Discipleship begins with a total all-consuming
allegiance and commitment to Jesus the Christ. In our previous
article, we meditated on how this love that precedes all others causes
us to hate our self-centered relationships, especially with those
close to us, in order to love Jesus Christ undividedly.
But we will misinterpret this change in relationships,
unless we can grasp the core of our passage in Luke 14:26, 27 - "and hates even his own life..." It is the hatred of selfishness
in these relationships that we are called to. We are most of all
to hate our own rottenness inside, the thoughts of our heart that are
evil continually (Gen 6:5).
How can a disciple hate himself or herself? The means
is the cross. A disciple is to take up his cross.
What is that cross? It is an instrument of slow
painful death - a killing instrument. It is an instrument to
kill our basic instincts, our self-love, self-protection,
self-security. This is a death to the inner being.
(concurrent with that death is the resurrection of the Spirit within
us).
"...And follow me..." If we follow Bruce Lee,
we obey his disciplines. In the same way dying to self enables
us to follow the "Disciplines of the Master." What are these
disciplines of Jesus? Quiet time? Church attendance? Scripture memory?
No! These re helpful, indeed essential, but they are external props.
The disciplines of Jesus are disciplines of the inner person. They are
crystallized in the beatitudes (Matt 5:1-12). The beatitudes are
like a diamond with many faces. Each beatitude reflects a
different facet of the inner core of selflessness - the character of
those who live under the Kingdom of God. Daily we follow these
disciplines by choosing against the tyranny of self and allowing the
Holy Spirit of God to fill us and mould our inner man to be like
Him.
THE DISCIPLINES OF THE BEATITUDES
A disciple is poor in spirit
In ths scriptures, a class of godly poor emerged from
the time of the monarchy when society began to differentiate between
the rich and a class of oppressed poor. They were the oppressed
who out of their poverty turned to God to defend them.
The opposite of this godly poverty of spirit was the
spirit of the rich. Riches provide feelings of power, of
control. riches hide sin. The rich are always right.
They are independent of others and God.
In the scriptures, the poor are those who lack; the
frail, the weak, the refugee fleeing without possessions; the
dependent and those who cry for help; the oppressed. The poor in
spirit have an internal poverty - people who are dependent on God,
recognizing their spiritual need, their lack of spirituality, their
frailty.
Disciples need to choose their lifestyles.
Jesus, though He was rich, yet for our sakes became poor. He
came not as a rich dominating King, riding on a stallion, but as a
poor servant of men riding on a donkey. Not all can become wandering
scribes and we are commanded to provide for our families. But these
thoughts lead us to the question, "Can we be poor internally, and rich
externally? (Luke 6:20).
A disciple is one who mourns
God weeps! God sits where people sit, hurts where
people hurt. He dwells among the rotten of the earth. The dying
disciple wears sackcloth in his heart for the sins of his people.
He too cries over the slave trade in Manila, over the putrid wounds of
the beggar he befriends. He mourns first for himself. Confessing
daily the rottenness of his own soul, he pours out his soul for the
hungry (Isa 58:10). This is the distinctive mark of the true
disciple.
A disciple is meek
The disciple dies to power, and chooses powerlessness.
You cannot put him down, for he has chosen the bottom. the steel
of his inner man is tempered by the compassion of a gentle and quiet
spirit in his outer relationships. Among such people God dwells
(Isa 57:15). Women like this, are beautiful before God (1 Pet 3:4).
The meek person does not have to defend his amor propio or
fight for his rights. He has chosen to have none. Such
"powerless" people are the ones who are truly powerful. The power of
their inner spirit transforms nations.
A disciple is one who hungers and thirsts for
righteousness
Meekness is weakness without the burning desire for
truth and God. This hunger is not a hunger for knowledge, but
for knowledge in action. It is dying to self-righteousness and
trusting in the righteousness of God. it is a drive to be holy,
as the holiness of the Spirit of God controls our being. It is a
passion, outworked in meekness and poverty to see his justice
established in the dark places of the earth.
A disciple is merciful
Mercy balances the drive for righteousness. It
is death to cruelty and rigid hardness that blames others, demands
from others. It is alive to a tenderness that easily forgets and
forbears, daily choosing to forgive (Eph 4:32). It walks softly
among the bruised souls of humankind, to uplift and to encourage (Prov
15:1; Isa 42:3). It is not critical.
A disciple is pure in heart
The heart is an inner shrine, the temple of Gd.
The pure heart is fixed on God alone, undivided by desires to please
self or court the approval of others. A pure heart is so ablaze
with a love for God that all cares of preparing for my work, of caring
for my wife, or pride in my position, do not steal way that pure
devotion to him (1 John 2:15,16).
A disciple is a peacemaker
This is a dying to that kind of smooth interpersonal
relationships that are merely external, for peace at the cost of truth
is a false peace, fragile and treacherous. Peacemakers are those
who, because they no longer fight to justify themselves and refuse to
blame others - having lost their self-righteousness - are able to
speak the truth in love (Eph 4:15). They are unafraid of
conflict if it solves the sin that destroys the peace within the
heart.
A disciple is persecuted, and yet rejoices
One who dies to self will be hated by those who wish
he or she would live more comfortably. Families hate those who choose
poverty and powerlessness for it goes against the family goals for
success. A pure love for Jesus and for others is deeply
offensive to those who love self and darkness, most especially if they
be spouse or parents, or family, and so they may persecute us.
Yet we rejoice, and we overcome this hatred with a pure love.
What are you choosing daily? As you measure
yourself against the Beatitudes, is your discipleship of the heart or
in externals only? Today commit yourself to the Disciplines of Jesus.
today, choose to follow Him into the selflessness of the Sermon on the
Mount. today, choose to lose yourself (John 12:24,25), for in
losing yourself, you will find the true self-identity of a Christ-one. |
