What is the goal of discipleship?

What is the goal of discipleship? 

A roadmap is a really helpful tool. A GPS app on a smartphone is even better. Instead of unfolding a massive piece of paper and having to pull over on the side of the road to double-check that you’re on the right track, Siri can just tell you exactly when you need to turn and how long until you get to your destination. Siri is useful for telling you how to get somewhere, but it can’t tell you why you’re going. It doesn’t know if you’re going to a funeral to mourn or a birthday party to celebrate, to church to worship or to a ball game to root on your favorite team.

Like a GPS app, so many of the programs we do as Christians are meant to be a guide for us, telling us how to get somewhere. But I’m afraid too few of us stop to ask the why question. 

The why behind every other question of discipleship is God. Why does discipleship matter? Because God matters. Nothing is more beautiful, lovely, pure, and limitless than God alone.

I believe each of us has a great opportunity: to recapture a radically God-centered vision for discipleship. The source of true discipleship is God himself. The goal of true discipleship is God himself. Fellowship with the Triune God is where we are going, and fellowship with the Triune God is how we are going to get there.

This is what God revealed to his people through the prophet Habakkuk: “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Hab. 2:14). Habakkuk wrote this in a time when God’s people were questioning God’s purposes in the world. What was God up to? What was God’s goal? This is the prophet’s answer: One day the whole earth, every single part of it, will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord. As Christians, then, that vision should drive us. If this is the future of God’s world—that his knowledge would cover all things—then it is our future. And if it is our future, we should pursue it now. That’s the why behind the what and the how. That’s the goal of discipleship.