Follow Jesus – all clear?

Everyone seems to know what “following Jesus” means, but yet it is vague, intangible, and explanations are frequently contradictory. While churches and congregations talk about “following Jesus,” they rarely define what that truly means. Admittedly – it is also difficult to explain. Because wherever the word “follow” appears in the New Testament, we literally cannot put it into practice.

It says, for example:

“When he [Jesus] was walking by the sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. And he said to them: Come, after me! And I will make you fishers of men. And they immediately left the nets and followed him.”
Mt 4,20

Several times I had conversations in which my counterpart said, “I want to follow Jesus, but how do I do that? The disciples dropped everything and ran after him. I would do the same, but I cannot. Jesus is no longer walking on the earth. So I can no longer run after him. But that’s exactly how I read it in the Bible. Quite literally. Now what does that mean?”.

It’s not uncommon for that to be answered in good faith by saying, “Well, it’s not literal anymore, but we should make it “spiritual.”” Spiritual? Seriously? That makes the confusion complete, because how am I supposed to “spiritually” walk after Jesus? It doesn’t answer the question or explain the text. Everything is left vague and incomplete. It is neither exegetically anchored nor biblically clear how the facts actually are. This is what we would like to investigate now.

The word “follow” disappears

In this word study, we explore the question of what is meant by “follow” in the Bible itself. We read the Bible passages, see what is said about them and what is not. We begin in the Gospels, learning how Jesus’ disciples practiced this “following”. Then we move to the letters that were written after Jesus’ death and resurrection and after his ascension. A literal “following” of Jesus was no longer possible – He no longer walked the earth.

Thus, after the Gospels, the word “follow” abruptly disappears from the Bible. It is replaced by the word “imitate”. Jesus himself has already pointed to a change. He had promised a “Helper,” the “Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father and bears witness to me [Jesus] “ (John 15:26). God’s Spirit adapted the newly emerging church to the new situation. This is what the letters tell us about.

Before and after the cross

What happens before and after the cross is significant. Through the obedience of Jesus, through His death and resurrection, the work of God was accomplished (John 19:30). Since then, the righteousness of God has been proclaimed in the gospel (Rom 1:16-17). Jesus was given away for the sake of our offenses and raised for the sake of our justification (Rom 4:25). The cross is the axis of salvation history around which the world revolves. Everything changes there, and our lives want to be built on that. Also the “following” of Jesus, this term that has such a great meaning in the Gospels, is transformed by this new situation. The word is no longer used by the apostles. Instead, the word “imitate”, among others, is introduced to reflect the new situation.

If we now live according to the cross, we may realize that all these facts have changed for our benefit. God is for us, who else will be against us? (Rom 8:31-32). Believing this, we may be secure “in Christ”, in His work and activity, and God looks at us in Him:

“Therefore, if any man be in Christ, there is a new creation: the former things passed away, behold, they are become new. Now all these things are of God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself: He imputeth not their offenses unto them, and hath put in us the word of reconciliation. Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were speaking through us: we plead for Christ: be reconciled to God! For He who knew not sin made Him to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” 2Co 5:17-21

That is the starting position for us today. None of the apostles speak of “following” after the cross because Jesus is no longer on earth. Imitate Christ – but great importance is attached to this. We will learn what this means and how in the later letters. The letters, looking back to the Gospels, show the mind of Christ Jesus that we can imitate today.

Follow

To follow simply means “to run after” (Mt 8:1). That may come as a surprise. Because usually all kinds of ideas are associated with it, just not something as trivial as someone running after you. But this is essential to the understanding of the word.

Let us compare again the first verses in the New Testament that speak of “following” (Mt 4:20-25). Often the first times a word is used in the Bible are of special significance. This is also the case here. The word “follow” (gr. akoloutheuo) can be etymologically examined more closely and it then consists of 3 word elements, namely:

• a (negation: un-),
• kol (to join together, like Gr. kollao, e.g. 1Cor 6,17) and
• outheo (from gr. root “the”, to place, e.g. 1Tim 2:7).

If something is “un-joined”, then a connection is “dissolved”. This is followed by the “place”. The etymology of the word points to something from which the old situation is dissolved, after which a new situation takes its place. This is consistent with the word usage in the New Testament. Because “to follow” always means to leave something behind and to decide to go in a new direction – for example to follow Jesus. In the aforementioned example of the calling of the first disciples, we see this sequence of events after Jesus called the men:

1. The men decided to leave their previous activity
2. The men followed Jesus behind.

The “old situation” (Fischer) was dissolved. They decided to enter into a “new situation” (with the consequence: “I will make you fishers of men”). They followed Him. It was a personal decision, following an invitation. From the context and the further course of the story, however, it becomes clear that this is not a “running event” but something bigger. So what did it mean to “follow Jesus”?

Disciple and teacher

So what happened when Simon and Andrew followed Jesus? In fact, the two brothers remained in their profession as fishermen and continued to do so. This is witnessed in many places. However, by their decision they became “disciples” (gr. mathètes or learners) who followed a “teacher” (gr. didaskalos) (cf. Mt 9:11, Mt 10:25). Specifically, as we read it in the Gospels, this means that they went about with Jesus while being taught by Him.

It is these disciples who later became apostles (Gr. apostolos or commissioned, sent with a commission)(Mt 10:1-2). Of course, there were other people who were called “disciples” in a broader sense because they confessed Jesus and followed him as well, but were not part of the inner circle of disciples.

A disciple is someone who follows a teacher, learns from him, and travels with him – quite literally. Disciples can later become envoys and commissioners. The teacher-disciple relationship existed among other teachers as well. In this sense, for example, John the Baptist also had his own disciples (Mark 2:18 and others). It was not a unique feature of Jesus and His disciples, but it was in keeping with the custom of teachers in Israel at that time.

Sell everything you have and follow me

Can we now simply apply this image of discipleship to our lives? Once someone asked me if he should sell all his possessions so that he could follow Jesus? Because that’s what he took from this report:

“And a chief asked him, saying, Good Master, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Then said Jesus unto him, What callest thou me good? No one is good but God alone! You know the commandments: “You shall not commit adultery! You shall not kill! You shall not steal! You shall not bear false witness! You shall honor your father and your mother!” But he said, “I have kept all these things from my youth. When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you lack, sell all you have and distribute it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me!”
Lk 18,18-22

In the context of Jesus’ proclamation, wealth is hardly something that can be saved over into the messianic kingdom. Half-heartedly, one cannot follow Jesus (Mark 10:28-31). The only question is whether this encounter is also a pattern for us today? Is this now a general call, valid for everyone? And can we even do it that way? We can sell our possessions, but we cannot follow Jesus as it is described there. To follow Jesus means, in every place where it is mentioned, to follow Jesus. Literally. On earth. After him. And that is not possible today. So now the question is: How is this possible today – after the cross?

“Following Jesus” only in the Gospels

It’s amazing, but the word “follow” suddenly disappears from news coverage. When is that and why is that? It may seem strange at first that the word “follow” disappears throughout the New Testament. We have become so accustomed to this word that we may expect it everywhere. But this is not the case.

Let us compare again the occurrences of this Greek word for “to follow” (Gr. akoloutheo, at the end of the article is a concordance with all places). If we examine all the passages in the Bible, we notice that following Jesus occurs exclusively in the Gospels. Afterwards, it is not mentioned like that. The moment Jesus no longer walks on earth, no one talks about following Him – because it is no longer possible. We cannot literally run after Him today.

Already in the Acts of the Apostles there is no more mention of “following”. Also in the Epistles we do not find a direct mention of this word, describing for instance our current situation (after the cross). This is remarkable. Although we still often read of “disciples” in Acts, this seems rather to denote the continuity of the community of faith. For example, it speaks of “Mnason from Cyprus, a disciple of the beginning, with whom we were to be guests”(Acts 21:16). But we no longer hear that people “follow Jesus” after He has gone to heaven.

The original understanding of “following Jesus” seems to be limited to the situation where a disciple joins a teacher in a very practical way and walks with him here on earth.

After the cross

The division into “before the cross” and “after the cross” is perhaps a bit crude, but helps to capture the essence. What about us now? We live according to the cross, resurrection and ascension. We can no longer follow Jesus as described in the Gospels. The time has passed. When Paul reflects on the death and resurrection of Jesus and the tremendous significance of that event, he says:

“…But though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet know we him no more so.”
2Cor 5:14-21

Paul, who never knew Jesus “in the flesh,” that is, never “followed” Jesus in the Gospels, thus picks up all believers who may have known Jesus before the cross. He wants them not to live in the past, but to orient their lives according to the resurrection of Jesus. Let us imagine the implications of this statement by Paul. He explicitly addresses people who knew Jesus “according to the flesh”, that is, knew Jesus from the time when He still walked on earth. So if there is someone among the audience who has experienced this, Paul makes an unmistakable distinction here between the situation then and now. “If we have known Christ according to the flesh, we know Him no more so!”. We can now read more about this in the letters.

Imitate Christ

«Be imitators of me, just as I am [Nachahmer] of Christ!»
1Kor 11,1

This invitation of Paul shows in one sentence what is important for him: It is about imitating Christ! He uses other words and expresses a profound change of reality. Instead of “following Jesus,” here it means becoming “imitators of Christ.” This is not a play on words or even quibbling. It is about a new reality. For this purpose, the appropriate expression was used. In doing so, the apostle presents himself as an example.

Just as Jesus is the name He received at birth and that accompanied Him during His life on earth, Christ is the title that indicates dignity and majesty. With Paul, this is always also a reference to the exalted Christ, who died and rose again, and was exalted by God. Paul speaks after the cross and after the resurrection.

The title Christ corresponds to the Hebrew Messiah (mashiach), which was applied in the Old Testament to anointed kings, priests and prophets. All this flows together in Jesus, the promised Christ. This title is recognized in the Gospels for Jesus, but the full meaning in the sense of the prophets is still waiting to be realized.

• He is the Messiah, but Israel did not receive Him like that.
• He came as a king, but the kingdom was not yet realized with power and glory on earth.

These are still future events. However, Christ is also used as an expression that specifically identifies Jesus as the exalted Lord. This is what we recognize and witness believing. When Paul speaks of “imitating Christ”, this is not only a theoretical dignity, but it also includes what it took for this dignity: death and resurrection, and that God the Father raised Him to His right hand (cf. 1 Cor. 15:3-4 Eph. 1:20-23, etc.).

Fellow imitators

When Paul calls us to imitate him, it is a very practical indication. Paul by no means sees himself alone in this task. In several places he shows how in the church attention should be paid to all those people who are leading the way in faith. Paul describes it as follows:

“Become my fellow imitators, brethren, and look to those who walk as you have us for an example”.
Phil 3:17

Unfortunately, in some translations it is not clear that here it literally means “fellow imitator” (gr. summimètès). For Paul imitates Christ and invites us to imitate Christ “with him.” So Paul has no profiling neurosis – he does not make himself great, but wants only one thing: that the church imitates Christ. That’s what he’s advocating. At the same time, he stresses that the brothers should look to those “who walk as you have us for an example.”

Paul’s personal attitude goes all out. He describes this in the preceding verses with impressive words:

“Not that I have already attained it, or am already accomplished; but I pursue that I may also lay hold of that for which I have been laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not consider myself to have grasped it; but one thing [tue ich]: Forgetting what is behind, I reach out to what is before me and chase the goal, the battle prize of the heavenly calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let all of us who have matured be of this mind; and if you think differently about anything, God will reveal that to you as well. But whatever we may have arrived at, let us walk by the same guide and strive for the same!”
Phil 3:12-16

If we imitate this attitude and understanding of Paul, we are well on our way to reaching out fully to Christ. Paul says: “that I may also lay hold of that for which I have been laid hold of by Christ Jesus!”. He sets out to grasp what he was called to do by Christ. To make this journey of discovery is the privilege and the challenge in faith.

• Imitating Christ with Paul: 1Cor 4:16 1Cor 11:1 Phil 3:17 2Th 3:7-9
• To become God’s imitators: Eph 5:1
• Our and the Lord’s imitators: 1Thess 1,6
• Imitators of the churches of God: 1Thess 2,14.

Role models

Those who become imitators also become role models. This is how the life of Christ is revealed in the church. Paul writes to the Thessalonians:

“And you have become imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word under much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you have become examples to all believers in Macedonia and Achaia. For from you the word of the Lord has gone forth; not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but everywhere your faith in God has become known, so that we have no need to speak of it.”
1Thess 1,6-8

Paul writes to Timothy:

“No one despises you because of your youth, but be an example to the faithful in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in chastity! Until I come, be attentive to preaching, exhorting and teaching. Do not neglect the gift of grace in you, which was given to you through prophecy under the laying on of hands of the eldership! This shall be thy care, therein shalt thou live, that thy progress in all things may be manifest! Take heed to thyself and to the doctrine; be constant in it! For if you do this, you will save both yourself and those who listen to you.”
1Tim 4:12-16

Be an example to the believers! Not the unbelievers! Timothy was to meet those outside the church as an evangelist (2Tim 4,5), namely to proclaim to them the good news of the saving grace of God in Christ Jesus. But those who already put their trust in Christ, he should be an example and with perseverance also remain.

The believer’s way of life, in this world as well as in the church, is built on the work of God in Christ Jesus, on the cross and resurrection. That is why it is the letters that build up the church after the resurrection. We should read these letters (especially those of Paul, the only “apostle to the nations”) regularly so that we can grasp how God’s salvation wants to change our lives today.

What is better

I started this article with the question of people who would like to follow Jesus as it was described in the Gospels. However, they realized that it didn’t work that way. To resolve their questions using the Bible and biblical history, to work out a context for the statements of Jesus and the apostles, was the purpose of this article. We have seen that some things have changed. A new situation came, prepared by God’s Spirit and taught by the apostles to the church.

The same heart attitude

Now that we have read all these things, how do we look from the epistles back into the gospels? How can we understand and apply what Jesus lived and worked? After all, nothing is being taken away, but we are learning. It’s not about using a word “correctly” or “incorrectly,” it’s about understanding what is meant by it. That we follow Jesus, or more precisely imitate Christ, presupposes the same attitude of heart – from our point of view. So nothing changes there. But from God’s salvation point of view, the situation has changed stunningly. Am I aware of this? Is it a reason for me to give thanks and does it help me to understand the Bible in a more differentiated way? Do I know what is given to me in grace and can I consciously live from it?

We cannot trust or believe differently than, say, Abraham or the prophets, but we can base our trust and faith on better facts than those early believers. This does not devalue their faith, but places us in a current and excellent context.

Much of what the fathers of Israel and the prophets first knew as a promise was fulfilled in the New Testament. As a result, we have more than one promise in some respects. Through the resurrection of Jesus, we have received a confirmed foundation upon which we may build our faith and our lives. When Jesus walked on earth and gathered disciples around him as a teacher, this cross did not exist in the beginning. The disciples could not live by the power of the resurrection. They also did not know justification from sins, as it was proclaimed only after the cross by Paul. The scope of the cross exceeds everything that was known about God’s work until then (cf. 1 Cor. 2:6-10). Because God works into this world. He makes a progressive revelation whose future perspective is already working itself out in us.

Growing in knowledge

It is the apostles’ concern that believers become fruitful in every good work and grow in the knowledge of God. In the first chapter of Colossians, Paul describes some steps as they arise in our life of faith. They are marked in bold in the text:

“We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints, for the hope which is kept for you in heaven, of which you heard beforehand by the word of the truth of the gospel which has come to you, as it has also in all the world [ist] und Frucht bringt, so wie auch in euch, von dem Tag an, da ihr von der Gnade Gottes gehört und sie in Wahrheit erkannt habt. This is how you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant, who is a faithful servant of the Christ for you, who also told us about your love in the Spirit. That is why we have not stopped praying and asking for you since the day we heard it, that you will be filled with the Knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and insight, so that you may walk worthy of the Lord and be pleasing to him in everything: fruitful in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might according to the power of his glory to all steadfast endurance and longsuffering, with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has made us able to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.”
Col 1:3-14

We see here the development of faith in a nutshell:

1. Hearing the grace of God,
2. Knowing the grace of God in truth.
3. [GEBET]
4. Be fruitful in every good work.
5. Growing in the knowledge of God.

Prayer is central so that we may be enabled to walk worthy of the Lord and be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and discernment. The apostle refers at the end to “the redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins ” – this is only possible after the resurrection, as we have already recognized in several places.