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Did the Disciples Know Each Other?
John 1
Did the disciples know each other before they were disciples? In many cases, yes. The disciple Philip is a great case study of this. We’re told in John 1:44 that Philip was from Bethsaida on the Sea of Galilee, also the hometown of Peter and Andrew. Bethsaida was not a particularly large place. These men would have no doubt known each other. Peter and Andrew were business associates with James and John, the sons of Zebedee. Then Philip is also mentioned in connection with Nathaniel. They’re next to each other in all the lists of disciples we have in the New Testament. John 1 confirms that they also had a connection before they both became disciples of Jesus. So just there, we have six men, Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Nathaniel, who’s also called Bartholomew. Six of them came from an already existing social circle before they became disciples. Now, that wasn’t the case for all the disciples, but let’s focus on these six.
Jesus’ ministry, of course, was unique. There’s only one time in human history when the Son of God was in the flesh under the law to fulfill it for us, fulfilling all of God’s Old Testament scriptures, leading up to his sacrificial death for our sins and his resurrection to pierce the veil through death, this great consequence and fate because of our sin, through to eternal life. Because of his work, we have peace with God, the assurance of his care, and finally an entrance into glory. Yet, all ministry that happens in the church is really just rippling out from that core finished work of Jesus. So we can make applications from the social dynamic of Jesus’ disciples to the church today.
All of these disciples knowing each other helps us set Jesus’ ministry in more of a normal social setting and really illustrates how the church has grown and expanded outside of its current borders in all ages. That Jesus’ ministry and those who gathered around him were gathered through family connections, business associations, the communities they belong to, and that’s still true today. The healthiest, stablest growth that happens in the Christian church happens through personal connections. Now, we should be aware there can be both benefits and a couple drawbacks to having such a tight connection with fellow Christians.
What are some of the drawbacks? Well, we see among the disciples that they did actually import some of their former rivalries, jealousies, maybe ranking in their social group into their interactions as disciples. We know the disciples discussed among themselves who was the greatest, and Jesus shut that down very quickly. James and John asked Jesus for these positions of great power in his kingdom.
We’re reading into it a little bit, but we can almost picture them having Peter and Andrew, Peter, this natural leader rising among the disciples, kind of threatening their position, and they wanna clinch these two positions of power before Peter and Andrew take their place. So we don’t wanna emulate them in that way.
But we also recognize benefits of being closely connected to fellow Christians. A connection to fellow Christians means that our connection to the church is reinforced by our relationships. Communication can become easier in the church. Even conflict resolution can go better when we have some personal trust already built up with the people around us in our congregation. So leverage that in your life. Yes, connect to Christ through his word and sacraments, but where does that happen? It happens in a local Christian congregation. So also connect to Christ’s body, the church, the people there, and then I would say once you’re a part of that body, also be the hand of Jesus reaching out to those who don’t know Christ, but who are already in your circles of trust.
