Beyond Following: The Call to Discipleship

We’ve been asking the wrong question.

For years, we’ve asked people, “Are you a follower of Jesus?” or “Do you believe in Jesus?” But these questions no longer carry the weight they once did. It’s time we started asking something far more penetrating: Are you a disciple of Jesus?

Belief Isn’t Enough

Many people believe Jesus was a real person. Many believe in “God”—yet they believe in a god of their own making, shaped by culture, comfort, and personal preference.

James 2:19 reminds us of an uncomfortable truth: “Even the demons believe—and shudder.” Belief alone requires nothing of us. It costs nothing. It changes nothing.

Following Without Intimacy

Followers simply follow. They linger at a distance. They watch from the sidelines.

This is why social media platforms have “followers”—you can follow someone, keep tabs on their content, even admire them from afar, yet have zero personal contact. No relationship. No transformation. No cost.

The same is true spiritually. You can follow Jesus—attend church, quote scripture, even defend certain doctrines—and still remain fundamentally unchanged. Because followers and believers don’t require intimacy. Only disciples do.

What Makes a Disciple Different?

Disciples sit at His feet.

They are taught. They are corrected. They hang on every word, not casually consuming content but desperately hungry for truth that transforms.

Disciples are intentional. They don’t drift through their spiritual lives hoping to absorb holiness by osmosis. They make deliberate choices to lay down their own ways, their own plans, their own carefully constructed versions of who they think they should be.

Disciples mimic and seek to imitate Christ. They don’t just admire Him from a distance—they study His character, His responses, His priorities, and they ask the Holy Spirit to reproduce those things in them.

Discipled by the World

Here’s the sobering reality: We can follow Jesus and still be discipled by the world.

We can claim His name while the culture shapes our values. We can sing worship songs on Sunday while Netflix, social media, and the opinions of others disciple us the other six days of the week. We can believe all the right doctrines while our actual lives—our marriages, our finances, our thought patterns, our reactions—reveal who our true teacher is.

Following requires nothing. Believing requires nothing.

Discipleship requires everything.

The Question That Changes Everything

So I’m asking you today—not to shame you, but to awaken you:

Are you a disciple of Jesus?

Do you sit at His feet? Does His Word correct you, or do you just consume it? Are you being transformed into His likeness, or are you trying to reshape Him into yours?

The difference between a follower and a disciple is the difference between watching someone’s life and actually living it. Between admiring truth and being altered by it. Between belief that makes no demands and surrender that costs you everything—and gives you everything in return.

It’s time to move beyond following.

It’s time to become a disciple.