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NASB | Luke 9:23 ¶ And He was saying to them all, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Luke 9:23 ¶ And He was saying to them all, "If anyone wishes to follow Me [as My disciple], he must deny himself [set aside selfish interests], and take up his cross daily [expressing a willingness to endure whatever may come] and follow Me [believing in Me, conforming to My example in living and, if need be, suffering or perhaps dying because of faith in Me]. |
Bible Question: Many had refer to this verse when they teach on the topic of discipleship, or rather the cost of discipleship. I had a question. Can one become a Christian and not a disciple? i.e. discipleship is optional. Anyone care to explain or enlighten me? |
Bible Answer: The answer to your question is NO. You can't be a Christian and not be a disciple. In the New Testament Jesus never reffered to his followers as Christians; however, the word Christian did appear about 2 or 3 times in the Bible with somewhat of a negative conotation as you can clearly see in Acts 26:28 and 1Peter 4:16. I don't recall the third place in the Bible where the word Christian was used. Anyhow, in both cases it was used to reffer to those who followed Christ who were called disciples. I am not sure when the word Christian became the more popular word used to refer to the Church. We tend to use it today rather loosely though. I believe that is why some people today feel as though there is a difference between being a disciple and being a Chirstian. The truth is there is no difference between a Christian and a disciple. There shouldn't be. Also, you might want to consider Matt 28:18-20 in which Jesus commisioned his disciples to go make disciples of all nations. There you will see that there is only one thing that he calls us to do which ought to be our mission in life which is to be disciples who make disciples. That is what a Christian ought to be and that is what a Christian ought to do. I hope that helped. |