Jesus never said, “Go therefore and make converts.” The desire of Christ is that as we share our faith with people and if those people become Christians, we then take them under our wing. We encourage them toward immediate obedience to the Lord through baptism, explaining to them that this will be their first act of sharing their faith with others. Then we begin to teach them to study God’s Word, to memorize Scripture, and to pray; we do these things “with them” rather than merely telling them what to do. We show them how to apply God’s Word to their lives and teach them how to be loving servants by lovingly serving alongside them. We choose to do life with them and prepare them to do the same thing with others that they lead to the Lord. Making disciples is a lifelong directive from the Lord that engages each Christian in training, guiding, and nurturing new believers until those new disciples are ready to become disciple-makers. This is not a superficial belief; it’s a life-changing commitment of mimicking the walk of Jesus. We become living sacrifices; Romans 12:1 says, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” Choose to be a living sacrifice for Jesus; choose to make disciples.
