And only by committing to memory those words and example, and spending hundreds of hours deeply pondering and understanding them, can they possibly do this.
The world is filled, history is filled, with people that consider themselves followers of Jesus, and it is to the Jesus of their all too comfortable and convenient imagination.
And for every such person, there is a different jesus. There is no great hope in that. There's no possibility of people coming to be on the same page. None whatsoever.
In the field of medicine if one does this they are quickly in prison. Quackery. Malpractice. Impersonating a doctor.
This is not to say that all doctors are helpful, and it is not to say that those without a doctor's license, or not. For sure.
As it relates to Jesus the practice up until now is, oh, I heard a couple of his words, I heard his story, I had a vision, I had a personal experience, now I can speak for him.
Blasphemy. Infinitely worse than impersonating a doctor.
That's a big problem.
He said, if you love me, you will keep my words. He did not say, if you love me, you will speak for me.
Those who have not equipped themselves to be disciples, some can in truth say, that they are obedient to their father. They can in truth say, that they are living out their holy spirit. They can might in truth say that they are inspired by jesus, even if they love him, though he would emphatically disagree.
They can understand themselves to be a tremendous Force for good, and that may well be true! Hopefully it is!
But unless they have equipped themselves to hold themselves accountable to the words and example of the man Jesus in the four canonical gospels, They cannot, they must not, claim to be disciples of jesus.
By all accounts in the canonical Gospels John the Baptist was revered for his goodness, filled with the Holy spirit. Without question Jesus revered him. But he was not a disciple of jesus. He was an revered agent of God to be sure, but he was not a disciple of jesus.
Jesus was clear that he revered, considered godly, some are all of the prophets before him. They certainly are in the Kingdom of heaven, and they could not have been disciples of jesus.
In addition to the category of disciple logs on this site, there needs to be another category, agrnt logs for example, those inspired by what little they know of Jesus. It might be among those that Jesus would say, the good shall go to the resurrection of life.
But not yet disciples. Should they ever choose to become.
And the lack of this application of the word disciple, it's definition, discipline student, is why we have Christianity instead of Jesianity! Paul, gospel writer john, Revelations writer john, crapped all over that obvious standard. Paul never met jesus, didn't know his teachings, but, well he had an encounter on the road, so now he starts speaking for jesus. Paul may be a great guy. Creator and Jesus may think he's wonderful, though I doubt it, but he was no disciple. The rest is history.
And I think the category Agent Log should be added to this site. For the logs of people that are clearly inspired by Jesus, would be respected by jesus, but have not yet for whatever reason placed themselves in a position to be accountable to his words and example in the canonical gospels.
Make no mistake, an agent, or a person with no such label at all, might be infinitely more godly, good, humane in the sight of creator, and the sight of jesus, than a disciple. But just as it matters whether a fastener is correctly labeled grade 5, or grade 8, or without a grade, words matter.
Jesus also said: You are my friends. If you do what I command you, I do not call you servants. The servant does not know what his lord does. But I call you friends because all that I have heard from my Father, I have made known to you.
Comments
Post a Comment