Spheres and Stages of Discipleship
Introduction
Discipleship is not a singular event, but instead, it is a lifelong endeavor. The question of how believers develop into disciples varies among scholars. Without an understanding of the discipleship process, believers may miss important opportunities for continued growth as followers of Christ. This paper shows the process and application of discipleship as outlined in Discipleshift as well as the importance of worldly detachment and suffering in submitting to Christ. The analysis first identifies five stages and four spheres of discipleship, followed by a personal analysis of each area, prior to describing the meaning of being submitted to Christ.
Five Stages of Discipleship
Discipleship follows a pattern of progress. Jim Putman, Bobby Harrington, and Robert Coleman identify five stages of the discipleship process: spiritually dead, infancy, childhood, young adulthood and parenthood.[1] The first stage, spiritually dead, refers to an unregenerate individual.[2] Unregenerate persons range from antagonistic atheists to individuals who simply believe in some higher power. The Apostle Paul identifies individuals who were once spiritually dead in his letter to the Ephesians when stating, “You were dead in the trespasses and sins” (Eph 2:1), and in his letter to the Colossians stating, “And you, who were dead in your trespasses…God made alive together with him” (Col 2:13).[3]
The subsequent stages of discipleship refer to regenerate individuals. Stage two, infancy, represents individuals who are normally, but not always, new to the faith and lack knowledge of Christ, while continuing to live a self-focused life.[4] Comparable to human infancy, the individual is needy and dependent on others for care. The Apostle Paul refers to people in a state of infancy in his letter to the Corinthians when stating, “But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it.” (1 Cor 3:1-2a). The third stage of discipleship, childhood, includes regenerate individuals who continue to remain self-focused, but are beginning to apply Scripture and grow in Christ.[5] Paul, in his letter to the Thessalonians, refers to the childhood stage when he compares himself to a father teaching and encouraging his children to follow God (1 Thess 2:11-12). The next stage of discipleship is young adulthood, typified by individuals who are moving away from self-focus, and instead, are focusing their beliefs, thoughts, emotions, and actions on God and others.[6] The Apostle John identifies young believing adults in his letter when stating, “I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one” (1 John 2:14). The final stage of discipleship is parenthood. A spiritual parent continues to grow in Christ while simultaneously discipling others.[7] The Apostle Paul’s letter to Timothy references spiritual parents when he exhorts his readers to entrust faithful men to teach others what Paul had taught them (2 Tim 2:1-2). The authors furnish a valid approach to assessing stages of discipleship, which allow for a practical approach to taking next steps. However, if an individual’s stage in any way determines his or her significance or results in a game of religious comparison, then stage assessment risks undermining the gospel.
Four Spheres of Discipleship
Although the process of discipleship for regenerate Christians resides on a continuum from infancy to parenthood, a holistic application is necessary. Putman, Harrington, and Coleman suggest that the growth process must occur in four spheres of life – God, the church, the home, and the world.[8] The first sphere is the disciple’s relationship with God (cf. Matt 22:37-38), which includes an understanding and appropriation of the gospel where one’s righteousness (justification) does not come from self, but from Christ (cf. Rom 3:21-22) and the source of the transformation (sanctification) is not from self, but Christ (cf. John 15:4-5). The three other spheres emanate from the centrality of Christ outward to loving others (cf. Matt 22:39). The second sphere is the disciple’s love for other believers.[9] Specifically, the Apostle Paul explains in his letter to the Ephesians that disciples must be equipped in “building up the body of Christ” in love (Eph 4:11-12, 15-16). The third sphere is the disciple’s love for his or her spouse, children and parents.[10] The letter to the Ephesians also addresses the importance of a disciple’s relationship with Christ extending to spouses (cf. Eph 5:22-27) as well as to children and parents (cf. Eph 6:1-4). The fourth sphere is the disciple’s love for the world.[11] Paul also addresses relationships outside the church and home when referring to the master and servant relationship, who both ought to render “service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man” (Eph 6:7). By identifying four important spheres of life, the authors appropriately highlight the comprehensive nature and reach of discipleship.
Current Stage of Discipleship
In many ways, the stage of discipleship that I am currently in is parenthood. The evidence for parenthood is both inward and outward. Inwardly, I understand that my identity is in the righteousness of Christ and not in other people’s opinions, my performance, or circumstances (cf. Rom 3:22). Furthermore, I do not rely on others to spoon feed Scripture to me (cf. 1 Cor 3:1-2). Instead, I use scholarly, devotional, and biblical language resources for personal Bible study. Although not my vocation, I have discipled hundreds of individuals and groups over the last fifteen years, many of whom now disciple others. I have written accredited college curriculum and books regarding discipleship coaching, which are currently used by Christian Universities and organizations that promulgate the disciplines of spiritual formation, social work, and counseling. Each week I continue to coach multiple individuals, remain accessible to other discipleship coaches and licensed counselors who need assistance, and lead small groups that focus on the Bible in its original context stripped of denominational and theological agendas.
Spheres to Submit to Christ
The areas of life that I need to submit to the centrality of Christ include God, the church, family, and the world. The first sphere that I must submit to Christ, is my relationship with Him, where my identity is in Christ, not in the idols of self, other people, or circumstances. Historically, I have been my own god, as Richard Lovelace suggests, by manufacturing “a fictitious righteousness in heroic works of ascetic piety,” or by following my own passions through redefining “sin in shallow terms so that it can lose the consciousness of its presence.”[12] In other words, either through religious moralism or worldly paganism, I existed as my own god. However, Matthew records Jesus’s words stating, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mt. 16:24). Dietrich Bonhoeffer comments on this verse by explaining that the essence of the cross is “suffering and being rejected” and that the “first Christ-suffering that everyone has to experience is the call which summons us away from our attachments to this world.”[13] Unfortunately, I have also lived a life where my attachment to other people’s opinions, institutional church achievements, familial success, and business prosperity defined me–these worldly attachments became my god–a form of idolatry. However, denying that any righteousness originates from myself or the world, and simultaneously, accepting Christ’s righteousness as my own through the forgiveness of my sins eliminated the need to selfishly maintain my own righteousness, which empowers an increase in selfless love to the three other spheres that I must submit to Christ: my family, Christ’s body, and the world.
In Submission to Christ
The specific meaning of a disciple being in submission to Christ must encompass both of Bonhoeffer’s concerns – the attachments to the world (idolatry) and the suffering that necessarily occurs when taking up the cross and denying self. According to Bauer’s lexicon (BDAG), the lemma for the word submission (ὑποτάσσω) means to “subject oneself, be subjected or subordinated, obey.”[14] A direct reference to submitting to Christ occurs in Ephesians 5:24 in the context of the household codes. Scripture also refers to submission to God in 1 Corinthians 15:28, Hebrews 12:9, and James 4:7. In all instances, the underlying motif of submission is an absence of idolatry and an acceptance of suffering.
First, regarding attachments to the world, N. T. Wright explains that sin is secondary to idolatry because human failure is primarily a deterioration of worship, which happens “whenever we place anything in the created order above the Creator himself.”[15] In a postmodern society, the primary idol is self and secondary idols, such as money, approval from others, and performance, become the driving force behind worshipping the self rather than the Creator. Not surprisingly, James combines the concepts of selfish pride and submission when stating, “‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’ Submit (ὑποτάγητε) yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (Jas 4:6-7). Commenting on verses 6-7, James Adamson explains that it is “not the devil that James takes most seriously but our own lusts” (Jas 1:14).[16] Bonhoeffer also recognizes “there are plenty of other gods” the world uses to entangle the believer, but that Christ must stand “not only between me and God,” but also must stand “between me and the world, between me and other people and things.”[17] By definition, submitting to idols usurps the ability to submit to Christ, thus, first and foremost, the meaning of a disciple being in submission to Christ means worshipping God and God alone.
Second, worshipping God and God alone necessarily brings suffering. In a reference to Christ, Wright explains, “Suffering was the means of the victory. Suffering is also the means of its implementation,” and it “is still the means by which the work goes forward.”[18] In other words, the path of forgiveness, unconditional love, empathy, the battle against the world’s attempts to replace God etc. all occur within an environment of suffering. Wright rhetorically continues, “Did we really imagine that, while Jesus would win his victory by suffering, self-giving love, we would implement that same victory by arrogant, self-aggrandizing force of arms?”[19] The answer is a resounding no! Transformational love empathically experiences the depths of the world’s pain (cf. John 1:14), forgives exponentially when it hurts (cf. Eph. 1:7), and experiences the rejection of the world (cf. Luke 17:25), less it be controlled by it. The ultimate expression of transformational love was Christ’s suffering on the cross, and the ongoing expression of it is a disciple’s suffering as a divine imager of Christ who, as Bonhoeffer asserts, finds life on the cross with Christ.[20] Accordingly, submission to Christ not only means submitting to God and God alone, but also means extending transformative love to other believers, family, and the world within an environment of necessary suffering.
Conclusion
This paper has shown the process and application of discipleship as outlined in Discipleshift as well as the importance of worldly detachment and suffering in submitting to Christ. The analysis supported the assertions in three ways. First, the process of discipleship moves on a continuum from spiritually dead to spiritual parenthood. Next, the application of discipleship must encompass God, the church, the home, and the world. Finally, submission to Christ occurs by detaching from the world in an environment of necessary suffering. From a practical perspective, all disciples can assess their current stage of discipleship and analyze the comprehensiveness of its application providing further opportunities for growth in Christ.
Bibliography
Adamson, James B. The Epistle of James. The New International Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1976.
Arndt, William, Frederick W. Danker, and Walter Bauer. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. Chicago: University of Chicago, 2000.
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Discipleship. Edited by Geffrey B. Kelly and John D. Godsey. Translated by Barbara Green and Reinhard Krauss. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2003.
Lovelace, Richard F. Dynamics of Spiritual Life: An Evangelical Theology of Renewal. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 1979.
Putman, Jim, Bobby Harrington, and Robert E. Coleman. DiscipleShift. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2013.
Wright, N. T. The Day the Revolution Began: Reconsidering the Meaning of Jesus’s Crucifixion. San Francisco: HarperOne, 2016.
[1] Jim Putman, Bobby Harrington, and Robert E. Coleman, DiscipleShift (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2013), 61–71.
[2] Ibid., 61.
[3] Unless otherwise noted, all biblical passages referenced are in the English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2008).
[4] Putman, Harrington, and Coleman, DiscipleShift, 61–71.
[5] Ibid., 65.
[6] Ibid., 67–69.
[7] Ibid., 69–70.
[8] Putman, Harrington, and Coleman, DiscipleShift, 78.
[9] Ibid., 86.
[10] Ibid., 87–88.
[11] Ibid., 88–89.
[12] Richard F. Lovelace, Dynamics of Spiritual Life: An Evangelical Theology of Renewal (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 1979), 99.
[13] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Discipleship, ed. Geffrey B. Kelly and John D. Godsey, trans. Barbara Green and Reinhard Krauss (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2003), 86–87.
[14] William Arndt, Frederick W. Danker, and Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago, 2000), 1042.
[15] N. T. Wright, The Day the Revolution Began: Reconsidering the Meaning of Jesus’s Crucifixion (San Francisco: HarperOne, 2016), 85.
[16] James B. Adamson, The Epistle of James, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1976), 173.
[17] Bonhoeffer, Discipleship, 94–95.
[18] Wright, The Day the Revolution, 372–73.
[19] Wright, The Day the Revolution, 374.
[20] Bonhoeffer, Discipleship, 89.