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Disciple Implies Discipleship

"and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (John 8:32)

Notice the "and" at the beginning of John 8:32. This sentence is not to be taken by itself. "So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in my word, then you are truly disciples of Mine;" (John 8:31). A common phrase to use is "the truth will set you free". However, if we use only part of this sentence we actually make a false statement. A disciple is one who is believing, continuing, and knowing the truth, which is the word who is Jesus. Disciple implies discipleship.

In Computer Science there is an area of discrete mathematics called Propositional Logic, "which studies the logical relationships between propositions (or statements, sentences, assertions) taken as a whole, and connected via logical connectives."* Discrete mathematics draws heavily on logic which is the study of the principles of valid reasoning and inference, as well as of consistency, soundness, and completeness. For example, in systems of classic logic Peirce's law (((P→Q)→P)→P) is a theorem. Written out, this says that P must be true if you can show that P implying Q forces P to be true. For classical logic, it can be easily verified with a truth table.

A truth table is a mathematical table used in logic. Truth tables can be used to tell whether a propositional expression is true for all legitimate input values or premises. A premise is a statement that an argument claims will induce or justify a conclusion. In other words: a premise is an assumption that something is true. A premise is a proposition that is used as the foundation for drawing conclusions. For example:
• Premise P: "Apples are a type of fruit."
• Premise Q: "All types of fruit are food."
• Conclusion: "Therefore, apples are food."

If the conclusion is false then either one or more of the premises is false or the process of combining the premises is logically invalid. If the premises are true and the process is logically valid, then the conclusion must be true.
Truth Table: Logical Conjunction
p
q
p ^ q
T
T
T
T
F
F
F
T
F
F
F
F
 Say we have two premises; p = Apples are fruit q = Apples are food. Using the truth table for a logical conjunction (And ^), we know that the statement Apples are fruit And apples are food is true. p= True ^ q = True = True (see table). Apples are vegetables and apples are food is not a true statement as we have False ^ True = False.

Now let us analyze the statement of John 8:32. We have a sentence with an empty premise "" And-ed with "the truth will set you free". Empty is logically False so a False And True is False, “” ^ "the truth will set you free" = False. So stating “and the truth will set you free” is not logical as truth has not been defined.

Of course, we did not learn about logic to deduce this. Let us examine the entire statement. “So Jesus was saying to those Jews, who had believed Him, ‘If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.’”

We believe that the word of God is infallible and that mathematics is sound. Using Peirce's law, P implying Q forces P to be true, we analyze the following. We imply Q so this forces P to be true. If p then q.
P = you, who have believed in Jesus, if you continue in His word
Q = you are His disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free
P ^ Q = True = P = Q
  • If you, who have believed in Jesus, continue in His word then you are His disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. 
  • If you believed then you will continue in my word and you are disciples of mine and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.
  • If you are disciples then you believed and you continue in the word and you know the truth and the truth will set you free.
  • If you continue in the word then you will know the truth and you will be set free and you are my disciples and you believe. 
  • If you know the truth then the truth will set you free and you have continued in my word and you are my disciples and you believed in me.
  • If you are set free then you know the truth and you have continued in my word and you are my disciples and you believed in me.
  • If free then truth and believing and continuing and knowing and disciple.
  • If truth then free and believing and continuing and knowing and disciple 
  • If disciple then truth and freedom and believing and knowing and continuing 
example pseudocode:

String isDisciple (boolean continues, boolean believes) {
if(believes And continues)  
then
    return "true";
else 
    return "false";
}

System.out.print("John is a" +isDisciple(true, true)+"  disciple");

Being set free is not an, I have arrived moment. It is more like I’m digging a trench, preparing for the battle moment. It is putting on the armor of God and standing moment (Ephesians 6). It is persevering and continuing in His word, quenching the fiery darts of the enemy moment. It is believing by faith (Ephesians 2:8). It is continuing to walk in Him by faith (Colossians 2:6-7). It is putting on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created us (Colossians 3:10-11).

A disciple is one who is believing And continuing And knowing And being set free in truth which is Jesus. Jesus is truth, He is the Word, and He is God (John 1:1-14). Knowing God implies disciple which implies continuing in the word which is the truth. Being a disciple of Jesus implies losing your life for others. A disciple implies loving and discipleship which is the Greatest Commandments and the Great Commission. Disciple implies discipleship.

“Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword… He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for my sake will find it. And he who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for my sake will find it. He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives Him who sent me. He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward; and he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. And whoever in the name of a disciple gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink; truly I say to you, he shall not lose his reward” (Matthew 10: 34-42).

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