The Bible makes it clear that we are to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to everyone, everywhere. But we cannot stop there. When Jesus gave us the Great Commission in Matt. 28 He said:
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” Matt. 28:19-20 (ESV).
It is interesting that Jesus ends with verse 20. In other words, the Great Commission does not end with giving someone the Gospel. Instead it continues into discipleship.
Christ then ends the Gospel of Matthew with the essential part of disciple making, the presence of God. Titus 2 stresses the responsibility that older Christians have to teach and disciple younger Christians and gives us a basic outline of the discipleship process. As you read this passage and begin to disciple others, here are three things to remember.
1. We must teach the Gospel and sound doctrine (Titus 2:1).
Today there are too many of us who do not share the complete Gospel and/or teach everything in the Bible. If we truly believe what the Bible teaches, and that the Bible is the infallible and perfect Word of God, then we must teach it in its entirety. It can be easy to side step the hard issues and controversial topics, but we need to address them.
2. We must set ourselves apart from the world (Titus 2:2).
So many times we can fit the part of a Christian when we need to, and then turn around and act like we have never stepped foot in a church. We tend to fit in with our surroundings. What good does it do for us to be two-faced and inconsistent? We need to be practicing the things we preach. Eventually our inconsistencies will catch up to us and we will lose our testimony.
3. We must address the hard issues (Titus 2:11-14).
We have a lot of people in our churches who have secret sin in their lives. We have got to engage people about the dangers of sin, and we need to begin to move out the bondage of lust and idolatry and into freedom in Christ Jesus.
Remember that discipline is a command that Christ gave us. It can be hard and intimidating at times, but it is a needed and necessary part of the Christian life.