I think believers are often confused about the use of some words simply because we have stopped using them in modern times. It seems that it would be better if we used terms in the same way the Bible uses them, at least when we desire that people know what the Bible teaches about the followers of Christ. Perhaps I need to say that the two times the word “Christian” is used without being used in perhaps a derogatory manner, should give us the idea that believers did not necessarily call each other “Christians” in Bible times, but rather “disciples”. Often we think of the word “disciples” as applying only to the twelve apostles, but the use of the word in the Bible (over 200 times) shows otherwise. It may be that the term “disciple” brings a wrong thought to most minds, for it seems that many think of one who can do all that Jesus did. When such people, even believers, think like this, they are outside the Bible usage and implication of the word “disciple”.
If we are to be learners, which is what a disciple is, then we may need at least one great textbook, and that textbook is the Bible. Although I have several thousand books in my library, yet I have not read them all, moreover, the Bible is my main textbook! I check with the Bible to see if the commentaries are correct!!! Do not miss my intended message however, for it is good that some have written great books to help us understand how the Bible uses words, and also to help us to understand what the Bible is saying. I never write a newspaper article without consulting the books that men have written, but my main textbook is still the Bible. In reading many books, or sometimes parts of books, I have read very little in most of my books about the matter of believers, in any age, being disciples of Jesus, but that is exactly what the Bible says. Perhaps the misunderstanding exists because many do not understand the distinction between the word “apostle” and the word “disciple”, with “apostle” meaning: “a delegate, an ambassador of Christ”, and the word “disciple” meaning: “a student, a learner”. The apostles had special power, as is indicated in Matthew 10:1: “And when He had called unto Him His twelve disciples, He gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.” Then Matthew 10:8 says, “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.”
Judas was one of the twelve and Matthew 10:1 says that Jesus gave power to the twelve, but one was a fake, so why did he have such power? It is because that Jesus gave him that power, yet he was never even saved. John 6:20-71 proves this point: “Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? He spake of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon: for he it was that should betray Him, being one of the twelve.” How does one explain the fact that Judas had the same power as that given to the other eleven disciples, yet he was never even saved? The simple explanation is that Jesus gave them the power to do all that He said, including raising the dead, but it was not because they were so “spiritual”, for one on them was never saved, rather it was because Jesus gave them the power to do the miraculous. So, the miracles worked in the Bible do not prove that the one who did the miracles was so spiritual, but rather that God chose in various times to do the miraculous through vessels that were not necessarily “spiritual”, and Samson is a good case in point!!! I have good friends who do not agree with what I am saying here, but my desire is not to write something with which all will agree, but rather something that agrees with the clear teaching of the Bible. I give Bible references so that my readers can do their own research, and by the way, the Bible is consistent in all that it teaches, but we must use it all!
By J. Briggs King, Rainsville, AL (678) 451-0921