Two important implications flow from the nature of discipleship. For one thing the lordship of Christ is holistic. The religious life is not a special compartment in an otherwise secular life. Rather, the religious gious life is an entire way of life. To live Christianly is to allow Jesus Christ to be the Lord of every aspect of our life. There is no room for a secular-sacred separation in the life of Jesus' followers. Jesus Christ should be every bit as much at home in our thinking and behavior when we are developing our views in our area of study or work as he is when we are in a small group fellowship.
Further, as disciples of Jesus we do not merely have a job. We have a vocation as a Christian teacher. A job is a means for supporting ourselves selves and those for whom we are responsible. For the Christian a vocation tion (from the Latin vocare, which means "to call") is an overall calling from God. Harry Blamires correctly draws a distinction between a general and a special vocation:
The general vocation of all Christians-indeed of all men and women-is is the same. We are called to live as children of God, obeying his will in all things. But obedience to God's will must inevitably take many different ferent forms. The wife's mode of obedience is not the same as the nun's; the farmer's is not the same as the priest's. By "special vocation," therefore, fore, we designate God's call to a [person] to serve him in a particular sphere of activity.'
--- David Lyle Jeffrey & Gregory Maillet. Christianity and Literature: Philosophical Foundations and Critical Practice.
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