The Cost of Following Jesus
Following Jesus Christ can sound vague. We follow many things in our lives. We follow Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Snap Chat accounts. We follow the car in front of us on our way to work. We follow influential leaders, teachers, and our favorite book, graphic novel, and movie characters. When you sit and think about it, we follow many different things.
So, how do we follow Jesus Christ?
Do we follow by double-tapping verses on a Bible app, liking comments by influential Christian leaders, or by attending church each week? What does it truly mean?
Following Jesus is not only about believing, it is also very much about action.
Jesus summed up the law and the prophets by saying:
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matt. 22:37).
Love
Do you love God? That’s the real question. Would you give everything that you have for the sake of loving God? I don’t think we ask ourselves that question enough.
When it comes down to it, you need to ask yourself what things you currently value more than following Jesus and obeying his commandments. He didn’t come to get rid of the law and the prophets, but rather to fulfill them.
So, what’s it going to be?
Following Jesus may have a high cost on our selfishness. Because it is selfishness that stands against what God is. God is love, and love is selfless. Therefore our selfishness represents everything that God calls sin. Think about it. Paul says that love is the greatest of all spiritual fruits.
But, Jesus says that his burden is light compared to the burden of the world, and of self-centered religion.
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?”
What is every person’s cross, if not their own self-centered nature? In Galatians 5:16–26, Paul calls believers to deny their selfish desires in order to follow Christ fully. And, this is done by walking by the Holy Spirit which Jesus promised to those who follow him earnestly.
“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.”
A Marriage Analogy
The easiest way to think of this is in terms of marriage relationships. For example, when a couple decides that they want to get married, there are way too many unknown variables to deal with. I think everyone would agree that there is risk in seeking a love-commitment from another human being endowed with free will.
This means that you make the commitment while conscious of the fact that you cannot know the future of the relationship. And, commitment requires the voluntary giving up of certain things. You reject all others in favor of the one that you’ve chosen to love. And, if you fail to give those things up, the relationship may suffer greatly.
I think it’s the same way with following Jesus Christ. He doesn’t ask us simply to give things up. He’s actually asking us to love him. And, if we walk in love — asking the Holy Spirit for guidance — we will find it possible to deny ourselves for the sake of God.
So, the question is: are you willing to give everything up for Jesus Christ, or are there things you are putting before him? Ultimately, we all need to make a choice. We cannot serve two masters. But, remember that the law itself cannot save us. It is only in Jesus Christ’s love that we find true life.
Remember that part about Jesus baptizing us with the Holy Spirit and fire? Yes, the fire is meant to purify us and to bring out in us the potential that Jesus intends. Mainly, that we would be valuable servants in bringing others to the knowledge of God and of His Kingdom.
While the world is all about loving yourself, Jesus asks us to love one another. This is how people will know that we are his followers. Humanity’s failure to love God above all things, and to love one another is why the world is where it is…
Will you follow Jesus?
