India: following Christ, inside and out

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By Ravi John Sankara Rao

The ultimate goal of a disciple is both internal—to grow into the image of Christ—and external—to make disciples of all the nations.

I became a believer of Jesus Christ in 1979 by reading the Word of God. King David’s words in 2 Samuel 18:33, “If only I had died instead of you,” spoken of the death of Absalom, his rebellious son, provided illumination for me. It was my conversion. My sins were forgiven, and I knew the love of my eternal Father who died for me in Christ Jesus to give me eternal life. Now I am a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, and I have transferred from darkness to light.

In April 1984, while I was farming, the Lord called me for full-time ministry through Isaiah 6:8: “‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!’” Since then, I have been learning what it means to be a disciple of Christ.

The Bible says a disciple should grow into the maturity of Christ Jesus (Eph. 4:15) and grow to be like the teacher (Luke 6:40).

While people look at external things, God looks at our hearts (1 Sam. 16:7). Jesus was pleasing to God even before he did any miracles, healing or teaching. Because God is holy, his followers should be holy (Lev. 19:2). A disciple’s internal life is more important than the external ministry. In the Old Testament adultery is sin, but in the New Testament Jesus said even to look with lustful eyes is sin (Matt. 5:28). My desire is that throughout my life I would please God with my total being.

A disciple should display the nature of Christ the Master as the fruit displays the nature of a tree. “In your relationships with one another, have the same attitude of mind Christ Jesus had,” says Paul in Philippians 2:5. Jesus demonstrates servant leadership by washing his disciples’ feet and laying down his life for others. As his disciples, we need to think, speak and act like Jesus in our relationships with one another, ready to act as a servant and, if necessary, to lay down our lives for others.

Receiving Christ is a free gift but following him is costly. A disciple needs to deny him or herself, to die to self, as Jesus called his disciples. “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it” (Matt. 16:24-25).

A disciple needs to be ready to pay the price. In India, a low caste person who accepts Christ will lose financial benefits. A person from a high caste will face sociological persecutions, like expulsion from the family. But the greatest promise of God is that whoever loses because of his name, will receive it back manifold.

“‘Truly I tell you,’ Jesus said to them, ‘no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life” (Luke 18:29-30).

Jesus spoke of a reward for his faithful imitators in Matthew 10:42, saying “And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is known to be my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly be rewarded.”

If our goal is to be like Jesus, the internal prize we receive here on this earth is peace and joy in our own life, in the family and in the ministry. God’s plan from the beginning was that everyone should be fruitful and be multiply. Jesus said to go and make disciples of all nations (Matt. 28:18–20). God challenges us to multiply, with stories where growth doubles (Matt. 25:22), increases 30, 60, 100 times (Mark 4:20) and becomes as numerous as “stars of the sky” (Gen. 15:5).

We read in the Gospels that both roots without fruits (Luke 13:6–9) and fruits without roots (Matt. 7:22) are in vain and not acceptable by God. So a disciple’s ultimate goal is to have heart and mind pleasing to God (internal) and to multiply like the stars of the sky (external).

Ravi John Sankara Rao (BD, MA, MTh), Asia facilitator of Global Disciples, is a member of the Mennonite Brethren Church of India. He is married to Mary and they have two adult children.

 

India is the seventh largest country in the world and the second most populous, with more than 1 billion inhabitants. The first Mennonite Brethren missionaries went to India in 1890, and the church there has flourished into one of the largest national Mennonite Brethren conferences in the world, reporting 93,992 members. The Indian church has operated under indigenous leadership since the establishment of a governing council in 1958.—www.gameo.org

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