The Discipleship Marathon
Category : Blogpost
We have covered a lot of ground in this series. Forgiveness, reconciliation, servant leadership, nonviolence, the Great Commission, and the fruit of the Spirit. These are beautiful teachings. They inspire us, challenge us, and call us to a higher way of living. However, the truth is they are also incredibly hard to sustain.
It is one thing to feel convicted about forgiveness after a powerful sermon on Sunday. It is another thing to keep forgiving the same person for the same offense six months later. It is one thing to be excited about servant leadership when you first read Mark 10. It is another thing to keep serving when nobody notices, when you are exhausted, when you receive no gratitude. The gap between initial enthusiasm and long-term faithfulness is where most discipleship dies.
That’s why the New Testament keeps using endurance language. Not just starting, but finishing. Not just hearing the word, but bearing fruit with patience. Living out Jesus ethical teachings requires more than a one-time decision. It requires long-term commitment.
The Parable of the Sower and the Problem of Short-Term Faith
Jesus himself warned about this. In Mark 4, he tells the parable of the sower. Seed falls on different types of soil. One type is rocky ground. The seed sprouts quickly because the soil is shallow, but when the sun comes out, it withers because it has no roots. Jesus explains these are people who hear the word and receive it with joy, but they have no root. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.
What kills the plant? The sun. The sun is the same sun that helps the deep-rooted plants grow. Difficulty, opposition, the daily grind of living out a counter-cultural ethic. These aren’t exceptions to the Christian life. They are the normal conditions. And if we have no root, we won’t survive them.
So how do we develop deep roots? How do we sustain long-term commitment to teachings that go against every natural instinct we have?
The Fruit of the Spirit Grows Slowly
Paul’s list in Galatians 5 gives us a clue. He calls them fruit, not instant produce. Fruit takes time to grow. You don’t plant an apple tree and harvest apples the next week. There are seasons of watering, pruning, waiting, and protecting against pests. The same is true of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Consider patience specifically. Nobody becomes patient overnight. Patience is forged in the furnace of repeated frustration. You practice patience with a difficult coworker, then you practice it again and again and again. Years later, you realize you’re a little more patient than you used to be. But there’s no shortcut. The Spirit grows fruit through time and through practice.
The same is true of forgiveness. You may forgive someone once, but the temptation to rehearse the offense and nurse the grudge returns. Forgiveness from the heart (Matthew 18:35) is not a single event; it’s an ongoing posture. Every time the bitterness rises, you release it again. Over the years, that posture has become more natural. But only if you keep at it.
Stay tuned!
