and go the Sacrament of Penance. 1 John 5:16-17 gives evidence of mortal sin. John 20:21-23, Hebrews 10:26, 1 John 1:7-9, and 1 John 2:1-2 give definitive affirmation we must repent of sin and turn our lives back to Christ.
In John's gospel the manifestation of the power of God was given by Christ to his disciples who are the ministers of God and are appointed the spiritual judges and physicians of the souls of the baptized believers of Christ Let us not be sheep without a shepherd. Jesus Christ is the Divine Shepherd! He chose to share with humanity the divine treasures which totally transcend the understanding of the human mind. Those divinely revealed realities are contained in Sacred Scripture! In 2 Peter 1:3-5 St. Peter exhorts,
His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption of the world caused by evil desires.
The Word of Jesus, leads us to the love of Jesus. In James 2:8 St. James exhorts, 'If you really fulfill the royal law, according to scripture,
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Love is the greatest theological virtue, even greater than faith. In 1 Corinthians 13:13 St. Paul exhorts,
So faith, hope and love abide, but the greatest of these is love.
Scripture gives sufficient evidence why love is the greatest virtue. In 1 John 4:16 Scripture states,
God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him!
In 1 John 3:11-18 St. John exhorts,
For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, and not be like Cain who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous. Do not wonder, brethren, that the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love remains in death. Any one who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or speech but in deed and in truth.
The Scriptures gives immense affirmation and direct evidence of the importance of love, that one must truly abide in love and love must be sincere to be a disciple of Christ. In 1 Corinthians 13:2 St. Paul exhorts,
But if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains and have not love, I am nothing.
In 1 John 5:2-4, St. John exhorts,
This is how we that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. This is the love of God; to obey his commands, and his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world.
Let us never forget that in Sacred Scripture is contained the divine truth and holiness of God, the marvelous condescension of the eternal wisdom of God is clearly shown, the magnificent plan of God for salvation of mankind. In Romans 1:17 St. Paul exhorts,
The righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith!
The magnificent security of the awesome promises of the Almighty God in regards to discipleship is confirmed in God's Word. In 2 Corinthians 1:20-22 St. Paul exhorts,
For all the promises of God find their yes in him. That is why we utter the Amen through him, to the glory of God. But it is God who established us with you in Christ, and has commissioned us; he has put his seal upon us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.
In Romans 8:28 St. Paul exhorts,
We know in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose.
In Philippians 2:13 St. Paul exhorts,
For God is at work in you, both to will and work for his good purpose.
Our sufficiency is from God and by the grace of God we are saved. In 2 Corinthians 3:5, St. Paul exhorts,
Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our sufficiency is from God.
In Ephesians 2:4-5, St. Paul states,
But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved!
True discipleship mandates diligence, faithfulness, watchfulness, obedience, perseverance, holding fast to the faithfulness of God. In Matthew 10:22, Matthew 24:13, and Mark 13:13 Jesus exhorts,
Those who endure, those who persevere to the end will be saved. The road and gate to heaven is narrow. But in Christ we can do all things.
John 14:12 and Phil. 4:13 gives definitive affirmation that in Christ we can do all things. In Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus exhorts,
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest in your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
In Matthew 5:1-12, the Lord Jesus Christ gives us our roadmap of life. The Beatitudes which are the sublime attitudes of Christ we must imitate. The Beatitudes truly search our hearts, the innermost dept of our being, they are the true life of faith given to the disciples of Christ by the Lord Jesus Christ himself. The Beatitudes are the rules of living to enter the kingdom of heaven. In Luke 17:21, Jesus exhorts,
The kingdom of heaven is within you.
What is the kingdom of God? The Apostle St. Paul has the answer. Romans 14:17:
The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
The Lord Jesus Christ in his teaching sends forth the baptized faithful to make disciples of all nations. Discipleship calls one to evangelization. To give witness in word and deed of the magnificent life in Christ. Let us look at the 'Great Commission', the mission to the world in which the Lord Jesus Christ gave the authority of the Church before he ascended to the heavenly Father after his resurrection. The mystery of the redemption wrought by Christ, which embraces his death and resurrection, is applied to every baptized believer through baptism and faith and the sacramental life. In Matthew 28:18-20 Jesus exhorts,
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the consummation of the world.
True discipleship is servant hood, the call to serve others. The imitation of the life of Christ in serving others. Discipleship calls one to humility. When asked by the disciples James and John to sit at the right and left hand of the Lord in his glory, Jesus calls the disciples to humility through servant hood. In Mark 10:43-45 Jesus exhorts,
Whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of man also came not to be served but to serve, and give his life as a ransom for many.
In John 13:4-18 Jesus Christ showed the disciples a marvelous example in the washing of the feet of the disciples. Jesus tells the disciples,
For I have given you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Truly, truly, I say to you that a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
After his incident with the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well, in which Jesus tells the woman who shall drink the living water I shall give them shall never thirst, and the water I give shall be a spring of water welling up to eternal life, Jesus tells the woman that one must worship in spirit and in truth. The disciples brought food to him and told Jesus to eat. The Lord Jesus Christ then tells the disciples,
My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and accomplish his work!
True discipleship is an obedience of faith in following the 'Word of God'! Christ calls us to humility, to be gentle and humble of heart. Matthew 23:11-12 Jesus exhorts,
He who is greatest among you shall be your servant; whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.
Luke 14:11 and Luke 18:14 absolutely correlate to Matthew 23:11-12 regarding humility. James 4:6 states,
God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble.
James 4:10 states,
Humble yourself before the Lord and he will exalt you.
In 1 Peter 1:5-6 St. Peter exhorts,
Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble."
Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that in due time he may exalt you. In John 8:31-32, Jesus tells the Jews who have believed in him,
If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.
The "Truth will set you Free" means liberation in Christ! Liberation is the inner transformation through the magnificent 'Words of Christ' through faith, and the Sacramental life that one becomes spiritually mature in his walk with Christ. To grow in faith, holiness, and righteousness makes one a true disciple of Christ! In Hebrews 12:14 St. Paul exhorts,
Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. May the peace of Christ manifest into your hearts now and forever. The Peace of Christ can be defined: Serenity of Mind, Tranquility of Soul, and Simplicity of Heart.
Hallelujah to the Lamb of God, The Lord Jesus Christ! May God Richly Bless You! Amen! Hallelujah!
Charles Hatchko
February 17, 2005
