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.

Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.

King Josiah and his son, king Jehoiakim (cf. Jer. 36:1), reacted to the reading of God’s Word in two vastly different ways:

Josiah – “And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the book of the law, that he rent his clothes” (2 Kings 22:11).

Jehoiakim – “Now the king sat in the winter house in the ninth month: and there was a fire on the hearth burning before him. And it came to pass, that when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth” (Jer. 36:22-23).

God took note of their differing responses:

Josiah – “But to the king of Judah which sent you to enquire of the LORD, thus shall ye say to him, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, As touching the words which thou hast heard; Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the LORD, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard thee, saith the LORD” (2 Kings 22:18-19)

Jehoiakim – “Yet they were not afraid, nor rent their garments, neither the king, nor any of his servants that heard all these words” (Jer. 36:24).

God dealt with each king according to how he responded to His Word:

Josiah – “Behold therefore, I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace; and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place. And they brought the king word again” (2 Kings 22:20).

Jehoiakim – “And thou shalt say to Jehoiakim king of Judah, Thus saith the LORD; Thou hast burned this roll, saying, Why hast thou written therein, saying, The king of Babylon shall certainly come and destroy this land, and shall cause to cease from thence man and beast? Therefore thus saith the LORD of Jehoiakim king of Judah; He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David: and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost. And I will punish him and his seed and his servants for their iniquity; and I will bring upon them, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and upon the men of Judah, all the evil that I have pronounced against them; but they hearkened not” (Jer. 36:29-31).

God notes how we respond to His Word and will deal with us accordingly. Let us be like Josiah in receiving the Word of God.

Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.