Acts 11:26Today anybody calls themselves a Christian without even knowing what the word means and without living up to the standard of that word, which means a follower of Christ. This is why the word Disciple carries more weight and meaning to you and I as a believer, I will explain this further down. The word Christian which is “Christianos” in the Greek, does not occur in the New Testament as a name commonly used by the Christians themselves. It was the people from the city of Antioch who as a title of ridicule called the Disciples Christians for the first time in Acts 11:26. Notice that the disciples continued calling themselves disciples from this point forward. Why? Because I believe that ‘Disciple’ is deeper than Christian. You can be a follower of someone but not believe in or do what that person does, but a disciple (which means: a student, one that learns from a master, a believer, has a discipline, does what is being taught, becomes a photocopy of his teacher etc) will go beyond just following, but will do. This is why today as stated at the beginning of this devotional, any one calls themselves a Christian, but do not live and act like the one we are following, who’s name is Jesus and who’s instruction manual is the Bible.
The word Christian can be just a religious word but the word Disciple is a word of the Kingdom of God. In Mathew 28:18-20 Jesus said in his great commission giving the commandment to: “Go into all the world and make Disciples”. He did not say to just make converts or to make Christians he said make disciples, people who will take up the cross and follow after him spirit, soul and body, not just on Sunday, but everyday of the week. Christians just follow Jesus on Sunday and in Church, but Disciples are followers of Jesus everyday of the week wherever they may be.
Disciples are made through the teaching of the word of God. Notice that Jesus said “Make” disciples. That word means: to form, to produce, to work in, to process etc. This is why teaching the word is so important and why learning the word is of vital importance to the believer, it will take us from just being Christians to being disciples.
Someone once said and rightfully so: “Preaching produces converts and Teaching produces Disciples”.
May God help us to be students of His word and to desire to be Disciples that say like Peter said in John 6:68 “To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life”.
Lets not only be Christians lets be Disciples. Amen.
Pastor Esteban San Martin
Word Of Power 
