A comparison of two passages reveals a vital point about making a person a disciple of Christ:
“Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen” (Matt. 28:20).
“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:3-5).
Jesus commanded His disciples to make disciples of all nations by teaching them to obey everything that He had commanded His disciples themselves to obey. Paul spoke of our warfare as intended to bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
Taken together, these passages suggest that making people disciples of Christ at its essence involves engaging in spiritual warfare to bring them to have their all their thinking captive to the obedience of Christ. How will we make them such disciples?
Psalm 1:3 surely shows us one essential aspect of how we are to do so—we must teach them to have their delight in God’s Word and meditate in it day and night! Apart from their having such a total absorption with God’s own thoughts, their being a disciple whose every thought is captive to the obedience of Christ will be impossible.
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