{"id":206,"date":"2022-06-29T08:52:50","date_gmt":"2022-06-29T08:52:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stm.edu.my\/beritastm\/?p=206"},"modified":"2025-04-17T04:05:10","modified_gmt":"2025-04-17T04:05:10","slug":"new-norm-being-christs-disciples-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stm.edu.my\/beritastm\/2022\/06\/29\/new-norm-being-christs-disciples-today\/","title":{"rendered":"New Norm \u2013 Being Christ\u2019s Disciples Today"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Norm \u2013 Being Christ\u2019s Disciples Today<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rev Dr Joseph Komar | STM Faculty<\/p>\n

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Jesus Christ was a controversial person. He was most hated by the spiritual magisterium of his day, especially by the Pharisees and the Scribes, because Jesus was disobedient in following their spiritual norms.\u00a0 Some even considered him to be delusional\u2014\u201che is beside himself\u201d\u2014or demon-possessed (Mark 3:21-22<\/a>). While others fasted, his disciples did not; instead, he alluded to a time of celebration because the bridegroom was in their midst (Mark 2:18-19). He was also accused of being a glutton and a drunkard (Matthew 11:18-19). Surely he was not Messiah material, but rather, a false prophet. He was popular when the people had their needs met, such as healing and delivery from demonic possession. To embrace him as our Mentor or Model is to invite controversy, possibly leading to martyrdom, as was the case with most of his twelve disciples. This is indeed a noble endeavor, but the outcome is surely an unpopular one.<\/p>\n

Overlooking this background, we in the twenty-first century church are trying to make sense of what it means to follow Him\u2014to steer clear of controversies, learn the art of diplomacy, speak only when spoken to, to be culturally sensitive, and not to rock the boat. Making people happy is a hidden agenda: unspoken, but very much present as a driving force in service. Pragmatism drives leaders to goals that are not Christocentric in nature, but anthropocentric. Pious and confessional declarations to Jesus Christ are a \u201cgiven\u201d in the church, giving rise to the belief that all ensuing actions by a leader or the church are divinely driven. Similar to the practice of references or \u201cname-dropping\u201d to lend credibility to ourselves or our activities, we have no qualms in using God\u2019s name for \u201cauthentication\u201d in the belief that we are doing His work. Jesus was harsh to the custodians of spiritual well-being, especially the Pharisees.<\/p>\n

A pastor confessed to adultery committed twenty years prior during a Sunday worship service. This led the affected victim to come onto the stage to state that it was not only adultery, but also sexual abuse as she was only 16 years old at the time (Jesse T. Jackson in Church Leaders<\/em>). Numerous scandals related to sexual abuse, misappropriation of money, marital breakdowns\u2014the list goes on as to how priests, pastors and church elders have conducted themselves, which has greatly affected the image of the Church. Today, there is much hype or importance given to discipleship in the church, but the greatest setback is that the ones pushing this agenda are themselves failing or failed disciples. To recover the value and greatness in the call to Christian discipleship, the custodians of the faith must be accountable: \u201cGiving no offence in anything, that the ministry be not blamed, but in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God\u2026\u201d (2 Corinthians 6:3-4).<\/p>\n

What has been revealed of Jesus Christ\u2019s ministry is the yardstick for us to follow; anything less is not the Gospel.\u00a0 The command to go and make disciples has to be seen in the light of the whole 28 chapters in Matthew\u2019s Gospel. The standard has been set. Jesus repeatedly proved that he prioritized quality and was not interested in numbers. Many who followed him had no idea of discipleship; and this is the sad reality in the church\u2014people who call themselves Christians are missing the mark of discipleship (Luke 9:23). Someone once said that respect is earned through our character. The world must see us as people of the Word. This is the most powerful voice in evangelism. When true Christian discipleship takes place, the impact of the Church in society would be greatly realized.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Norm \u2013 Being Christ\u2019s Disciples Today Rev Dr Joseph Komar | STM Faculty Jesus Christ was a controversial person. He was most hated by the spiritual magisterium of his day, especially by the Pharisees and the Scribes, because Jesus was disobedient in following their spiritual norms.\u00a0 Some even considered him to be delusional\u2014\u201che is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-45th-anniversary-celebrating-gods-greatness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stm.edu.my\/beritastm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stm.edu.my\/beritastm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stm.edu.my\/beritastm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stm.edu.my\/beritastm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stm.edu.my\/beritastm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stm.edu.my\/beritastm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":208,"href":"https:\/\/stm.edu.my\/beritastm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206\/revisions\/208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stm.edu.my\/beritastm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stm.edu.my\/beritastm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stm.edu.my\/beritastm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}