Are You A Cultural Christian Or A Disciple?

Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” – Luke 9:23

One of the greatest problems we have in the church is that we have too many people who have made decisions, but too few people who have become disciples. What we have in the church more often than not are not disciples; we have cultural Christians. These are people who proudly bear the label of Christian, but they don’t truly live the life of a disciple.

The only cure for cultural Christianity is discipleship. In Luke chapter nine, Jesus tells us what it takes to become a disciple in just one sentence. Over the next couple of days, I am going to reverse-engineer what Jesus said and show you four marks of a cultural Christian. As I do, I want you to decide whether or not you are a true disciple or a cultural Christian.

First, you must know that a cultural Christian wants to follow Jesus if it is convenient. A disciple wants to follow Jesus even if it is not. The first step to becoming a disciple is you have to desire to become one. “Then he said to them all: ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple...’” (Luke 9:23). Now this is an invitation from Jesus, not a command. Jesus is only looking for people who want to become His disciples. You have a choice in the matter. Jesus will not force discipleship on anybody, but notice this. There is a difference between saying you want to follow Jesus and wanting to follow Jesus.

I love those first two words, “Whoever wants.” Those words really surprise me. I would have thought Jesus would have said, “Since everybody wants to be my disciple.” The more I know about Jesus, the more I don’t understand why everybody doesn’t want to follow Jesus. It just boggles my mind that most people refuse to follow Jesus. But here Jesus makes it clear that He only wants people to follow him who want to follow him. He will not force you to follow Him and He will not coerce you to follow Him. He wants you to want to follow Him. It’s just that simple.

Second, you must know that a cultural Christian asks, “What can Jesus do for me?” A disciple asks, “What can I do for Jesus?” So many people come to church and come to Jesus with the attitude of, “What can I get out of this?” They have a very self-focused, self-serving mentality.

But that’s not at all what Jesus has asked His disciples to do. If you are going to be a disciple of Jesus, that means for the rest of your life you have to put Jesus before you, above you, ahead of you, and instead of you. You’ve got to come to the point where your life is all of Jesus and none of you. Once you realize what Jesus has done for you and you receive the Jesus that has done so much for you, you refocus every part of your life on this question, “What can I do for Jesus?”

I hope you’ll check back tomorrow as we talk about two more distinctions between cultural Christians and disciples.

Dear Lord, I don’t want to be a cultural Christian. I don’t want to only follow you when it’s convenient or when I can get something out of it. I want to be a true disciple. I want to follow you no matter what the cost. I want to serve you out of gratitude for all that you have done for me. Help me to choose to be a disciple rather than settling for cultural Christianity. In Jesus’ name, amen.