Discipleship means to adhere to Christ! John 15: 5 says: I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

 They were going along the road, someone said to Him, "I will follow You wherever You go."

         And Jesus said to him, "The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head."

         And He said to another, "Follow Me." But he said, "Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father."

         But He said to him, "Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God."

         Another also said, "I will follow You, Lord; but first permit me to say good-bye to those at home."

         But Jesus said to him, "No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."

The first disciple offers to follow Jesus without waiting to be called, and Jesus warns him that he doesn’t know what he is doing. Jesus is going to the cross and the disciple doesn’t know it.

The second would-be disciple wants to bury his father before he begins to follow. He is in bondage by the law. He wants to follow, but he wants to fulfill the law which acts as a barrier between Jesus and himself, so Jesus had to intervene with authority and commanded him to follow Him. Jesus had the last word. Jesus was full of grace for this man!

The third would-be disciple thinks, like the first, that he can follow Jesus on his own initiative as if it were a college course, he had mapped out for himself. The difference between the first and the third, is the boldness of the third, stipulating his own terms. Discipleship to him is a possibility which can only be realized when certain conditions have been fulfilled. It reduces discipleship to the level of the human understanding. First you must do this, and then you must do that. He submits himself to Jesus disposition, but at the same time dictates his own terms. Jesus excludes this type from discipleship. His response is understandably clear.

Faith and obedience are indissolubly united; only he who believes is obedient, and only who is obedient, believes!. Even to the cross!

And he who does not take his cross, and follow after me, is not worthy of me. He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it. ^{Matthew 10: 38-39}