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Hundredfold Discipleship in 1 Corinthians 13

September 11, 2006

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Dear Friends

When we read 1 Corinthians 13, our thoughts are deliberately drawn to the subject of love by the Apostle Paul. This is as it should be as the apostle makes a very important point; namely that love is the greatest attribute of a disciple. Interestingly though, if we dig a little deeper into the chapter, we see that the apostle uses the attributes of a hundredfold disciple to show that without love, this amazing level of discipleship is pointless. Therefore, in one chapter, we have God’s definition of a hundredfold disciple, for God uses these attributes to highlight the surpassing value of love.

For our purposes in the study of what it means to be a hundredfold disciple, it makes perfect sense to separate these qualities and look at them more closely.

Quality #1: “understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith.” (v. 2) The Hundredfold Disciple is a Bible student and man of faith. They understand the “mysteries” of God. The word “mystery” in the Greek means something that is known only to a few, initiated individuals. In other words, these disciples are conversant on deep Biblical topics. In the first century, these mysteries were the death of Jesus, the Kingdom of God, the call of the Gentiles, the resurrection of the dead, the coming of false teaching and God manifested in the flesh to name a few. Not surprisingly, many (most) of these items are still mysteries today except to the most diligent Bible students.

Faith is the driver of all behavior. This could not be truer of the Hundredfold Disciple. Their faith is the driving force to a life of service and their high standard of morality. The knowledge that they have obtained through diligent Bible study has not been simply an academic exercise, but is a one of the vital components of their faith. Their faith compels them to do what they know they should by following the example of Christ.

Quality #2 – “I bestow all my goods to feed the poor.” (v. 3) Notice that the verse says “all my goods.” This language was not hyperbole. Jesus had taught “Sell that ye have, and give alms.” (Lu 12:33) During the first century, many people did this. We are told in Acts, “for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them down at the apostles’ feet.” Many people today find it difficult to even provide a tithe of 10% to the work of the Lord, much less everything. Again, just to keep the context, we are not saying that this is a requirement of a disciple of Christ. This is God’s presentation of extraordinary discipleship. Most people will not meet this level of discipleship. The question then for most is how far will we fall short of it?

Nevertheless, the Hundredfold Disciple doesn’t dismiss the needs of the poor. They care deeply about them. They work to help them. They will sacrifice their own material possessions to help those who have the most basic needs such as food. They are very aware of the exhortation of James when he said “If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, ‘depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled’; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?” (Jas 2:15)

As a side note, notice that we have a possible definition of what it means to be poor in these two verses. A poor person is someone who is in need of food or clothing. This is not to say that we can’t or shouldn’t help someone with medical needs or with shelter, but it does set the bar for what it means to be poor pretty low. By way of contrast, of those the US Census Bureau recognizes as “poor”, nearly 75% own a car; 30% own two or more cars, 97% have a color television, over 50% have two or more color televisions and 62% pay for cable or satellite TV. Many of these “poor” people would be considered rich in many developing countries. The point is that while we may not see to many Biblically-defined poor people around us in North America, they do exist in staggering numbers elsewhere in the world and the Hundredfold Disciple will help them.

We will pick up here next week, Lord willing.

Have a great week,

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