Discipleship isn’t a mystery. It’s simply what Romans 12:1 calls our reasonable service in light of God’s mercies. That’s the short definition.

Ephesians 4:11-16 unpacks what that looks like. First, it means learning from the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists—whose words are given in Scripture—under the shepherds and teachers—those Christ has called to serve His Church, feeding and protecting His sheep. Jesus doesn’t have free-range disciples. Discipleship takes place within a local church.

Christ gave the Church, first the Apostles, Prophets, and Evangelists. That’s the Holy Scriptures. The Evangelists—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—wrote down His words, and His story. But Christ said all the Scriptures testify of Him (John 5:39). Jesus doesn’t have Red Letter only disciples.

And He has given us shepherds and teachers in our local churches to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. We are discipled through the drama and doctrine of Scripture, which flows out as Doxology—that is, our own faith, hope, and love; our worship and our work. We move on in the Gospel. We move deeper into our baptism. We grow into our standard, who is Christ. We grow in knowledge, not to be arrogant; but simply because we want to know our Lord. We wish to study His ways and learn to delight in them. This should lead us deeper into Christ, the Author and Perfecter of faith (Hebrews 12:2). As our faith flourishes, our hope blossoms, and our love matures, we become more perfectly united to one another. Because the Spirit of Christ in me is drawn to the Spirit of Christ in you.

All this is so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. This doesn’t happen by clever formulas, shallow moralism, new methods, or pulpit pep talks. There’s no fast-track in discipleship. Whoever tries to sell you one is preying on your immaturity. It’s just a life lived in the rhythm of Law and Gospel. It’s learning to receive and use family heirlooms like the Lord’s Prayer, the Psalms, and the Nicene Creed. Discipleship lives and breathes and thinks and moves in the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3). It doesn’t seek novelty.

And the goal of discipleship is that we end up speaking the truth in love. First to each other. And this isn’t a call to be tactful when you tell Brother Fred about this thing he does that annoys you. Speaking the truth in love isn’t a polite way to be petty. It’s never about your opinion; it’s about God’s truth. It’s speaking God’s admonishments, and His promises in Christ. Because we forget a lot.

That way, we will grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ. But never quite attain it in this life. You just keep leaning into Him, reaching and stretching into Him.

Because from Christ alone, the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. You can’t manufacture that. You can’t will it. You can’t program it. It flows from Christ. It flows out as Doxology. It spills into the pots and pans in the messy kitchen of your ordinary life. It spills over into a Church that rejoices and weeps together, until the night of weeping is done forever, swallowed up in the morning of eternal joy.

So discipleship is no more or less mysterious than the mystery of Christ in us. It’s what happens when the words of Romans 12:1 and Ephesians 4:11-16 become flesh in the lives of ordinary. everyday sainted sinners.