More Thoughts on What It Means To Be A Genuine Disciple of Jesus Christ

 Discipleship of Jesus Christ is about channeling Jesus Christ who Himself channels the Father. It's about recognizing and living one's unity with the Source who is all consuming Love, and recognizing that same Source in everyone else around you. The person who doesn't say goodbye to whatever they started off with, who doesn't live as though having died, or who doesn't let go of anything or anyone else that they have an attachment to cannot be His disciple (His words, not mine).
     To love this Source with all of your heart, all of your soul, all of your strength, and all of your mind is to let go of your very self, to leave no room for that malfunctioning mind and to disengage from it so that He is fully in control and your own biology, your own physiology is not. To love the person next to you like yourself is to see yourself in that person, to see your unity with that person, to look through their eyes, to feel what they feel, to understand why they do what they do and how you could have done the same were you them. To be a disciple of Jesus Christ is to embrace one's own oneness with the Source who is God who is Love, and to embrace that oneness with every other person around you.
     The person who doesn't love is not a disciple, and therefore not a Christian, because they do not know God by experience. The person who is unmerciful is not a disciple, because mercy is born of love. It is born of empathy and compassion for the other person. The person who sees the other person as "other" than themselves and treats them as such, how can that person be a disciple when they do not recognize themselves in that person? As Paul wrote, "all is yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's." See yourself in the person next to you.
     See yourself in the homeless man on the street, and imagine how you could have been him. See yourself in the illegal immigrant and imagine what would have driven you to risk the life threatening dangers they did. See yourself in the drug addict, and imagine what would have driven you to start using. See yourself in the person you disagree with and ask yourself why they came to the conclusions they did. And in all of this don't just see yourself, see the One behind each one of them as well as you. When we love one another, when we love the person next to us, we are loving God. No one can love God and hate his fellow human being.
     The marks of a genuine disciple are clear, and they start with love.