Victorious Christian Life in the e-World
David S. Lim, Ph.D.
(for young professionals)
How can Christians live a spiritually victorious life for Christ in our post-modern world? We live in a fast-paced world. And an ever fast-changing e-world! It’s been a couple of years since they said that our knowledge is doubling every 18 months. How can we keep our priorities right, so as to live for Christ victoriously in this world?
In order to be victorious, we must be focusing on the top priority of Christian living, and that is, to be a faithful disciple of Jesus and to become an effective disciple-maker for Him. The Apostle Paul instructed his disciple Timothy thus: “You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others” (2 Tim. 2:1-2). Verse 1 tells him to “be a disciple,” and verse 2 for him to “become a disciple-maker.”
Paul continues by giving three illustrations of Christian living: like soldiers preparing for a spiritual battle (vv. 3-4), athletes competing in a spiritual marathon (v.5), and farmers laboring to reap a spiritual harvest (v.6). In all these, “winning” requires the discipline and concentration to gain the victory (in winning a war, a race and a good harvest). Like Paul, Timothy (and all of us) should be able to echo, “I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me, the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace (Acts 20:24). At the end of life, we should be able to say like Paul “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Tim. 4:7). That’s the final “victory cry” of a faithful disciple of Jesus and an effective disciple-maker for Him!
Sadly, many Christians live defeated lives. Instead of living as victorious witnesses of Christ (read: disciple-makers), they remain immature baby Christians who need to be constantly cared for by others. They are still self-centered and self-focused, when in fact they should already be serving the Lord and reaching out to others. They fail to enjoy the “abundant life” that Jesus promised: that we should become fruitful, reproducing Christians: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Phil. 2:3f).
If you think you’re not a “disciple-maker” yet, join a cell group, or start one. You may ask a mature Christian to disciple you in the context of a small group. Discipling is best done in small group, so that you can grow spiritually much faster (spiritual maturity includes developing the capacity to love one another, teach one another, submit to one another, even to confess sins one to another, cf. John 13:34-35; 1 Cor. 14:26-33; Eph. 5:15-21; Heb. 10:24-25; Js. 5:16). The group should not be more than 12-15 members. Remember, disciples are made in small groups, never in big meetings. What you need to learn from your discipler(s) are: (a) how to experience God and grow spiritually, (b) how to do friendship evangelism, and (c) how to lead effective disciple-making cell groups.
Then pray with your discipler that you’ll be able to lead your own “discipleship group” within 3 years (if you have more spiritual gifts, just a few months of discipling will do). While maintaining close relationship with your discipler, you can start to disciple your own disciples to listen to God and then release them to lead their own “discipleship groups,” too!
Actually this was how our Lord Jesus planned to win the world to Himself – through this simple disciple-making strategy: He called 12 ordinary people (rural folks, except for urbanite Judas!) After discipling them to do what He did, He sent them out two by two to make 12 disciples each (Matt. 9:35-10:16). They succeeded so that he was able to send out “72 others,” not the original 12 (Lk. 10:1, 17). If the 12 and “72 others” were sent out two by two, that’s 42 pairs going forth to make 12 new disciples each, they made 504 new disciples in all! We read in 1 Corinthians 15:6, that after the resurrection, our Lord appeared to more than 500 brethren! If these 500 were to pair off, that’s 250 making 12 new disciples each, they would be able to disciple exactly 3,000 new converts! And that’s exactly what happened on the birthday of the church at Pentecost: all converts were baptized immediately, since the apostles knew they would all the followed up and discipled in at least 250 house churches in Jerusalem (“from house to house,” Acts 2:41-47). No wonder their numbers increased DAILY!
As a missionary recruiter, may I also add that if you do become an effective disciple-maker, God can call you to go abroad and become a tentmaker (a cross-cultural missionary who practices his/her profession overseas)! With just a bit more training on cross-cultural issues, you can do disciple-making among other non-Christian peoples! After all, that’s what our Lord Jesus told each of us (not just full-time ministers) to do: “to make disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:19).
So let’s go ahead, and just do it! Join or start a disciple-making cell group. Get training on how to do “friendship evangelism” and how to “lead effective cell groups.” May God mold you to be an effective disciple-maker in our generation! Let’s all be victorious Christians in the e-world!
For feedback, please email me at: cmiphil53@yahoo.com
