Exploring the invitation to Follow Jesus - to ‘Believe / have faith in Jesus / God’ and to ‘Count the cost of discipleship’
Introduction
Over the course of this series we shall aim to build what we will refer to as the ‘One Page New Testament’ - #onepagenewtestament. This will be a pictorial summary of the main messages for disciples of Jesus in a systematically derived, structured form. We aim to keep the descriptive text to a minimum and share with you the different Themes that are being created. We will consider the scriptures on their own merit, Theme by Theme, without introducing much in the way of theology. Within each Theme, we will let the scriptures speak for themselves - hopefully in a way that demonstrates the validity of the analysis.
This article is the fifth in a series that is unpacking some of the analysis work currently being undertaken to draw out the main teachings from the New Testament from a personal discipleship perspective. The previous four articles can be found in the reference at Note [1] and focus upon the New Testament’s teaching that corresponds to the challenges of what we have called ‘Kingdom Fundamental 1 [KF1]’ - ‘Love God’, and ‘Kingdom Fundamental 2 [KF2]’ - ‘Follow Jesus’.
We have previously introduced that we consider there to be four Kingdom Practices under the invitation to Follow Jesus:
Submit to Jesus’ Lordship - [KP3] (partly explored in Systematic Discipleship - Parts 3 and 4 and considered further here)
Pursue Holiness - [KP4]
Live out kingdom values - [KP5]
Exercise Discernment - [KP6]
Last time (Systematic Discipleship - Part 4) we began to explore New Testament teaching around what we have called Kingdom Action 5 - ‘Recognise that we all need a Saviour’. For completeness we have introduced eight Kingdom Actions under KP3 as follows:
Recognise that we all need a Saviour - Kingdom Action 5 [KA5]
Believe / have faith in Jesus / God - [KA6]
Count the cost of discipleship - [KA7]
Be born again / made a new creation in Christ (repent and be baptised) - [KA8]
Receive the benefits of the kingdom (forgiveness, the Holy Spirit, eternal life …) - [KA9]
Walk / live by the Spirit not the flesh - in accordance with scripture - [KA10]
Bear fruit for the kingdom - [KA11]
Persevere in personal discipleship - [KA12].
In this Faith Article we will explore Kingdom Actions 6 and 7 and the more detailed analysis that sits underneath them. These are shown in light blue (encouragements) or light pink (warning) in Figure 1.
If readers take away nothing else from these articles than the sense, logic, and directives in the Figures - for disciples to put into practice in the strength God gives - we will hopefully have achieved our initial objective.
Figure 1 - New Testament Themes about the need to ‘Believe / have faith in Jesus / God - [KA6]’ and ‘Count the cost of discipleship - [KA7]’
Kingdom Action 6 [KA6] - Believe / have faith in Jesus / God
As we seek to Follow Jesus [KF2], in addition to the need to ‘Recognise that we all need a Saviour’ [KA5], the next Theme we will consider is that we need to ‘Believe / have faith in Jesus / God’ [KA6],
Our analysis has identified five sub-Themes that we can derive from relevant Greek words in the scriptures [2] and [3]:
Understand Jesus’ / God’s love for believers [KA6.1]
Believe in Jesus (God) / Jesus’ power [KA6.2]
Have faith in Jesus / God - [KA6.3]
Come to Jesus / God - [KA6.4]
Believe the Gospel - [KA6.5].
Each of these is considered in more detail below.
Kingdom Action 6.1 [KA6.1] - Understand Jesus’ / God’s love for believers
There are several words for love in Greek, and here we will consider four of them of relevance to this sub-Theme:
Agapaó (Strong’s reference 25) which is defined as ‘to love’ and used to describe ‘I love, wish well to, take pleasure in, long for; denotes the love of reason, esteem’ [4]. There are 142 New Testament instances [5].
Agapé (Strong’s reference 26) which means ‘love, goodwill’ and translated as ‘love, benevolence, good will, esteem; plural: love-feasts’. It occurs 116 times.
Agapétos (Strong’s reference 27) describes the sense ‘beloved’ and is used in the context of ‘loved, beloved, with two special applications: the Beloved, a title of the Messiah (Christ), as beloved beyond all others by the God who sent Him; of Christians, as beloved by God, Christ, and one another’. It is found 61 times.
Phileó (Strong’s reference 5368) - to love - I love (of friendship), regard with affection, cherish; I kiss. There are 25 verse instances of this word.
Relevant example verses that use these words are:
John 3:16 - For God so loved (25) the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life [6].
John 15:9 - “As the Father has loved (25) me, so have I loved (25) you. Now remain in my love (26)”.
John 15:13 - Greater love (26) has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
John 16:27 - No, the Father himself loves (5368) you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.
Romans 1:7 - To all in Rome who are loved (27) by God and called to be his holy people:
Revelation 3:19 - Those whom I love (5368) I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent.
Other verses we could list include John 15:19, Galatians 2:20, Ephesians 2:4, 1 John 4:11, and Jude 1:1.
There are in the order of 59 verses that include these Greek words which we have judged fit within this context.
Kingdom Action 6.2 [KA6.2] - Believe in Jesus (God) / Jesus’ power
There are only three Greek words that we have found to be appropriate to consider which support this Theme:
Pisteuó (4100) defined as ‘to believe, entrust’ and translated into English to mean ‘I believe, have faith in, trust in; pass: I am entrusted with’. It is found 244 times in the New Testament.
Pistos (4103) is used to describe ‘faithful, reliable’ and is translated in the context of being ‘trustworthy, faithful, believing’. There are 67 occurrences.
Apisteó (569) meaning ‘to disbelieve, be faithless’ and used as ‘I am unfaithful, disbelieve, refuse belief, prove false’. It is found 8 times.
Example verses that we can consider include the following:
Matthew 18:6 - If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe (4100) in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.
Mark 16:16 - Whoever believes (4100) and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe (4100) will be condemned.
John 1:12 - Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed (4100) in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—
John 3:18 - Whoever believes (4100) in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe (4100) stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
John 5:24 - “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes (4100) him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.
1 Timothy 5:16 - If any woman who is a believer (4103) has widows in her care, she should continue to help them and not let the church be burdened with them, so that the church can help those widows who are really in need.
1 Peter 1:21 - Through him you believe (4103) in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.
Other verses we can consider include Mark 9:23, John 1:7, John 2:11, John 4:53, and John 5:24. We have identified 43 verse references for these two Greek words, which fit under this heading.
Kingdom Action 6.3 [KA6.3] - Have faith in Jesus / God
There is only one relevant Greek word in relation to faith that is applicable in the context of KA6.3:
Pistis (4102) defined as ‘faith, faithfulness’ and translated in the New Testament as ‘faith, belief, trust, confidence; fidelity, faithfulness’. It is used 243 times.
Example verses include:
Mark 11:22 - “Have faith (4102) in God,” Jesus answered.
Acts 3:16 - By faith (4102) in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith (4102) that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you can all see.
Acts 20:21 - I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith (4102) in our Lord Jesus.
Acts 26:18 - ‘to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith (4102) in me.’
Romans 3:22 - This righteousness is given through faith (4102) in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile,
Galatians 2:16 - know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith (4102) in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith (4102) in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith (4102) in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.
Further verses include Galatians 3:26, Ephesians 3:12, Philippians 3:9, Colossians 2:5, 1 Timothy 3:13, and 1 Peter 1:21. There are more than 200 verse references that we can link to this sub-Theme.
Kingdom Action 6.4 [KA6.4] - Come to Jesus / God
There are 29 relevant Greek words that we have considered in the broad sense of the teaching about our need to ‘Come to Jesus / God’. We set out some of them here:
Apostrephó (654) meaning ‘to turn away, turn back' and used to describe the following situations ‘I turn away, pervert, remove; I restore, replace; mid: I desert, reject’. This word occurs 9 times.
Erchomai (2064) which is defined as ‘to come, go’ and translated as ‘I come, go’. It appears some 637 times in the New Testament.
Agó (71) which means ‘to lead, bring, carry’ with the application in terms of ‘I lead, lead away, bring (a person, or animal), guide, spend a day, go’. There are 69 instances.
Exerchomai (1831) whose definition is ‘to go or come out of’ and used to describe ’I go out, come out’. This occurs 219 times.
Pheró (5342) which has the meaning ‘to bear, carry, bring forth' and is translated as ‘I carry, bear, bring; I conduct, lead; perhaps: I make publicly known’. This is found 66 times.
Embainó (1684) means ‘to walk on, to step into, embark’ and is rendered in New Testament translations to describe situations where ‘I step in; I go onboard a ship, embark’. This appears in 17 instances.
The verses we can look at which illustrate this include:
Acts 3:26 - When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning (654) each of you from your wicked ways.
Hebrews 12:25 - See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away (654) from him who warns us from heaven?
Matthew 9:10 - While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came (2064) and ate with him and his disciples.
Matthew 16:24 - Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come (2064) after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me (King James Version).
Mark 2:3 - Some men came (2064), bringing (5342) to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them.
Mark 2:13 - Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to (1831) him, and he began to teach them.
Luke 4:40 - At sunset, the people brought (71) to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying his hands on each one, he healed them.
Luke 6:19 - and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming (1831) from him and healing them all.
Luke 6:47 - As for everyone who comes (2064) to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they are like.
Luke 9:57 - As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go (71).”
John 6:24 - Once the crowd realized that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got (1684) into the boats and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus.
There are in the order of 180 verse references for the full set of Greek words we have considered which support this sub-Theme.
Kingdom Action 6.5 [KA6.5] - Believe the Gospel
We return to considering the two Greek words around the sentiment ‘to believe’ in the context of a limited number of instances that relate to the Gospel.
Pisteuó (4100) defined as ‘to believe, entrust’ and translated into English to mean ‘I believe, have faith in, trust in; pass: I am entrusted with’. It is found 244 times in the New Testament.
Pistos (4103) is used to describe ‘faithful, reliable’ and is used in the context of being ‘trustworthy, faithful, believing’. There are 67 occurrences.
In addition, there are three Greek words that relate to the Gospel itself, its proclamation, and the term for ‘word’ (Logos).
Euaggelizó (2097) meaning ‘to announce good news’ and is translated as ‘I bring good news, preach good tidings, with or without an object, expressing either the persons who receive the good news or the good news itself (the good news being sometimes expressed as a person)’. It occurs 54 times.
Euaggelion (2098) defined as ‘good news’ and used to describe ‘the good news of the coming of the Messiah, the gospel; the gen. after it expresses sometimes the giver (God), sometimes the subject (the Messiah, etc.), sometimes the human transmitter (an apostle)’. There are 76 instances.
Logos (3056) which is ‘a word (as embodying an idea), a statement, a speech’ and rendered in translation as ‘a word, speech, divine utterance, analogy’. This is found 331 times.
There are a number of verses we can consider that encourage us to ‘Believe the Gospel’:
Mark 1:15 - “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe (4100) the good news (2098)!”
Luke 8:12 - Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word (3056) from their hearts, so that they may not believe (4100) and be saved.
Luke 8:13 - Those on the rocky ground are the ones who receive the word (3056) with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe (4100) for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away.
John 5:24 - “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word (3056) and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.”
Acts 4:4 - But many who heard the message (3056) believed; so the number of men who believed grew to about five thousand.
Acts 13:48 - When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word (3056) of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed (4100).
1 Corinthians 15:2 - By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word (3056) I preached (2097) to you. Otherwise, you have believed (4100) in vain.
1 Thessalonians 2:13 - And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word (3056) of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word (3056), but as it actually is, the word (3056) of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe (4100).
Titus 1:9 - He must hold firmly to the trustworthy (4103) message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.
There are around 26 verse references that we can classify as relevant to this sub-Theme.
Kingdom Action 7 [KA7] - Count the cost of discipleship
Jesus warned his listeners that they needed to consider the costs of discipleship. This is most clearly shown in the passage in Luke 14:25-33.
There are two supporting sub-Themes that we can derive under this KA7:
We need to deny (not love) ourselves to follow Jesus - [KA7.1]
People will / may hate us / mistreat us because of our love for Jesus - [KA7.2]
Let’s look at each in a little more detail.
Kingdom Action 7.1 [KA7.1] - We need to deny (not love) ourselves to follow Jesus
A number of scripture passages set out the need to consider the costs of discipleship. Three of these contain the recorded words of Jesus and two others relate to the need to refrain from eating things that may cause others to stumble.
Matthew 10:37-39 - “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.”
Luke 9:23 - Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”
We can also look at the broader passages in Luke 14:25-35, Romans 14:13-21 and 1 Corinthians 8:9-13.
There are only a couple of words in Greek word specifically related to this ‘cost’ and to ‘denial’:
Dapane (1160) defined as ‘expense, cost’ and also referred to as ‘cost, expense’. It only appears once.
Aparneomai (533) -meaning ‘to deny’ and used in therms of ‘I deny, disown, repudiate (either another person or myself), disregard’ and found 11 times.
The corresponding verses are:
Luke 14:28 - "Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won't you first sit down and estimate the cost (1160) to see if you have enough money to complete it?”
Matthew 16:24 - Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny (533) themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
Mark 8:34 - Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny (533) themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
There are five passages and one verse reference which support this sub-Theme (all identified above).
Kingdom Action 7.2 [KA7.2] - People will / may hate us / mistreat us / make us suffer because of our love for Jesus
Another dimension of the cost of discipleship is the potential Jesus’ followers have to be persecuted because of their allegiance to Him. There are 23 Greek words and idioms that have been investigated and have relevance in this context and they include the following:
Diógmos (1375) meaning ‘persecution’ and translated as ‘chase, pursuit; persecution’. There are 10 New Testament instances.
Diókó (1377) defined as ‘to put to flight, pursue, by implication to persecute’ and used to express ‘I pursue, hence: I persecute’. It is found 45 times.
Ponéros (4190) defined as ‘toilsome, bad' and used to describe 'evil, bad, wicked, malicious, slothful’. There are 79 occurrences.
Prosechó (4337) interpreted as ‘to hold to, turn to, attend to' and used practically in three contexts '(a) I attend to, pay attention to, (b) I beware, am cautious, (c) I join, devote myself to’. There are 24 instances.
Paradidómi (3860) describing ‘to hand over, to give or deliver over, to betray’ and used to convey the sense of ‘I hand over, pledge, hand down, deliver, commit, commend, betray, abandon’. It appears 120 times.
Thlibó (2346) describing the sense of ‘to press, afflict' having two translation meanings ‘(a) I make narrow (strictly: by pressure); I press upon, (b) I persecute, press hard’. It occurs 10 times.
Paschó (3958) meaning ‘to suffer, to be acted on’ and translated in terms like ‘I am acted upon in a certain way, either good or bad; I experience ill treatment, suffer’. There are 42 appearances.
Stauros (4716) describing ‘an upright stake, a cross (the Roman instrument of crucifixion)’ and translated simply as ‘a cross’. It is seen 27 times.
Kakopatheó (2553) defined as ‘to suffer evil’ and rendered in the New Testament as ‘I suffer evil, endure affliction’. There are 3 occurrences.
There are a wide number of verse references that we can consider that set out the challenges that Christians could face:
Matthew 5:11 - “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute (1377) you and falsely say all kinds of evil (4190) against you because of me.”
Matthew 10:17 - Be on your guard (4337); you will be handed over to the local councils and be flogged in the synagogues.
Matthew 13:21 - But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution (1375) comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.
Matthew 16:24 - Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross (4716) and follow me.
Mark 8:34 - Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross (4716) and follow me.
Luke 21:12 - “But before all this, they will seize you and persecute (1377) you. They will hand you over to synagogues and put you in prison, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name.
Acts 8:1 - And Saul approved of their killing him. On that day a great persecution (1375) broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.
2 Cor 4:8 - We are hard pressed (2346) on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair;
2 Corinthians 4:11 - For we who are alive are always being given over (3860) to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body.
2 Corinthians 12:10 - That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions (1375), in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Timothy 3:12 - In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted (1377),
2 Thessalonians 1:5 - All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering (3958).
James 5:13 - Is anyone among you in trouble (2553)? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise.
There are more than 100 verse references that we can identify that support this sub-Theme.
Summary
This is the fifth Systematic Discipleship Faith Article, where we have investigated two Kingdom Actions (KA6 and KA7) and the supporting sub-Themes that convey more of the details we need to be aware of as we live out our life of discipleship. As we move forward in subsequent articles, we hope to summarise some more of the complexity of the challenge disciples have to Follow Jesus [KF2]!
Ultimately, these groupings are subjective, as will be the inclusion (or exclusion) of many verses within each Theme and sub-Theme. We should note that some verses have a much stronger relevance to the derived Themes than others.
During this analysis, the aim has been to restrict the number of Themes that can be associated with any specific Greek word to eight or less - as any more implies poor analysis technique and the wrong choice / naming process.
In the next Faith Article, we shall consider some of the other Themes and scriptures that we can derive under Kingdom Action 8 forward (See Figure 1). Again, the aim will be to try and make it informative, but manageable in terms of the time and effort needed to look at and understand each area.
Any constructive thoughts on this Article, the process being undertaken, and related feedback are welcome.
Notes:
[1] - All previous Faith Articles focusing on the One Page New Testament can be found at this page: www.teachthemtoobey.co.uk/blog/
[2] - “Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, based upon Semantic Domains” Volumes 1 and 2 - Louw and Nida - Published by and © United Bible Societies - 1988
[3] - “Mounce’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words” - © William D Mounce, 2006 - Published by Zondervan
[4] - biblehub - https://biblehub.com/greek/
[5] - The number of instances of specific Greek words can vary considerably depending upon the Greek manuscript(s) that is / are referenced by the data underpinning a particular program or website. For example, there can be differences in the number of instances of a Greek word depending upon whether your information source is, say: biblehub.com, blueletterbible.org, or Accordance Bible software. For example: the word Kurios (Lord) appears:
722 times according to biblehub
748 times in the Textus Receptus (TR) Greek for the blueletterbible
717 in the Morphological Greek New Testament (MGNT) in the blueletterbible
717 times for the Legacy Standard Version in Accordance
711 times for the ESV in Accordance.
In general, we have used the biblehub.com counts for the number of instances of the Greek words we are presenting. If there are major discrepancies with the other resources we are using we will try to highlight these explicitly.
[6] - Unless otherwise stated, all scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.TM used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.TM.
The Bible references presented are illustrative rather than aiming to be ‘proof texts’. They are examples only as there are, generally, many more we could look at. Please note that when looking at any Bible verse references, you should ideally consider more than one translation / respected version to get a more rounded view, and also look at the wider context for each verse too. In particular, when Greek words are translated, Bible scholars do not always use the same English word every time it appears in the Greek. This is why it is useful to look at more than one Bible version.
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Reading the articles will take only a little time to study - more if we look up the additional Bible references - and probably a lifetime to work out in practice. Hopefully they will help make each of us ‘Become more like Jesus’!
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