You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured (2 Timothy 3:10-11, NIV).
When you look at how Jesus and Paul viewed and practiced discipleship, it is pretty hard to miss that it is very much like an apprenticeship. That said, I think it’s one that the church as a whole today really struggles with.
I think the church struggles with the idea of “discipleship” because we have over time confused it with “conversion” and with “learning doctrinal truth.” In Jesus’ day, the Scripture was already known by the time you became somebody’s disciple (the Tanakh, aka our Old Testament was memorized by the time you were 15 years old). So discipleship as Jesus and Paul understood it wasn’t primarily about learning Scripture or about learning theology, rather it was about learning the practice of scripture, the practice of theology; it was about the practical application of scripture to everyday life, to every facet of life.
We need people who are modeling for us what loving God and loving others looks like. It’s simply not enough just to know all the facts. The Bible does not speak to every particular situation. We need to figure out how to apply it to every particular situation.
That’s not something you can just Google. To do that we need people in our lives who understand the bible well, who are listening to Jesus, are following his spirit, and who know his yoke (His interpretation of scripture) and know his way of life (His application of scripture) and can help us figure that out and lead us through that process and know it well enough that we can teach other people how to do it.
This is what Paul did for Timothy; he apprenticed him so that he could master his way of life, which really was Jesus way of life. This apprentice aspect to discipleship that we see being practiced by Jesus and Paul in the New Testament is a model for us to follow.
Sometimes when we think of the relationship that Paul and Timothy had together we somehow think we can’t do that. “He was an Apostle,” we say to ourselves, “Paul was inspired. Paul had it all together. That’s certainly not me, I can’t do that.”
When we think of Jesus with his disciples we tend to think, “Jesus was the son of God. Jesus had a perfect relationship with his Father. Jesus perfectly understood the Scriptures. You could never get wrong advice or counsel from Him. I can’t do that. How can I possibly do that?” And more than that, we know people aren’t in those positions. We know people are not divine like Jesus was or inspired like Paul was, or sent as apostles like Peter, or James, or John were. We don’t want to put ourselves in a position where we are looking to people who are not qualified to teach us and we certainly don’t want to get into a relationship where we are listening to people who lead us the wrong way.
But as understandable as this reaction is, I have a problem with it. I struggle with that objection because this is the model of discipleship that Jesus set for us. Jesus’ relationship with his disciples and Paul’s relationship with Timothy were not meant to be one-off, one-time things. They were meant to be normative, they were meant to be examples for us to follow. We were meant to look at the Scriptures and see what they did, see how they related to one another, and use that model to do the same things together. When we don’t do that we put ourselves at a real disadvantage for learning and growing in the Christian life because it’s something that has to be shown, it’s something that has to be mentored, it’s something that hast to be apprenticed.
An orphan can grow up into a responsible mature adult who is capable of being a loving spouse and a good nurturing parent. It is possible. But that person is at an extreme disadvantage, are they not? The road to become so will be much more difficult than a child who grows up with loving parents who model and apprentice them into adulthood.
What is more likely is that without good adoptive parents, the orphan will grow up with very skewed ideas, beliefs, and practices about family, commitment, love, and personal responsibility. He or she may well be able to care for themselves and others, but will struggle more because he or she has to figure it out for themselves.
Parents are not just a good idea. They are really crucial to healthy development. This is no less true in the spiritual world. We need spiritual parents who are willing to take the time and effort to apprentice us in learning Jesus’ yoke and way of life.
The reason that apprenticeship is so important is because it is very hard to learn Jesus’ yoke (His interpretation of Scripture) and His way of life (His application and practice of Scripture) without a person who is modeling that for us.
Could Timothy have become the man he was in Christ had Paul just given him a hug when he accepted Christ and told him to start using the gifts God gave him? I don’t think so. I think Paul thought his apprenticeship of Timothy was a Spirit-led necessity for Timothy’s growth.
Jesus is our ultimate Rabbi, but Jesus Himself taught that we need people in our life whom we can see, follow, and learn from; someone who in and under Jesus’ authority and leadership serves in the rabbinic role of teacher and guide. That is what the Great Commission is about. It was a commissioning to continue what Jesus did with His disciples. He was telling them to continue making disciples after He ascended to heaven. We learn how to live for God through Christ by being apprenticed by a person who knows, follows, and lives Jesus’ yoke and way of life.
Learning To Be Full Of Grace And Truth. 