By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia says this about disciples. “In all cases it implies that the person not only accepts the views of the teacher, but that he is also in practice an adherent. The word has several applications. In the widest sense it refers to those who accept the teachings of anyone, not only in belief but in life.”
That is what it means in the broadest terms but what does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus.
Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,
By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.
In reviewing the above definition we will see the words “in practice an adherent”. That word adherent reminds us of glue. Wherever He goes we go, where we go He goes. We cannot escape His abiding presence. There is one more descriptor I left out.
By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
The disciples of Jesus Christ are defined by love more than any other principle. It is not enough to study and believe, we must enact the life that abides in us and allow love to rule our every thought and desire. We will not bear fruit without it.
Do we consider ourselves a student or an adherent? It is after all just the difference between life and living.