“”If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters — yes, and even his own life — he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. “For which of you, wanting to build a tower, doesn’t first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?…. In the same way, therefore, every one of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:26-28, 33 CSB https://bible.com/bible/1713/luk.14.26-33.CSB

We call Christians believers, but Jesus called His followers disciples. A believer isn’t necessarily a disciple, though a disciple believes in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus to save men and live with them forever. Believers look like unbelievers. They are merely people with information about God who accept that information as true. Much like democrats and republicans are believers in their party rhetoric, accepting it as true though their beliefs are worlds apart. A disciple makes God His first and greatest love, as demonstrated by the time and treasure spent worshipping and serving God. The family of a disciple knows that member loves God most, whereas a believer has other loves his family would identify as being first. Ultimately, it is money that distinguishes the believer from the disciple. The disciple gives as much as he can to the cause of Christ, focusing on giving, serving, and sharing the gospel so that the eternal destinies of his fellow man can be rerouted from hell to heaven. The believer may give and serve a little, or nothing at all, to many causes, few if any spent specifically for the eternal change of humanity. Believers are good people. Disciples are strange people, not of this world, focused on their true home, the kingdom of heaven, where they are guaranteed a place forever with the King Who knows them, loves them, and considers them good and faithful servants. The believer believes he will live there too, but his works put into question this destiny, for it cost him little to nothing to follow Jesus.