The Bible

 

Acts 14:20

Study

       

20 Howbeit, as the disciples stood round about him, he rose up, and came into the city: and the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe.

Commentary

 

Disciples

  
The Last Supper, an 1896 work by Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret.

When we read the Gospels and see Jesus addressing the disciples, we assume His words are meant for us as well. And indeed they are! The disciples represent all people who are in a state of love and knowledge from the Lord, and in the abstract sense they represent love and knowledge itself.

In Matthew 10:41, a disciple signifies charity and at the same time, faith from the Lord. By the disciples of the Lord, are meant people who are instructed by the Lord in goods and truths of doctrine, but by apostles, they who, after they are instructed, teach truths. See Luke 9:1, 2, 10; Mark 6:7, 30.

(References: Arcana Coelestia 3488 [2], 3857 [6-7], 3858 [3], 4535 [6]; The Apocalypse Explained 122 [2-3])