I have been privileged to know some of the top leaders in just about every field—the church, business, industry, education, government, sports, the military, science, and entertainment. Some common denominators are found in all who reach the highest levels. One is that they are energetically and enthusiastically devoted to staying on the cutting edge of knowledge in their field. This is almost always because of their love of knowledge and their love of their profession.
The greatest Christian is the one who loves God the most and thereby will love others the most. How can anyone know God and not love Him? Because He is love, the more we get to know Him, the more we will love Him. He must be our “first love,” or highest love. Learning of Him must be the highest devotion of our lives. If we are seeking Him and abiding in Him as we should, every other love and devotion in our lives should flow out of this love for Him, even our professions.
As the Apostle Paul wrote, all we do should be done as unto the Lord, not just men. Everything we do should be as worship for Him. This is how we turn even our professions and vocations into both worship and part of our discipleship. The discipleships of men in biblical times may have been to gain the master’s knowledge in religion, philosophy, or one of the sciences, but our discipleship in Christ is to become like Him and to do the works He did. This is why our discipleship is a lifestyle that lasts for a lifetime.
As we are told in I Timothy 1:5, “The goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” Our discipleship is, therefore, first devoted to growing in love—love of God and then love for others. As our Master said, the whole Law is fulfilled in the first two commandments which are to love God and then love one another. Therefore, every day we should consider using every opportunity to grow in love.
Our Master not only teaches us, He also trains us. After He teaches us about something, we can expect circumstances to unfold that allow us to experience and apply what we have been taught. This may not happen immediately, but we can count on it happening. Therefore, we should be expecting it. Our Master is not just trying to get us to understand, but to actually live and become what we understand—to have “a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith” (see I Timothy 1:5).
Let us always keep in mind that if one of the greatest honors was to be chosen as a disciple by one of the great teachers, how much more the honor of being called as a disciple of the King of kings. What could be a higher purpose than this? Let us not waste a single day or a single trial that has been sent by our Master for our sake.