6 Misconceptions About Discipleship

A disciple of Jesus is a person learning what it means to live their whole life in light of the gospel of Jesus. Through faith in the gospel of Jesus, Christians have been given a new freedom from sin, a new love for God, a new Spirit, a new heart, a new identity, a new power, and literally a whole new life. And living as a disciple of Jesus is learning how to live in the reality of this new life you’ve been given through faith in the gospel. Discipleship is the joyful and exciting process of learning to live out the new life that Jesus has given to us in the gospel. Not that it’s easy, or without pain or cost, but the joy and excitement of living in light of all that God is and all that God has done for us and promised us in the gospel certainly outweighs any pain or cost. And yet, if you were to ask a Christian how they’re doing at living as a disciple of Jesus or making disciples of Jesus, you wouldn’t encounter joy and excitement as much as you would confusion, guilt, and frustration.


This is due to some very common misconceptions of what a disciple of Jesus is and what the discipleship process of becoming more like Jesus really looks like. The following are six common misconceptions of what discipleship is, contrasted with what a gospel-centered disciple is:

Misconception #1: Successful discipleship is built on discipline, hard work, and dedication: the self-made disciple. This is what comes when we separate the gospel from discipleship. There is a common misconception that although saved by the work of Jesus, we grow and follow Jesus in our own strength, by trying harder and harder to obey the commands of Jesus. Your motto: Try harder, do better.

A Gospel-Centered Disciple:The way we became Christians is the same way we live as Christians – by faith and repentance. This is the only way to become disciples, and this is the only way we can live as disciples. By believing in Jesus, the work he has done for us, and the work he is doing in us and through us. Good works, bearing fruit, living for God – this is the fruit of DAILY faith in the gospel and DAILY repentance from sin. (See Galatians 3:1-5).

In order to grow, we need to constantly be confronted with the gospel of Jesus. We need to constantly hear and meditate on the truth of the gospel. And we need to constantly discern where we are failing to believe the gospel and live in light of it. But this seems hard! You don’t think you can do this. Well, you can’t do it alone. This flows into the next common misconception…

Misconception #2: You don’t need community to live as a disciple of Jesus. All you need is Jesus: the individualistic disciple. This is where you think discipleship ought to be something you can do on your own. You don’t need anyone else. You don’t need community. You don’t need the church. You function as if discipleship is a mere self-improvement project, which is nothing more than a way to better your life. Effectively, you’re the focus rather than Jesus.

A Gospel-Centered Disciple: You cannot grow and live as a disciple if you are not in community with other disciples. If you don’t have people helping you discern your sin and reminding you of the gospel and helping you learn to live by faith in Jesus, you will not grow and bear fruit (See Hebrews 3:12,13 and Hebrews 10:24,25). And, the very fact that you think you can live as a disciple apart from a community of disciples reveals a lack of living in light of the gospel. Living apart from community is to deny the reality of the gospel, which places us there. According to Jesus, the very evidence of our discipleship is our love for those we’re in community with (See John 13:34,35).

But many of us have this individualistic view of discipleship and resist community because we are afraid of letting people into our lives. So we think it’s just up to us to battle our sin by ourselves because we are afraid of what others will think of us. This leads to the third misconception…

Misconception #3: You can’t let people know how much you struggle with sin. What would people think if they knew the “real” you: the self-protective disciple. – This type of disciple can’t let anybody know what’s really going on in his or her life. You can’t share your struggles, doubts, and sin with people, because you’re too concerned about what others will think. So, you only share your successes and are quick to offer advice to others. Your best face forward hides the real you.

The self-protective disciple never gets to experience the joy of resting in the righteousness of Jesus. The gospel is not about covering yourself up in self-righteousness, but being covered in the righteousness of Jesus. Every time a weakness or sin is exposed, it gives us the opportunity to run to the gospel, worship Jesus, and rest in the righteousness of Christ (See Philippians 3).

A Gospel-Centered Disciple: Gospel-centered discipleship is about confessing sin and weakness to find help and accountability, while resting in the righteousness of Jesus. But a lot of times our image of discipleship doesn’t even get into real life stuff, but is only content-focused and information-based. For some, discipleship is just about acquiring more knowledge and info, not about how to obey Jesus is real life. This leads to the next misconception…

Misconception #4: The more I know, the better disciple I’ll be: the fat-headed disciple. This is where discipleship is just about learning more doctrine, learning more about theology, memorizing more verses, gaining more knowledge, without actually applying it to your life. This keeps discipleship real clean and neat because you don’t allow what you’re learning to affect your real life. You just talk theory, not reality.

A Gospel-Centered Disciple: Jesus says that to make disciples, we don’t need to just teach people, but teach people how to obey (See Matthew 2818-20). Gospel-centered discipleship is about helping one another obey Jesus, not just learn more about Jesus. But the obedience Jesus requires of his disciples is not simply about behavioral change, but rather obedience from the heart. This leads to the next misconception.

Misconception #5: Discipleship is about stopping the certain behaviors and starting different behaviors: the sin-managing disciple. You’re only concerned about outside appearance. You’re more concerned about what you’re doing, not what you’re becoming. The example from Scripture of this kind of disciple is the Pharisee. These were the religious folks, whose behavior and religious devotion was commendable, but their heart motivations were Satanic, and they ended up being responsible for crucifying Jesus. They would pray, fast, and give money to the poor. Sin-managing disciples are full of self-righteousness, pride, and selfishness. Jesus said in Matthew 23 that the Pharisees would clean up their behavior, but inside their hearts were filled with greed and self-indulgence. He called them whitewashed tombs – brilliant on the outside, dead on the inside.

A Gospel-Centered Disciple: Pharisees only repent of doing bad things or wrong behaviors, while gospel-centered disciples repent of doing good things for wrong motivations. Many of us accomplish good things or try to do good things, because we want to trust in ourselves, in our own righteousness. We read our Bibles, pray, give, act right – with the hidden motivation being that we don’t want to rest in the righteousness of God as a sinner. Gospel-centered disciples repent the “sin beneath the sin”.

Misconception #6: Discipleship is something I’m not sure I have time for right now: the buffet-style disciple. This is where you see discipleship as something you may or may not be able to add onto your already full and busy life. Your life hasn’t fundamentally changed because of the gospel. There are just things you do now as you can find time for them, which you didn’t have to do before you became a Christian. So, you ask questions like: “Do I have room in my life for the Word?” or “Do I have room in my life for community?” or “Do I have room right in my life for God’s mission?” or “Do I have room in my life to love my neighbor?”

A Gospel-Centered Disciple: Gospel-centered disciples understand they have been given a whole identity, a whole new agenda, a whole new mission, a whole new community, and a whole new life through the gospel. Gospel-centered discipleship is learning to live your whole life in light of the gospel. Jesus’ mission becomes your mission, Jesus’ motivations become your motivations, and Jesus’ love becomes your love, because Jesus has given His Spirit to those who believe the gospel. Therefore, all discipleship is learning to live in light of the gospel, through the power of the Spirit.


HT: Charis