Discipleship and Learning
Discipleship and Learning
This week I was asked about “discipleship and learning.” Since this topic is important, I would like to speak to you about it.
The Christian life is a life of discipleship. All who believed in Christ were called “disciples” of the Lord. When the Lord Christ delivered the Sermon on the Mount, He delivered it to His disciples, as the Scripture says: “Then His disciples came to Him. And He opened His mouth and taught them, saying: …” (Matt 5:1–2).
Those who believed through John the Baptist were called “disciples of John.”
And when the Lord Christ sent out the apostles, He said to them: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations” (Matt 28:19).
This is because the Christian life is a life of discipleship. The man born blind, when he defended Christ, they said to him that he wanted to become His disciple. Indeed, “they reviled him and said: ‘You are His disciple, but we are Moses’ disciples’” (John 9:28).
Whoever follows Christ is His disciple. In the era of the apostles, the Scripture says that “the number of the disciples multiplied greatly” (Acts 6:7), meaning the number of believers.
A person is supposed to be discipled in the life of Christ. Discipleship does not mean that you merely hear lectures, words, or lessons. Rather, discipleship means that you are discipled in a life and teachings that you absorb and live by, not merely hear. All believers hear the Gospel in the liturgies and prayers, but does that alone make them disciples of Christ?
To answer this question, we must look for the conditions, for Christ Himself gave specific conditions for discipleship. He said in (John 8:31): “If you abide in My word, you are truly My disciples.” This means that merely hearing His word does not make you His disciple; what matters is that you abide in this word, train yourself in it, and transform it into a life. This is discipleship.
Christ also says that there are types of people who cannot be His disciples, among them:
- Whoever does not leave his father and mother.
- Whoever puts his hand to the plow and looks back.
- Whoever does not deny himself and carry his cross.
Thus, discipleship does not mean merely hearing words. If you do not deny yourself, carry your cross, and leave everything for Christ, you cannot be His disciple.
Christ also sets another rule before the apostles regarding discipleship, when He says: “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).
Discipleship, then, is a certain life in which a person is discipled in teachings and commandments, taking something from them in order to live by it.
We now want to look at the types of discipleship.
The first type is the person who is discipled through words, through a teacher from whom he receives guidance, advice, and teachings. Many travelers used to journey by land and sea to come to the Desert Fathers to receive from one of them a “word of benefit.”
This type of person takes the word, begins to train himself in it, and makes it a constitution for his life. Every good word he hears, he keeps in his heart and does not forget. This is a good disciple. But the one who forgets words and information is a failed disciple.
There are people who are disciples all their lives. Discipleship in Christianity is not a limited period that ends; rather, it lasts throughout one’s lifetime. We are continually discipled in God’s commandments and words, and in the spirit we take from lofty examples, regardless of a person’s position or age. We hear that Pope Theophilus, the twenty-third pope, used to go to the desert to the monks to be discipled and to hear a word of benefit. We also hear of very great people who sought discipleship and benefit and gathered it from any source. The Holy Scripture says: “To obey is better than sacrifice” (1 Sam 15:22).
We also hear of Saint Macarius the Great, who spread monasticism in Scetis and had thousands of monk sons. This saint met the boy Zacharias and said to him: “My son Zacharias, say a word to me that I may benefit.” The boy Zacharias bowed down before him and said: “My father, you are the lamp of the desert and its light, and you ask me for a word and ask me what I should do to be saved?” The saint replied: “My son, the Holy Spirit dwelling in you has revealed to me that you have something that I lack, and I want to know it.”
The great saint was an example of a person who wanted to learn. Whoever wants to learn and be discipled benefits from any spiritual knowledge, regardless of its source. Just as Abba Ephrem the Syrian once encountered a sinful woman who kept looking at him. He said to her: “Woman, are you not ashamed to look at me in this way?” She replied: “I was taken from a man, so I look at the man from whom I was taken. But you were taken from the dust, so look at the dust from which you were taken.” And the saint was able to take wisdom from her words.
Indeed, the reason Saint Antony the Great dwelt in the desert was also because of a sinful woman. He was living near the river when a woman came, removed her clothes, and went down to bathe. The saint said to her: “Are you not ashamed to remove your clothes before me while I am a monk?” She replied: “If you were a monk, you would dwell in the mountains and deserts.” And that is what happened.
The person who seeks benefit and learning picks up words wherever he finds them and extracts lessons for his soul that longs for discipleship.
This was the first type of discipleship: discipleship through words.
The second type is discipleship through life. This means that the learner absorbs life from people without them speaking.
Once Pope Theophilus visited the monastery, and the people said to Abba Paphnutius, who was known for silence: “Say a word so that the pope may benefit.” He replied: “If he does not benefit from my silence, then from my words he will not benefit either.” And it was a lesson.
Once they brought a new novice to Abba Bishoy to teach him. The novice stayed a long time and the saint did not say anything to him—no commands, no guidance, no instructions. The novice complained to the elders, who went to the saint to ask about this behavior. He said to them: “I am not a leader or a director to command him. Rather, I work before him and live, and whatever he sees, he can do likewise and learn.”
Do not think that the teacher is the one who gives you many words. Rather, be discipled in the virtuous life. Be discipled by living, good examples that you see before you.
Thus was Saint Antony at the beginning of his monastic life. There were no guides to instruct him; instead, he lived among the hermits and learned from them—taking from one the virtue of silence, from another the virtue of gentleness, from a third the virtue of asceticism, and so on. It was said of him that he was like a bee that passes over different flowers, taking nectar from each one.
Our fault is that we want to take all virtues from one person. From everyone you meet, take a good quality—this is for the one who wants to be discipled and absorb life.
Once a group of people went to Saint Antony to learn from him. Each one asked the saint questions, except one person who spent the whole meeting silent and listening. When the saint asked him about this, he said: “It is enough for me to look at your face, my father.” He wanted to learn from what he saw in the saint’s facial expressions, gentleness, and cheerfulness.
Do you think that your ear alone is the only means for discipleship and learning? Your eyes are also a good means. Look and learn—learn from life.
Saint Arsenius the Great rarely spoke, yet people learned from him while he was silent. They learned from his silence, his calmness, and his diligence in spiritual labor.
Thus were the silent solitaries: they themselves were sermons and lessons. We also take lessons from the lives of those who have fallen asleep, not only from the living. That is why we read the lives of the saints, to learn from them. In this regard, we must mention the words of the Lord Christ: “The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here” (Matt 12:42).
The lesson of the Queen of the South is that she came from afar to hear wisdom and learn it from Solomon. Thus God has given us in the Holy Scripture images from the lives of the prophets and the apostles so that we may be discipled and learn from their lives. The Scripture says to us: “Consider the outcome of their conduct, and imitate their faith” (Heb 13:7).
Therefore, in your lives on earth, you have seen and continue to see many righteous people. If you do not benefit and learn from these righteous people whom you have seen in your lives, God will judge you on the last day, and these righteous ones will be witnesses against you, just like the Queen of the South whom Christ said would condemn that generation.
Discipleship is not merely reading; there is also discipleship through life, like children who do not read yet are discipled and learn from life. Therefore, you will be judged on the last day if you present harmful lessons to children that corrupt their lives, and if you do not present to them good examples and righteous models.
Take a lesson from every virtuous quality you see in any person, whether Christian or non-Christian, just as Christ called us to take a lesson from the Gentile centurion, about whom He said: “I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel” (Luke 7:9), and just as He called us to take lessons from the Samaritan woman and the Canaanite woman. Take a lesson and be discipled by life—the life you live and see, and the life you read about.
This gives us an idea of the third type of discipleship: discipleship through books, including books that contain all virtues, guidance, and good biographies. Read books, learn from them, and be discipled by them. If there is no one to teach you, then learn from books. The person who wants to be discipled must read much, meditate on what he reads, and devour knowledge like the hungry one of whom the Holy Scripture says: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled” (Matt 5:6).
Origen the great scholar used to rent libraries and stay in them reading until morning.
We have many books—so why do we not read?
These many publications and abundant books will judge us on the last day because we refused to be discipled, to study, to learn, and to know.
Read much, my brothers, be discipled, and let it be a spiritual discipline for you to read much.
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