Scott Aniol, PhD, is Executive Vice President and Editor-in-Chief of G3 Ministries. In addition to his role with G3, Scott is Professor of Pastoral Theology at Grace Bible Theological Seminary in Conway, Arkansas. He lectures around the world in churches, conferences, colleges, and seminaries, and he has authored several books and dozens of articles. You can find more, including publications and speaking itinerary, at www.scottaniol.com. Scott and his wife, Becky, have four children: Caleb, Kate, Christopher, and Caroline.
I think following Jesus has two important components. One is listening to what he has said and believing everything that he has said. So we read faithfully the scriptures. We seek to know what truth God has communicated about himself and then specifically what Jesus Christ himself taught And then what Jesus Christ taught through his apostles. The apostles had derivative authority given to them by Christ.
So this includes everything in both the Old and New Testaments is the truth of Christ, the truth of God communicated to us. So we follow Christ first and foremost by listening to his teaching, seeking to comprehend and understand his teaching. That means reading the Word. That means sitting under the preaching of the Word, meditating upon the Word, studying the Word. Discipleship has to start there.
But then it is allowing that teaching to characterize who we are as followers of Jesus Christ. We don't just believe intellectually ascent and then carry on as we have before. True belief that is belief in one in whom we desire to be discipled ourselves and to follow, that kind of belief will result in a changed life. With an intentional moving forward, growing in our faith, forsaking sin, forsaking the world, and seeking to obey everything that Christ commanded us. It's important to recognize that when Jesus gave his disciples the Great Commission in Matthew 28, when he said, make disciples, What's going on there in that command is again, not just teach them truths.
That's not what he says. He says teach them to observe everything that I have commanded you. And so that's why it's so important. That has to be listening to what Christ has said, listening to his teaching, but then we have to take that next step and we have to observe it. We have to allow it to change our lives.
And so faithfully sitting under the preached Word, reading the Word, meditating upon the Word, and then actively living that out in our lives is what is truly characteristic of a disciple of Jesus Christ.