Imagine going through your mail and finding a letter that begins with this greeting: “To all that be in [your town], beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world” (Romans 1:7, 8).
Have you ever read the epistles of the Bible as though they had been addressed to you? They were written for the disciples of Christ. So how do you number Jesus’ disciples? Do you stop at 12? Maybe you throw in the “other seventy also” that Jesus sent to teach and heal (see Luke 10:1–9), which would make a total of 82. In truth, it is impossible to calculate the number of inspired followers of the Master. Beloved of God, make sure to count yourself in—you are a fellow disciple!
In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy writes, “In Latin the word rendered disciple signifies student; and the word indicates that the power of healing was not a supernatural gift to those learners, but the result of their cultivated spiritual understanding of the divine Science, which their Master demonstrated by healing the sick and sinning” (p. 271). Just like the biblical disciples, as we grow in our understanding of divine Principle, God, we will find we are able to heal as Jesus did.
