Practicing the Way: Be with Jesus. Become like him. Do as he did.

by John Mark Comer

Is the life I’m living the life I most deeply desire? Is this it?

liturgies

nefarious

But what is it forming us into?

Because we are each becoming something. That’s the crux of the human experience: the process of becoming a person. To be human is to change. To grow. To evolve. This is by God’s design.

It’s, Who or what am I becoming?

If we’re not being intentionally formed by Jesus himself, then it’s highly likely we are being unintentionally formed by someone or something else.[6]

Who (or what) do you put your faith in to show you the way to the life you desire?

luminary

laudable

ennui,

I’m going to end up following someone, so I choose to follow Jesus.

Jesus urged potential followers to “count the cost” before becoming his disciples.[9]

tome;

he invited people to apprentice under him into a whole new way of living. To be transformed.

Transformation is possible if we are willing to arrange our lives around the practices, rhythms, and truths that Jesus himself did,

It means practicing the Way.

“At once they left their nets and followed him.”[2]

Rabbis were the spiritual masters of Israel.

Your life and teaching were your credentials.

atonement,

This is vital, because if to “follow” Jesus is to trust him to lead you to the life you desire, it’s very hard (if not impossible) to entrust your life to someone you don’t respect.

coterie

Jewish kids started school around five years old at the local bet sefer (“the house of the book”),

The curriculum was the Torah, and in an oral culture, by the age twelve or thirteen, most kids would have the entire Torah—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus,

But the best and brightest would go on to a second level of education, called bet midrash (“the house of learning”), where they would continue their studies. By the age of seventeen, they would have memorized—wait for it—the entire Old Testament.[15]

But the best of the best of the best would apply to apprentice under a rabbi.

chutzpah

Now, let’s say you were one of the lucky few who became an apprentice to a rabbi. From that day on, your entire life was organized around three driving goals: To be with your rabbi

To become like your rabbi

but everyone who is fully trained will be like their rabbi.”[19]

That was the heart and soul of apprenticeship—being with your master for the purpose of becoming like your master.

To do as your rabbi did

It’s to organize your entire life around three driving goals: Be with Jesus. Become like him. Do as he did.

Apprenticeship to Jesus—that is, following Jesus—is a whole-life process of being with Jesus for the purpose of becoming like him and carrying on his work in the world. It’s a lifelong journey in which we gradually learn to say and do the kinds of things Jesus said and did as we apprentice under him in every facet of our lives.

“Learning wasn’t so much about retaining data as it was about gaining essential wisdom for living, absorbing it from those around him.

To follow Jesus, then, meant to walk alongside him in a posture of listening, learning, observation, obedience, and imitation.[22]

semantics.

onus

If you choose to enroll as his student (and I very much hope you do), that means when you wake up tomorrow morning, your entire life is architected to this threefold aim: to be with Jesus, to become like him, and to do as he did. This is the animating passion of your existence. “The rest are just details,” as Einstein said.

epithet

He went on to define a Christian as one who believes that “Jesus Christ was divine and part of a Trinity, that Christ died for the sins of the world, and that faith in this doctrine is necessary for one to gain salvation”; and then said, this “is a foundation almost all are familiar with.”[28]

“A person who is simply a man of faith is [not] a disciple.”[32]

If an apprentice is simply anyone whose ultimate aim is to be with Jesus in order to become like him and live the way Jesus would live if he were in their shoes, then a non-apprentice (whether they identify as an atheist, a devotee of another religion,

or even as a Christian) is simply anyone whose ultimate aim in li...

The problem is, in the West, we have created a cultural milieu where you can be a Christian but...

ambiguity

If their driving aim was to approach every challenge as Jesus would?

This split between evangelism and discipleship is still dominant in a large swath of Western churches.

“Saying yes to Jesus” does not an apprentice make.