Essential Discipleship

“The things which you have heard from me…entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” -2 Tim. 2:2. Paul’s advice to Timothy was to always be making disciples. I think, often times, we think of discipleship as a class or a mass teaching time. But Paul advised Timothy to do two things: to teach/do as Paul taught/did, and to pick people who would pass it on. On the surface, we think Paul said “teach what I taught you.” But Paul’s actual words are, “entrust these.” As Timothy traveled with Paul, he received discipleship. Not only did he hear what Paul taught, but he saw what Paul did, how Paul did it, and received a hands-on training. And Paul didn’t entreat Timothy to gather as many people as he could for a weekly teaching time. Timothy was charged to entrust these things to faithful men who would pass it on. Our discipleship needs to be more than a teaching slot in our schedule. It needs to be life-on-life modeling, centered on instilling a skill set necessary for passing it on. And it needs to be narrowed in scope so as to ensure it gets passed on. Does that sound like discipleship you’re involved in? No matter what your age or place in life, you should be discipling and being discipled. Pass it on!