When a mother duck leads her ducklings, they go single file, with each duckling following the one in front of them. To lead a duckling you don’t have to be a mature duck, just one step ahead. Only Jesus is a mother duck. The rest of us are merely ducklings. This is why Paul says, “Follow me as I follow Christ Jesus.” From the moment we begin to follow Jesus we are also to be “leading” others. From that moment we are at least “ahead” of non-Christians spiritually so there is always someone we can lead. This effectively reduces the duration of a spiritual generation to almost nothing. We can begin to reproduce spiritually from the moment of our rebirth.
Discipleship means following Christ. Every disciple should be in the process of maturing, but the focus is the journey, not the destination. The destination is to be fully conformed to the image of Christ. This will not fully occur until we meet Him in face-to-face in glory. The journey involves us daily growing in our expression of immediate, radical, costly obedience. The journey involves us becoming increasingly faithful and effective in passing on to others what we are learning along the way, not just in head-knowledge, but in life application. The journey involves becoming more practiced at learning more of the character and nature and will of God through learning to interpret and apply Scripture, in prayer, in relating with the Body of Christ, and through persecution and suffering. The journey implies following Christ and influencing and blessing others day-by-day wherever we are along the way.
