Research Paper: Discipleship Because I became a Christian at an early age, there are many terms and ideas used in the church that I have never thought about; I just accepted them. For example, the term "disciple" I identify with one of the twelve closest followers of Jesus, one of the paper characters placed on the felt table during Sunday school. Through my research, I have discovered that while accepting Christ through faith alone grants us salvation, becoming a disciple of Christ, or practicing discipleship, requires work and commitment on the part of the believer. The word disciple, or the Greek word mathetes, is used over 220 times in the Gospels, but not once in the Epistles, those letters written soon after the resurrection of Christ ("An Ecclesial Language, n.d.). As is customary in the Greek usage of word, mathetes refers to a student who has a personal interaction with their teacher. This offers an explanation for why the word disciple is not used in the epistles. No one had direct contact with Jesus anymore because he had gone to Heaven for be with God. Another explanation for the absence of the word in the Epistles is that the churches to which these letters were addressed were aware of Jesus' teachings on discipleship. It is possible that the writer did not mention discipleship because it would have been redundant to do so (Haines, 1999), a disciple is a “student” or “pupil” and the act of discipleship is to “advance the cause of the kingdom.” he had many who followed him and accepted him so that they would receive eternal life. Many also applied the teachings to their own lives and proclaimed them to others to spread the message of Jesus. These people became disciples of Christ, or "obedient believers." James 1:22 tells us, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” This scripture is directly addressed to Christians today. We do not have the benefit of having Jesus with us in the flesh like the first disciples had. We must pray and study our Bible to grow spiritually. Not only must we read the Word, but we must also apply it to our daily lives. We must allow the Word to change us so that we can experience spiritual growth and true discipleship.