I was meeting with a new friend not long ago when, in the midst of our conversation, he injected the phrase, “Praise the Lord.” Now this friend is not a very religious person, so I found myself perplexed that he threw that into the conversation. In retrospect, I figure he was trying to “speak my language.” While I consider myself a whole-hearted worshiper of the Lord Jesus, it’s not something I often exclaim in daily conversation with acquaintances.

There are a lot of thoughts out there on what a person that is “godly” does and doesn’t do, what they are like and what they aren’t like. When we consider the life and teachings of Jesus, He consistently put Himself at the center of this discussion. Jesus told His closest friends that a relationship with God could be found in Him––in being a follower of Jesus.

Before addressing the details, let’s step back and look in the Bible at the term that is used for the people who literally followed Jesus. The word is “disciple.” The Greek word that is translated as “disciple” in the Scriptures is mathētēs, which means learner or pupil.

What do you think of when you think of the word “disciple”?