1 Timothy 1:5
The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to make a disciple. Many people think that the goal is to bring someone to church and keep them in church. Others think it means to share the Gospel with someone, and see them saved, and that’s it. Some people think that it means sharing the Gospel, seeing them saved, and then bringing them to your church and getting them “plugged in” (essentially all that happens is they become a member and come every week).

By God’s grace, I have the privilege of working in a few young men’s lives currently, and I’ve thought about what it means to make a disciple because I need some sort of direction to take them. I don’t want to just spin in a circle or be lazy or labor and labor over something that doesn’t even matter.

Colossians 1:28-29 says, “Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.”

So what does it mean for me to present these men mature in Christ? With everything I have and all the energy God gives me, what direction do I go?

Love Jesus. Lay your life down for men so they can see how Jesus laid his life down. Be the aroma of Christ. Teach them how to be men who will lay their lives down and teach other men how to lay their lives down, preaching the gospel wherever they go.

You won’t replicate what you aren’t doing. And the aim of our charge is love from a pure heart, knowing we are totally forgiven—not working for acceptance but from gratitude—in total sincerity to Christ.