Mark 1:17 - My Word Study

"And Jesus said to them, 'Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.'"
- Mark 1:17 (ESV)

My interpretation of the verse:

1) God initiates. God is active, not passive! Jesus makes the first move to speak to us.

2) We are the chosen. Jesus chose us, we are the "them". Jesus chose to speak to us, he asks us to follow him.

3) But we have to react, we have the free will to choose whether to listen to His calling to follow Him.

4) Follow what? Follow Jesus. There is a clear direction!

5) Jesus becomes our leader. Jesus is a leader.

5) There is a promise in the "and I will...". When we follow Jesus and let Him lead us, something will happen!

6) A Transformation happens. When we follow Jesus, we will be made to "become". This means that we will be transformed to "become" something.

7) Jesus has power! The part "and I will make you.." shows that Jesus has the power to transform us. But before that, we must choose to follow Him and let Him lead us.

8) The transformation is specific, it is to make us "become fishers of men". In the biblical context when this was written, Jesus was speaking to fishermen and so this is written in a language and imagery that fishermen of that time can understand.

To become fishers of men will mean that instead of catching fishes (that's what a fisherman does), we will 'catch' people. Not in the physical sense but in the spiritual sense, catching people's hearts, minds and souls.

9) When we are transformed, we will be able to attract others to Jesus. We will be able to win hearts and minds for Jesus through our new life! Through the way we live and our testimony on this earth. :-)

There is a concept of discipleship in here where we will make disciples for Jesus. In the bible we know that this is our great commission in the world.

10) Note that Jesus did not promise riches and wealth. He did not promise the fishermen that they can catch more fishes (no mention of financial return), but He promised that when they are transformed they will be able to capture the hearts, minds and souls of men.

11) It is interesting to note that Jesus speaks to each of us in a way where can understand.

When he spoke to fishermen (who are probably uneducated, working class), he described their transformation as to become "fishers of men". The same applies today and forevermore, Jesus speaks to us individually in ways that we can understand.

12) Yet... Not everyone who are chosen will be transformed.

Even though Jesus has spoken to many, some people who had heard will turn away and ignore the calling to follow him. This means that there are people who has heard the gospel, they may even have felt Jesus speaking to their hearts, but out of the free will (that God has given to each of us), has chosen to ignore Jesus's calling.