Are You a Real Disciple?
The question here is ‘are you a real disciple’, worthy of that title? The answer would most probably a ‘no’.
Well, how can we be ‘worthy’ of it? How can we be more like the 12 disciples or the 70 apostles?
Coming closer to celebrating the martyrdom of St Paul and St Peter on July 12th, (a day in which we celebrate also the martyrdom of all the apostles and disciples), and during these blessed days: the Apostles Fasting, we, all Christians, must reconsider our life-purpose:
Here are the Five Golden Rules:
The First Golden Rule
You must simply follow Christ: His teachings and His steps. In order to be able to be as Christ, one must try to figure out His attitude towards peoples: how He treated people – all types of people: sinners & saints, illiterate and highly educated. All.
In order to be a true follower of Christ, one must follow all the teachings of the Lord; follow His steps.
Try to imagine His attitude towards the different people. How would He spend His day? How would He spend His night? And How would He answer the different questions?
How would He endure all those tribulations and the pressures just for the sake of our salvation?
When you truly and seriously follow Christ, you will be a good disciple.
The Second Golden Rule
You must ‘STUDY and UNDERSTAND’ the Gospel’s Words: Jesus’s Words.
Only when we study and understand the Words of the Gospel; when we study the books written by Saint Matthew’s, St. Mark’s, St. Luke’s, St. John’s
Those Words inspired by the Holy Spirit, then we can be capable of always knowing the Lord’s behavious right before our eyes every time we face difficult situations.
Only then, we can answer that question: ‘What would Jesus do in that situation?’
Studying the Bible, especially the Gospels, will help us be real disciples.
The Third Golden Rule
Try to love God and to love people from all your heart, all your mind, all your power. It is only through true love that one can be a true disciple.
Loving God has nothing to do with the amount of your knowledge, number of your certificates, the extent of your intelligence or your wealth. It is all about LOVE.
You will never be a real disciple – a real follower to Christ – unless you are capable of loving Christ and His people – all the people in the world.
The Forth Golden Rule
Obey all God’s Commandments – all of which you can easily find in the Bible.
It is as simple as that: in order to be a true follower, you need to humbly submit to God’s Words: when you memorize His commandments by heart; when you keep them all in your mind.
Hence, by memorizing His commandments: both of the Old and New Testament, you can be the true disciple; you are expressing your true love by submitting yourself completely to the Word of God.
The Last Golden Rule
A true disciple will never hesitate to travel the world and preach the Word of Salvation everywhere. A true disciple will always be busy worrying about the salvation of others – all of the ‘others’; busy delivering the Message of Truth; busy proclaiming the Good News everywhere.
This is the work of the true disciple
If you live with a discipleship mind and heart, you will be busy evangelizing.
Not all of us have that chance to speak the Word of God. But we all do have the change to be true Christians; we all have the chance to show people Christ in our lives, we all have the chance to love them that ‘extra mile way’.
This was how our Lord expressed His love to humanity.
Each and every one of us must do the work of an evangelist just like any of the disciples.
When you try to follow these five golden rules, you can be the true disciple Jesus wants you to be..
