For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me.
1 Corinthians 4:15-16
Disciple making begins with and stays focused on the gospel. We never get our eyes off Jesus Christ and His transformative work in us. Even the people God uses to make disciples aren’t the focus. The Corinthian church had gotten their focus wrong and the bragging about which man was their “guide” made divisions within the church taking them away from the gospel and Jesus. Paul reminded them as their “father” in faith to remember the gospel of Jesus that he brought them.
Once the focus is back on Jesus, we can have a proper view of being disciple makers and the people God uses to grow us. Mature disciples focused upon Jesus can legitimately ask those they are discipling to imitate them with confidence. That’s what Paul is doing here. The Corinthians could imitate the apostle as he was sure to imitate Christ. He pointed to Jesus. They could confidently follow where he led.
To make disciples means I must always seriously follow Jesus. I should have the kind of faith that people see Jesus living through me. And I should urge people to follow the change Jesus brings in me. But I must start with my own soul as I call others to follow with me, believe and apply the gospel together, and love Jesus with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength!
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