Jesus calls Fishers and Menders

[asterisktom]

When I first became a Christian in the 70’s I was enamored with the writings of Watchman Nee. I am not anymore, but one thing he wrote about Mark 1:16 – 20 stuck with me as noteworthy.

Simon (Peter) and Andrew were fishing with nets.
James and John were mending nets.

Article linked below.

Jesus calls Fishers and Menders

When I first became a Christian in the 70’s I was enamored with the writings of Watchman Nee. I am not anymore, but one thing he wrote about Mark 1:16 – 20 stuck with me as noteworthy. …

asterisktom.wordpress.com

 

[Van]

Not sure the point of this thread, but Jesus calls people of most every vocation to become fishers of people.

Jesus spoke to the second two to become fishers of men, Luke 5:10.

But, yes, we are to check what various people say God says, with scripture to verify what God actually says, rather than some selective presentation.

 

[asterisktom]

Not sure the point of this thread, but Jesus calls people of most every vocation to become fishers of people.

Jesus spoke to the second two to become fishers of men, Luke 5:10.

But, yes, we are to check what various people say God says, with scripture to verify what God actually says, rather than some selective presentation.

Maybe you didn't read the article. I think I was pretty clear. One point is that there are varieties of gifts, 1 Cor. 12:4-11; 28-30. We are not all given the same spiritual endowments.

There are other passages I could have cited as well. Hopefully my presentation is no longer "selective", with these two - and the Romans passage that you probably didn't bother to read.

 

[Van]

Jesus calls believers to follow Him and become fishers of people. But just how we accomplish our calling varies. Some prepare the ground by being living examples of Godly character, full of love and kindness, justness and mercy. Others stand at the front and preach from God's word. Some of us who taught as we age become prayer warriors, no longer gifted in the capacities needed to present God's word with clarity.

 

[Tenchi]

When I first became a Christian in the 70’s I was enamored with the writings of Watchman Nee. I am not anymore, but one thing he wrote about Mark 1:16 – 20 stuck with me as noteworthy.

Simon (Peter) and Andrew were fishing with nets.
James and John were mending nets.

Article linked below.

Jesus calls Fishers and Menders

When I first became a Christian in the 70’s I was enamored with the writings of Watchman Nee. I am not anymore, but one thing he wrote about Mark 1:16 – 20 stuck with me as noteworthy. …

asterisktom.wordpress.com

The mandate of Christ to his followers (and of God to the Church) couples evangelism to disciple-making, the preaching of the Gospel to teaching born-again people to live in the teaching of Christ.

Matthew 28:19-20
19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

My point is that evangelism and discipleship don't appear here to be discretely separate things that are ordered by one's spiritual gifting. All disciples of Christ in doing one or the other must, if they want to do either properly, inevitably do both. Paul, for example, considered those he'd led to Christ as his "children," toward whom he had the obligations of a spiritual "father."

1 Corinthians 4:14-16
14 I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children.
15 For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.
16 Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me.

Paul did not eschew discipleship on the basis of his being more gifted as an evangelist. Not at all. He seems here to consider both things - evangelism and discipling others - two sides of the same coin.