Perhaps you can help me. I’m trying to think of a word that starts with C. Why? Because I want to add to the 3Cs, but I figure the 4Cs sounds a lot more memorable than the “3Cs and a P”.

In case you’ve no idea what I’m talking about and have concluded that this blog is a bunch of gibberish, let me clarify that the 3Cs are words used to describe the task of discipleship or training: i.e. the idea that we want people to grow in convictions, character and competence. In The Trellis and the Vine, Tony Payne and Col Marshall put it like this:

… an integral part of making disciples is teaching and training every disciple to make other disciples. This training is not simply the imparting of certain skills or techniques. It involves nurturing and teaching people in their understanding and knowledge (their convictions), in their godliness and way of life (their character), and in their abilities and practical experience of ministering to others (their competence). (page 155)

It is indeed a useful way to think about the goal of Christian discipleship. But when I was reading Paul’s words to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3 recently, I was struck by another word that I think is significant when it comes to training or discipling someone to become a co-labourer with us in the work of growing the gospel. 

Paul has just been talking about the damage being done by some of the corrupt influences that have crept into households—people who “oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith” (2 Tim 3:1–9). These people are in marked contrast to his beloved Timothy, whom he commends with these words:

You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra … (2 Tim 3:10–11, ESV)

or as the Christian Standard Bible translates it:

But you have followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, and endurance, along with the persecutions and sufferings that came to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra.

I think there’s something there that we often miss in this positive description of Paul’s disciple, Timothy.

Actually, there’s probably more than one thing that we miss. I suspect we don’t often prepare people to face “persecutions and sufferings” when we train them in ministry. But it’s not that particular thing I have in mind. 

The word that particularly struck me in verse 10 was “purpose” (“aim in life”, ESV). Paul is pleased that Timothy has learned to follow Paul’s purpose in life. 

Does that really warrant adding an extra C to the 3Cs? In one sense you could say that Paul’s purpose is really just part of his convictions—what he believes includes his own purpose. But it seems such a profound, life-shaping conviction that I wonder if it deserves its own C among the other three. Purpose describes our fundamental response to God’s grace of presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice—which is our ‘logical’ worship—and of seeking to “discern what is the will of God” (and do it!) (Rom 12:1–2). 

If I may be permitted a sweeping, anecdotal opinion with no research behind it, I suspect the lives of a lot of Christian people are a bit directionless and priority-less. And so it seems to me that understanding our purpose as Christians is a very worthwhile goal to bring more to the fore in terms of the task of growing disciples. 

Perhaps this is actually why the question “What is the chief and highest end of man?” is the very first one asked in the Westminster Larger Catechism. 

But the answer to that catechism question—“To glorify God and fully to enjoy him forever”—really does take some unpacking. It’s one thing to memorize it and repeat it back; it’s quite another thing to make the daily choices and decisions that turn it into a reality in my life. That’s where I suspect we could be a lot clearer when we are going about the task of making disciples.¹

Of course, I can’t resist the opportunity to point you in the direction of some Matthias Media resources that focus Bible teaching on our purpose as Christians and what that looks like in the day-to-day: The Course of Your Life, The Thing Is and Busy (modesty forbids me telling you how good this last resource is, but apparently modesty doesn’t forbid me from recommending it!). All of these resources explore the big picture of what God is doing in our world and where history is headed, and show how that should be reflected in our own goals and purposes as disciples of Jesus. They explore, in other words, just how it is that we can glorify God and fully enjoy him forever. Our purpose.

So if you can think of a word starting with ‘C’—one that would capture this idea of our purpose—please let me know.² I know that technically ‘chief end’ has the right letter, but it doesn’t work so well because it (a) is two words, and (b) sounds like a position in an American Football team. 

Still … if I have the choice between you spending time finding me the right word and you spending time contemplating the purpose of life as a follower of Jesus, let’s go with the latter.

Footnotes

1. One of the areas we will need to be much clearer about is our theology of work, a point I have argued for elsewhere.↩

2. One Matthias editor has suggested ‘compass’. Which I like. What do you think? Got anything better?↩