by Pastor Patrick Cho

In order to keep up with the alliteration, I decided to title this post “Discipleship Is Led.” In a previous entry I wrote how all of our interactions are opportunities for us to invest in others; that discipleship is life. We are constantly placed in situations where we might be called upon to give advice or help someone in a difficult spot. When these opportunities arise, a choice has to be made: Will we give counsel that merely sounds good to us, or will we really seek to give counsel that is in accordance with the will of God? This is what I mean by “Discipleship Is Led.” Our discipleship needs to be governed by the truth of God.

One thing to realize is how easy it is to deviate from this. Maybe someone comes to you for advice and so you tell them the first thing that comes to mind. There might not be any wrong intention. You are genuinely trying to help. And besides, what you tell them makes sense. The problem with this is that without giving consideration to what God’s Word says about the situation, you may actually be directing that person in a different direction than God wants. In your sincere attempt to help, you may be very unhelpful.

We need to be led in our relationships and conversations with one another. The Bible teaches us how we ought to communicate. It teaches us how we should encourage (cf. Heb. 3:13), what the content of our conversations should be (cf. Eph. 4:29), and what things we ought to avoid saying (cf. Col. 3:8-9). The word gives us wisdom also about the power of speech and what can be accomplished by it (cf. Prov. 15:1). Because of this instruction we need to be discerning about how we counsel others. Our words can both build up (cf. 1 Thess. 5:11) and destroy (cf. James 3:6).

It is not always helpful to share the first thing that comes to mind or what simply seems right to us. Our hearts are deceptive and wicked (cf. Jer. 17:9; Gen. 6:5), but God’s truth is what will produce holiness (cf. John 17:17). We need to make sure that what we share is consistent with what God wants a person to hear.

Unfortunately, this means that sometimes we will need to share things with others that they do not want to hear. We may need to even lovingly wound their heart in order to help expose their sin (cf. Prov. 27:6). Giving biblical counsel sometimes means communicating something that will be difficult to hear or guiding someone down a path that will be more difficult to follow. This too is a commitment of love. It is saying, “I love you enough to risk how you feel about me in order to get you to think, speak, and live to God’s glory.” Certainly, this also requires us to be judicious to say the right things in the right manner.

Every Christian disciples others. It is just a matter of how well we go about doing that. We can either really encourage and build up others with our speech and counsel, or we can mislead and even destroy. Our discipleship needs to be led by the Spirit of God working through His Word. In this sense, we can be the instruments God uses to accomplish His purposes in those around us.