A friend of mine from India spent the last few months in Canada. He offhandedly said: “In North America, you expect saints, but you don’t disciple people, so you only have believers“. Wait, back up the bus. Is there a difference?

So I spent 12 hours in the Greek and I think he’s on to something. It looks like these terms are used in different ways in the New Testament. These verses show that they’re not the same or interchangeable:

• Eph 1:1 To the saints in Ephesus and the believers in Christ Jesus
• Col 1:2 To the saints in Colossae, and the believers in Christ
• 1 Co 1:2 To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called saints, together with all those who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ
• 2 Thess 1:10 on the day he comes to be glorified in his saints and to be marveled at among believers
• Rev 11:18 rewarding your servants the prophets and the saints and those who fear your name

Here’s the progression he talked about….

1. OUTSIDERS

He actually used the word “seekers” to describe people who aren’t yet believers. But I think that’s optimistic. In the Bible, they’re often running from God and he’s seeking them. The more common word in the New Testament is ἁμαρτωλός, often translated “sinners”. The Greek word means “no share“, i.e. in the fellowship of God. That’s why I like “outsiders”. It also makes sense of Galatians 2:15, where Paul says, “We who are Jews by birth and not [ἁμαρτωλός]”. I looked at the Greek word for “out” or “outsider” throughout the New Testament and that also lined up.

In the 46 instances I could find for ἁμαρτωλός, the themes were:

• 12x eat with them, befriend them, touch them, be their guest
• 10x call them to repentance/salvation
• 24x miscellaneous

What a wonderful way to share the love of Jesus.

2. BELIEVERS

The first believers seemed to gather mostly in large groups:

• In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty) – Acts 1:15
• Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. – Acts 2:46
• And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon’s Colonnade – Acts 5:12

Highlights of the 30 instances of the various Greek forms of “believers”:

• 13x affirming their salvation
• 6x modelling and correcting them
• 3x being together
• 8x miscellaneous

Sounds like Sunday church.

3. DISCIPLES

Disciples are never addressed in letters. The word never appears after the book of Acts. It seems to me that disciples was a private thing: they were your disciples. Like how Luke talked about Paul’s disciples:

But his [disciples] took him by night and lowered him in a basket through an opening in the wall. – Acts 9:25

I found 28 occurrences outside the gospels (I’ll look at those another day):

• 14x spend time with, strengthen
• 5x increasing number, drawing them in
• 9x miscellaneous

Seems really similar to Jesus’ way of discipling the twelve. Costly. Personal. Intimate.

4. SAINTS

The Greek word for saints is literally “holy ones”. Holy means set apart, and clean. This is similar to how the Holy Spirit is contrasted with unclean (evil) spirits.

Here are the ways the word holy is used in the New Testament when it’s not referring to people: Holy Spirit, holy angels, holy city, holy ground, holy commandment, holy root, holy sacrifice, holy kiss, holy temple, holy church, holy elect, holy calling, holy priesthood, holy nation, holy mountain, holy conduct, holy faith. Seems like God can make almost anything holy.

In 63 mentions, here are the themes I found:

• 24x help, visit, greet, love, power, equip, pray, refresh
• 8x churches of the saints
• 8x warred against, perseverance, persecuted
• 23x miscellaneous

Sounds like this was the group that was really getting persecuted and needed to help each other. Probably serving the Lord’s Supper in their homes and being rejected by the religious leaders. Maybe kicked out of their families and lost their jobs. These are the radicals, living like kingdom citizens.

5. MINISTERS

Unfortunately, this word has evolved in an unhelpful way, as ChatGPT tells me: “Minister” comes from the Latin “minister,” meaning “servant” or “attendant,” which is derived from “ministerium,” meaning “service” or “office.” In ancient Rome, a “minister” referred to someone who served in a subordinate capacity, but over time, the term became associated with religious and political leaders who held positions of authority and responsibility.

I don’t have a good name for this group yet, nor have I settled on what Greek word to focus on. I did notice that there a lot of people helping the churches. In the Greek, church is mentioned about 113 times.

• 49x it’s gathered, usually at a house
• 33x somebody’s caring for it
• 31x miscellaneous

I’m guessing this is going to turn out to be about the apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers. But that’s also for another day.

OBSERVATIONS

It’s interesting how little overlap there is in the New Testament on these.
Each of the five groups gets a different message and a different way of gathering. It’s also interesting that you can completely miss that reading the NIV.

I wonder if Ephesians 4:11-14 is hinting at this:

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip (5. Equippers) his [saints] (4. Saints) for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up (3. Disciples) until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants (2. Believers), tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming (1. Outsiders).

I wonder if Acts 11:26 is also helping us with this, if Christians or “Christ-ones” is the same as holy ones, or saints.

• They were the first in Antioch to proclaim their disciples were saints

It seems so helpful to know where you are and where you’re going. Otherwise we could just argue about which approach is best:

1. Outsiders need to be loved and told about God, not just preached to and not just cared for, so they can become Believers
2. Believers need to be affirmed and challenged, so they’ll be Disciples of someone, not just come back next Sunday
3. Disciples need to be invested in personally and strengthened, so they’ll graduate to being Saints led primarily by the Holy Spirit
4. Saints need to have church in their house and be helped through persecution, also helping others, so they might become Equippers
5. Equippers need to care for the whole body as each one does its part