As I dig deeper into my walk with God, I am realizing there are some fundamentals that are often overlooked as we choose to forge on into this journey called Christianity. We tend to get the flowery parts of Jesus; He died for our sins, he can redeem our past, he loves us all, but we tend to miss the information that I jokingly call the fine print. Pastors, teachers, preachers, evangelists, and your average witness are all well intended in bringing others to Christ and for most, I am sure it is not an intentional oversight, but it is none the less a major one.
There are some major factors to be considered when committing your life to Christ. What does being a follower of Jesus Christ really cost? John 15:18-19 says "If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” (ESV)
Hate is a strong word! I don’t even like to be disliked…being hated brings things to a completely differently level. This verse gets quoted often enough to be known, but not necessarily in a way that really brings it into a perspective to truly be understood. So when the world truly does start to hate you, it’s hard to figure out what you are doing wrong. However, the appropriate question is what are you doing right?
Luke 14: 26-27 says "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.”
Now for those who have read that and said “Done…that was easy!” We need to reexamine some things in your life. The hate in this verse is meant as a measure to show how we are to set our desire on Jesus, meaning at the potential loss of anyone else or anything else participating in our lives. Clearly love is promoted and commanded all throughout God’s word. But, he is also clear that there is no love to be given or received that is greater than his. We have to evaluate our ties to people and things to see how it lines up with God.
Can you let go of that friendship or relationship that don’t line up with what God is calling you do to do? Can you stop eating that food God says is hurting you and slowing down your ministry? Can you stop watching that show that is feeding negatively into your spirit? Walking for Christ comes at a cost and it often comes at the cost of the things we have the hardest time letting go of (self included).
We also have to be prepared to face opposition. This is something they don’t tend to prepare you for in salvation bootcamp. If you have been a follower of Jesus for any length of time, you have had to experience these things to some degree. You have been persecuted if you boldly proclaimed your faith. You have had to let go of people, places, and things that have weighed down your walk and deterred you from God’s purpose in you. But, what we often don’t realize is that committing to Christ really means committing to surrender all. We sing the song “I surrender all….I surrender all. All to thee my Blessed Savior…I surrender all.” But then reading Matt 19: 16-30 makes you want to vomit at the real thought. GO….READ IT!!!! I posted the other verse, so meet me half way. (SMILE) And, don’t assume you know the story…read it anyway.
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Okay, are you back? Does your tummy hurt just a little? It’s okay, that is natural. It means you are still a living, breathing, human. God can’t be more clear about what this walk really takes…it takes the understanding that we can be called at any time to give up anything we truly value and we have to be willing to walk this walk with that in mind. He has called some to truly give up everything and they are blessed by it. There are others he has increased their lot, in many differing ways, and they have been blessed as well. So he isn’t just a God that takes away…and if he does take away, it serves a purpose. But, you still have to be prepared to serve him no matter the cost, to include your life.
To walk this thing out fully we have to be prepared to speak out against the things the world considers to be right. That means you aren’t going to make many friends at times. It may even mean making none at all and losing a few that you thought you had. Being different comes at a price and it can be a big one to pay at times. There are places where people do truly die because they follow Christ and there may be a day when we face that type of persecution in our own country. We should never rule those types of things out based on what Jesus has to say in regards to what it takes to be a follower of him. Are you ready? Have you truly counted the cost?
This is vital to our walk, because I believe it is one of a few things that can keep people from walking away. It is not enough to just claim the name of Christ. You have to be willing to walk it out in extremes. The question is not if you will be tested in this area, but when and how. It always happens and you have to be willing to hear God out for his glory and your good.
Jesus covered us even after laying out the costs. He prayed, “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me.” John 17:20-25 NIV
He is going to be with us and we are equipped through him to show others his love. We are also equipped to change the pattern of those coming into his grace without knowing the fine print. You are now equipped to be a part of that change, so that others don’t have to experience God in the way you may have, with no one to show them the way.
We have to love and care for one another because the rest of the world may very well hate us. “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35 (NIV)
Don’t let it be lost on you that he first commanded that we love each other, then he explained more than once that the world would hate us. That is important. Holding each other up and walking each other through the harder times is part of being the arms and legs of Jesus. It’s how we keep fighting the good fight and how others can set us apart from the rest of the world.
This walk is not easy, not for the faint, and not a recipe for a trouble-free life. It is worth walking, because our life on earth is short in comparison to an eternity in either heaven or hell. I am learning that salvation does bring freedom, but it isn’t absolutely free like we tell people. You have to truly count the cost.
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