The Discipleship Response (Matthew 10:40-42)
Jesus concludes this discourse on the nature of discipleship with an encouraging word. After all the earnest mission talk, the conflict between kingdoms, and the need to die to self, He talks about the discipleship response.
There are two aspects to the response. The first is the response we can count on from some people. Where the world will reject us, there are those who will be open to our message and to us. Those who receive the disciples of Jesus receive Him. And by that token, those who reject us are not really rejecting us, but Jesus as well. So, we don’t need to take that personally.
Well, unless we do. Some disciples use this sort of thinking to justify some of the worst approaches to people imaginable. We cannot be insensitive, offensive, culturally inappropriate haphazardly. We represent Christ; therefore, we need to approach people as Christ would. All too often we approach people as the Pharisees would and then have the audacity to claim that is the example we see in Jesus!
The second aspect of the response is seen in the way we receive disciples. Just because we are disciples does not mean we are exempt from receiving Christ’s representative in a right way. If we reject people who are following Jesus in obedience, how good is our discipleship? If we turn a blind eye to the suffering and rejection Christians face, we will be held accountable for that too. Other followers of Jesus are our fellow kingdom citizens and even family. That they may be from a different racial, socioeconomic, or national category should not make a difference.
And people who are not yet followers still fit into the category of the neighbor we are commanded to love.
There are two aspects to the response. The first is the response we can count on from some people. Where the world will reject us, there are those who will be open to our message and to us. Those who receive the disciples of Jesus receive Him. And by that token, those who reject us are not really rejecting us, but Jesus as well. So, we don’t need to take that personally.
Well, unless we do. Some disciples use this sort of thinking to justify some of the worst approaches to people imaginable. We cannot be insensitive, offensive, culturally inappropriate haphazardly. We represent Christ; therefore, we need to approach people as Christ would. All too often we approach people as the Pharisees would and then have the audacity to claim that is the example we see in Jesus!
The second aspect of the response is seen in the way we receive disciples. Just because we are disciples does not mean we are exempt from receiving Christ’s representative in a right way. If we reject people who are following Jesus in obedience, how good is our discipleship? If we turn a blind eye to the suffering and rejection Christians face, we will be held accountable for that too. Other followers of Jesus are our fellow kingdom citizens and even family. That they may be from a different racial, socioeconomic, or national category should not make a difference.
And people who are not yet followers still fit into the category of the neighbor we are commanded to love.
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