John 6:34-35
34 And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again.
35 But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.
Discipleship comes with a cost or price. It also has great rewards. In our Memory Verse for today, Jesus said that you must forsake all to be His disciple. What does that mean? It means that you must see Christ as the Source and Owner of everything you once consider as your own and be willing to release them to Him whenever He asks for them: your house, cars, money, children, spouse and everything! It means that your life and all that belong to you now belong to Jesus. They are no longer yours. Discipleship demands coming to that level of surrenderedness or yieldedness with Christ. This is what enables you to say, “Yes, Lord” whenever He asks you to give or do anything for Him or go somewhere for Him.
Another mark of a true disciple of Christ is continuing in His word. John 8:31 affirms this: “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, if ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed.” This means that you must accept God’s word as the final authority in your life and live day by day in submission to it. A true disciple of Christ does not believe and obey some parts of the Bible and disobey others. He does not believe and obey today only to live in disobedience to God’s word the next day. He must continue believing, obeying and living by the word.
In John 13:34-35, the Bible identifies love as a distinguishing mark of a disciple of Christ. It says, “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” The most outstanding thing that Jesus did was to love the unlovable. True love is unconditional. Love summarises all Old Testament laws. It is greater than all spiritual gifts. Jesus demands that you love your fellow brothers and sisters the same way He had loved you unconditionally. That will truly make you His disciple!