What is Christian discipleship?

Discipleship is the special form taken by the love that springs up responsively in the heart of a believer. It is the backward flow of divine love to its Source. To be a disciple is to be a learner, and not a learner only, but a follower; and when the grace of God grips a soul and new life begins, its first instincts are to learn of the Saviour and to follow Him.

Did he mean, "It costs too much to be saved"? Then he was totally wrong. The untold cost of salvation has fallen upon One who was able to bear it... It costs to be a disciple, but it does not cost too much! The fact is, our gloomy-looking friend was not saved, he had never tasted grace, and therefore had nothing to spend. When a man goes to market with no money in his pocket everything costs too much! He was putting discipleship before grace, which is equivalent to putting demand before supply, and responsibility before the power that meets it.

These words are addressed to the disciples and not to unbelievers. It is therefore not a question of salvation. We are not asked to deny self and take up the cross in order to be saved. These words tell us that the way the Lord went is the way of all His true disciples.

The force of "deny himself" is hardly expressed by "self-denial," which is the denying oneself of something. What the Lord speaks of is not that but the denial, or the saying of "no," to oneself. Also, "take up his cross" does not mean bearing trials and troubles merely. The man who in those days took up his cross was being led to execution... To say "no" to oneself is to accept death internally, on one's own spirit: to take up one's cross is to accept death externally at the hands of the world.

Every claim that this world makes on the disciples of Christ, if disputing His claims, must be refused. Every right claim of nature must be subservient to Christ's claims... Christ as Creator has claims on every man, but He also has claims on all as having tasted death for every man (Hebrews 2:9), but His claims on His disciples rest on His having redeemed them from the bondage of sin and Satan so that they can serve and follow Him.

We "hate…" not absolutely, but in a comparative sense, of course. Our love to Christ should so transcend the natural love we bear to our relations that the latter appears as hate when compared with the former.

In John 8:31 the Lord said to the Jews "which believed on Him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed" [ESV: "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples"]. Like Peter and the disciples of whom we have just written, the true disciple will value the word of the Lord, will continue in it by walking in the light of it, and will seek in all things to do what is pleasing to the Lord.

Fruit is nothing less than the life of Jesus manifesting itself in those who are His, as the life of the vine is manifested in the fruit that the branches bear... This does not mean that you have a good knowledge of Scripture, valuable as that is, but that you are in constant, continual dependence upon your Lord.

There are no "favoured ones" in Christianity... The early Christians were believers, saints, disciples, all of them. And the very foremost of the apostles was just a believer, a saint, or a disciple along with the rest, though gifted from heaven and clothed with an authority that was indisputable.

Discipleship is a very individual thing. John had to follow for himself, and Peter for himself, and each of us must follow each for himself; yet for our full development in the blessed traits of it we need each other. We must have a Master to follow, and brethren to follow with... Neither rules nor regulations can secure this, and to make rules and restrictions is to go back to the age of law.