Many books are recommended to “put in a church member’s hands,” but then perhaps few are. But David Platt’s, Radical is truly, really and truly, a book to put in a church member’s hands. Or anyone’s hands.

I thought about that book a few weeks ago, while at the gym with a friend. At 24, my friend was lifting weights for the first time, and he was eager to copy every move I made. It struck me how imperative it was that I teach him how to lift with good form. And I realized just how sloppy my own form, over time, had become.

There’s a sense in which, Platt argues, each of us, in Christ, is a teacher (Matt 28:18-20). Each of us is called to disciple. And that can be frightening, for teaching confronts us all with our own ineptitude and shortcoming. Teaching can make us realize just how sloppy our form, over time, has become.

And that’s one of the reasons we must teach, we must disciple:

This raises the bar in our own Christianity. In order to teach someone else how to pray, we need to know how to pray. In order to help someone else learn how to study the Bible, we need to be active in studying the Bible. But this is the beauty of making disciples. When we take responsibility for helping others grow in Christ, it automatically takes our own relationship with Christ to a new level. (Radical, pgs. 100-01)

Discipling other believers—to see them spend time with another person, not with another program—knocks us out of our comfort zone, and it helps us to crucify our own failures, to strengthen our weaknesses.

“The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat,” Jesus says, “so practice and observe whatever they tell you—but not what they do” (Matt 23:2-3). True discipleship, at its best, will move us beyond the inconsistencies and hypocrisies of the Pharisees.

Weeks later, my friend and I are still lifting together. His weight training form is getting better—and so, it turns out, is mine. Platt is right, of course: teaching others really does help us to raise the bar for ourselves. And if such is the case in the things of the gym, how much more in the things of Christ?

(Cross-posted from the Kingdom People blog, where I am guest-host this week.)