What does it mean to be fishers of men in the bible

The phrase fishers of men can be found in the Bible, in Matthew 4:19, Mark 1:17, and other verses. The story framed in these two passages tells that Jesus, seeing two men fishing, tells them to come to him and that if they do, he will make them fishers of men.

But what does it mean to be fishers of men? We all know what fishing is, right? It is to catch in our networks what we propose to be there, with a specific purpose. That is the approach that Jesus wanted to give to that phrase. In this study, we will tell you the details.

• Opening prayer for a meeting and Bible study
• With God Nothing Is Impossible Explanation
• The just shall live by faith Meaning 

What does it mean to be fishers of men?

The idea behind fishing is to know the fish you are looking for and attract it so that you can catch it. To catch a fish we must know what equipment to use, the habitat and the depth of the water in which we are fishing, as well as the type of bait that the fish will look for.

After we understand everything we need for real fishing, how do we relate it to being fishers of men? God asks us to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28: 18–20).

Just as we need equipment to be fishers, we also need equipment to be fishers of men. Putting on the armor of God is a way to be prepared at all times with what we need (Ephesians 6: 10–18)

What do we need to be fishers of men?

Especially important is to put on the shield of faith with which we avoid the temptations of the enemy, who does not want to see men saved by the gospel of Christ (verse 16) and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God (verse 17). Without these two spiritual teams, we will find it impossible to fish the souls of men.

Not only must we have the armor of God as our equipment, but we must also know the fish that we are trying to catch. Knowing the lost condition of the people around us will help us understand that no matter how good we are at fishing, we will never “catch” the fish on our own.

No one can convert the soul that is in darkness, because “the god of these times has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4: 4).

But God can and often does penetrate the darkness with the glorious gospel, and he uses us to do so as well. He knows which “fish” is his, therefore we must seek his wisdom and guidance on all of our fishing expeditions. 

Finally, we must offer the only effective network: the gospel of Jesus Christ. For those who are perishing, the message of the cross is foolishness, but for us, it is the power of God (1 Corinthians 1:18).

The gospel message has the power to change lives, shine light in the darkness, and deliver evil men from hell. There is no other power and no other “net” that the fish of God can catch.

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Things to keep in mind from the passages about fishers of men

In the passages in which Jesus talks about fishers of men there are two main aspects to highlight; the first is “I will make you a fisher of men”, which we can associate with a fisher of souls, as we have explained previously.

The second is the act of “leaving everything to follow Christ.” If we stop at the biblical passages, we can see that the disciples left their nets and the things that were to go after Christ. But what does it really mean to leave everything and go after Christ? We will explain later.

Did Jesus mean that we must give up everything to go to heaven?

The Bible teaches that we can have eternal life if we believe that Jesus Christ died and rose again to forgive our sins and if we repent and seek his forgiveness. In other words, Jesus did everything necessary for our sins to be forgiven. There is nothing we can or should do. Salvation is not by works but by faith in Jesus Christ.

However, Jesus says in the bible: “Whoever does not carry his own cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” We can find this in Luke 14: 25-27. On the other hand, he affirms in Luke 14:33 that whoever does not renounce all his inheritances cannot follow him. Why are you saying that?

The meaning of “Give up”

To understand any verse in the Bible, we must begin by understanding the meaning of the keywords. In Luke 14:33, the keyword is the Greek word, apotasso, which is translated as “surrender.” The word means “to separate”, “to separate from”, “to resign voluntarily” and “to say goodbye”.

The meaning of the verse

Jesus’ message from the verses before verse 33 (Luke 14: 25-32) is that anyone who wants to be his disciple must first pay the cost. Jesus used two illustrations to teach us what he meant.

The first illustration tells us to make a plan and calculate the cost before building a tower. Otherwise, we may not be able to complete the tower (Luke 14: 28-30).

In the second illustration, Jesus says that two kings must plan for battle or their armies will be defeated (Luke 14: 31-32). The message of each illustration is that we must calculate the cost.

Verse 33 is the conclusion of Jesus where he says that we must “give up everything.” We have already discovered that the Greek word, apotasso, means “to separate”. That is, we must separate ourselves from our desires, family, jobs, and possessions if we want to be disciples of Christ.

Jesus does not mean that we should literally be left single, poor, and homeless because 1 Timothy 5: 8 commands husbands to financially support their families. Wives are commanded to submit to their husbands, and husbands are commanded to love them.

In Genesis 1:28 couples are commanded to have children. That takes money. Also, if everyone were poor, no one would be able to care for anyone. Therefore, we must conclude that Jesus does not command us to sell our possessions and become homeless.

So what does it mean to leave everything to follow Christ?

Jesus tells us to renounce everything when we become his disciples. But this does not mean that we literally get rid of everything, what he means by these words is that we learn to accept that our money and our families are not our property.

Jesus is inviting us to hand over all our possessions into his hands, to say “goodbye” to everything in our hearts, and give it to him. We must recognize that everything we have belongs to him and that he now has first place in our lives.

Our savior Jesus Christ is calling us to place in his hands everything we have and fulfill the purpose of fishing souls for the kingdom of heaven.