One Disciple to Another

The Bible is a gold mine for the soul, and the teachings of Jesus are surely the Mother-Lode of it's grace and truth. When Jesus gave the great commission in Matthew He gave the outline of what it means to be a disciple. He didn't call them 'Christians', but 'disciples.' In the great commission (Matthew 28:19,20) Jesus said to make disciples (of Him), baptize them, and teach those disciples to observe and keep whatever He had first commanded them (Acts 3:22,23).

The sermon on the mount, found in Matthew 5-7, Jesus says (7:24-27):

"Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.

But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall."

He was making a specific point in this sermon to identify "these sayings of Mine." After review of several translations, including the oldest Aramaic, the matters given in the opening lessons give key elements being established that all disciples need to note. While it isn't a term or quote of Jesus, many have called the sermon on the mount to be the "manifesto" of Christianity. With His teachings are included a number of passages of Scripture to reference that should be an aid for additional insights to the fulness of what He was teaching that may not be noted in many study Bibles.

John 15:9-15; "As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you."

Revelation 22:14; "Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city."

John 14:23,24; "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words, and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father's who sent Me."

Jesus gave hundreds of teachings, and each has important lessons in our discipleship to Him. We are counciled to not to be hearers only, but among those who are hearers and doers of His word. Jesus came to teach and manifest the righteousness, grace, mercy, promises, will and truth of God that leads to eternal life.

In Micah 6:7,8 we are told:

"Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams,

Ten thousand rivers of oil?

Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,

The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

He has shown you, O man, what is good;

And what does the LORD require of you

But to do justly,

To love mercy,

And to walk humbly with your God?"

Jesus came to show us exactly what these things mean: to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God and our fellow man. John 8: 31,32; "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."