Originally Posted by
Jonathan david
I think that throughout Scripture there were those who "followed" God and did righteous (or did evil) in the sight of the Lord (e.g., Kings), kind of a 'lifestyle descriptor."
For example, Nicodemus was evidently one who knew Jesus was someone from God and was "for Jesus" although he wasn't "with Jesus." He was moving toward receiving what Jesus had to offer, where others, like the Pharisees, were against Jesus. I don't think we need to be sidetracked overall by if the person was "born again" (David wasn't, but God considered him a man after God's own heart - and that's the model that is helpful here).
The disciples probably felt that since they had a proximity to Jesus, that they were, in a sense, primary, and others who were trying to follow Jesus with "less supervision" were considered to be "secondary" - not on the "core team", and not under their supervision - hence, they had a little uppitty-ness.
If they were operating in maturity, they would have offered a helping hand to the other "ministers", like Apollos was gently corrected when he was operating with zeal and fervor for Christ (and just needed some more accurate guidance).