Disciple or Christian?

 did you know that there is a difference in the term Christian and the term disciple? Neither did I.

Yet there is.

Disciple - one who accepts and assists in spreading the doctrines of another, merriam-webster.

Christian - relating to or professing Christianity or its teachings.

Christian shows up two times in the Bible, yet disciple shows up 7 times from Christ Himself, 27 times overall.

All of the Apostles refer to themselves as servants or disciples, not as Christian.

Now you may say it is a matter of semantics, that I am parsing words. However, I believe that words matter. For instance the word 'story' when attached to something makes you immediately think of a fable or a fictional accounting of something. This is why I hate to refer to Biblical events and accounts of history as stories.

Now if you read the two words and their definitions you will clearly see a difference.

One is accepting and spreading the doctrine of Christ. Verb.

The other is relating to or professing to be. Noun.

One is action, the other is lip service.

what does it mean?

In John 3 Jesus is talking to Nicodemus, who was a religious leader. Jesus is explaining to him what being born again means.

3 There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:

2 The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.

3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?

5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

9 Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?

10 Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?

11 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness.

12 If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?

13 And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.

14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:

15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Jesus is saying you must be born of the Spirit,

We all have had a natural birth into this world, to be born again we must have a spiritual birth,

we must reach a point where we determine we can do nothing on our own to escape the sin state and that we must look to Jesus and be saved.

We all come up short on our own.

Once we understand this and accept Christ we are born into the family of God.

Does this mean we are perfect as Christ was? No.

does this mean that life will be perfect and all sunshine happiness and roses? No.

It means that we have freely surrendered ourselves to Christ, and we have become followers of Christ.

After the acceptance of Christ as your personal Savior there is the Baptism, which is full immersion in water to show that we are making our decision public.

We are following Christ's example by being baptized, symbolizing our spiritual birth and declaring our allegiance. Baptism in and of itself has no meaning other than the symbolism involved. Baptism is not necessary for Salvation, see the thief on the cross, Baptism is necessary to show the world that we are fully His and following after Him.

Once we are born again we must then build up the spiritual side that has been born. As with the physical growth of a baby, so is the growth of our spiritual side. It is a process, we must feed and nurture the new man and make it strong.

Just because the term Christian has become so generic and misused nowadays does not take away from the significance of being a follower of Christ.

Just because someone calls themselves a christian does not mean they are. A true conversion is apparent over time, just as an appropriation of the term is evident.

While we born again christians strive to live a life as Christ would have us do, we are still burdened with our sin nature. We will make mistakes and fail.

The true child of God will fall, probably repeatedly, yet will rise again. The fake will not.

The true christian will do whatever they can to further the cause of God and His Will despite their failures and sin. When the storm, trials, and testing come the true christian will stand firm on the principles of God's Word (eventually). The false convert will tuck his tail between his legs and go the easy way. Such as being on national tv and refusing to say Jesus is the only way to heaven.

In verse 11 Jesus said the “we speak that we do know and testify”, He is speaking here of the prophets and the Spirit, of Himself.

We can only speak that which we have heard and that which the Spirit has revealed to us. A true child of God will Speak of the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit for a false prophet can not name the name of Christ as the Only begotten Son of God.

The difference between a Christian and a disciple is evident. One can call themselves a Christian all day long and have it mean nothing but a true Child of God, A true disciple will always be about the Father’s work.

The true believer is one that not only claims the name but also one that knows the Spirit. For we must in this life be born of water, for the next life we must be born of the Blood and of the Spirit.

With out the regeneration of the Spiritual Birth you can not be a disciple, a true Child of God.

So what is the difference?

You must be born again. That is the difference. For every born again, I mean every true born again child,  not just the born again that says so, will show it in their heart. For out of the heart is the very character and truth of man.

Mat_12:34  O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.

A true Christian/Disciple will speak out of the heart and the heart is filled with the Spirit. By extension we must speak of the things of the Spirit. For a natural man or woman can not speak of the things of God, the Deity of Christ the way a true child can.

How many times have we heard of those that have served and sat in church coming to a true understanding of God and having a true conversion after years of believing that they were born again?

My cat is an attack cat, constantly under foot. I don’t like cats so why do I have one? Because my wife likes cats and I try to make her happy. I am her Husband.

I have a carrot cake roll in the fridge, I like carrot cake. But for anyone wanting to make me a cake german chocolate with the pecan caramel frosting please, but I am bringing the carrot cake roll to my mother. Why? Because I think she will love it. I am her son and want to make her happy.

The same is true of the true Child of God. They will want to make Him happy. In everything.