In countries where the church is badly persecuted, Christians often
tend to have a good grasp of the true nature of what it means to be a follower
of Jesus Christ. When persecution heats
up, the Christians on the receiving end have a choice. They can abandon the faith or they can keep
following. And those who continue to
follow come to understand clearly what being a Christian really involves.
In places where persecution is much lighter, however, I would
suggest that most Christians do not properly understand what being a follower
of Jesus is all about. Where there is no
real danger of being killed or imprisoned or denied employment etc., shallow
faith often results. And distorted ideas
of what it means to be a Christian are common.
At the present time persecution of Christians in Western countries
seems to be increasing. Nevertheless, it
is still at a very low level in comparison with many parts of the world. And I think the lack of persecution is at
least part of the reason why the church here is full of believers who have not properly
understood what it means to follow Jesus as Lord.
When we turn to the Bible to see what it has to say about being a follower
of Jesus, time and again we find radical statements. Let’s look at some of these.
Matthew 16:24-25
In this passage Matthew writes:
‘24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone wants to follow
Me, let him deny himself and pick up his cross and follow Me. 25 For whoever wants to save his life will
lose it. But whoever loses his life for
My sake will find it.’’
The first thing to note here is that the command to pick up the
cross in v. 24 is a command to be willing to be literally crucified for Jesus’
sake. It is true that this saying about
the cross is also speaking metaphorically about denying oneself. But we should understand clearly that Jesus
is also implying that a person cannot be a Christian unless he or she is willing
to be literally crucified. This is truly
radical teaching.
Verse 25 is just as striking.
Jesus says here that to be Christians we need to lose our lives for His
sake.
There is a literal element to this verse. It is hinting that some Christians will need
to be martyred for the faith. But the
main emphasis in v. 25 is metaphorical. Every
Christian needs to metaphorically lose his or her life for Jesus’ sake.
Deep within every human being is a powerful drive that pushes us
to gain what we can from life. The vast
majority of people constantly live in this way without even stopping to
question what they are doing.
But Jesus says that Christians should act in a completely
different way. Instead of our lives
being focused on what we can get, He tells us to focus instead on giving to
Jesus. This is radical teaching indeed.
Mark 8:34-35 and Luke 9:23-24 contain very similar ideas.
Matthew 18:8-9
In this passage the Lord Jesus uses some powerful imagery:
‘8 If your hand or foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and
throw it away. It is better for you to
enter life crippled or lame than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown
into the eternal fire. 9 And if your eye
causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one
eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell fire.’
Jesus’ words here obviously contain hyperbole, i.e., language that
is deliberately exaggerated for effect. We
are certainly not supposed to follow these instructions literally.
However, when reading something in the Bible that is hyperbolic, we
need to be careful to take what is said as seriously as we should. If we are careless, an over-compensation for
the hyperbole can occur when interpreting, with the result that the
forcefulness of the words is not fully recognised.
When we properly take account of the hyperbole Jesus uses in this
passage, we see that His teaching here is radical. He is telling us that normal Christian living
involves taking drastic steps to keep out of situations where we are likely to
be tempted.
Matthew 5:29-30 and Mark 9:43-47 contain very similar teaching.
Mark 12:28-31
In this passage Mark tells us:
‘28 One of the scribes came and heard them disputing. And when he saw that He [Jesus] had answered
them
well, he asked Him, ‘Which is the most important commandment?’
29 Jesus replied, ‘The most important is, ‘Hear , Israel
The two commandments that Jesus cites here are from the Law of
Moses. As Christians living in New
Covenant times we are not under this Law (see, e.g., Romans 6:14-15; 1
Corinthians 9:20; Galatians 3:23-25). So
we are not bound by any of the Law’s commandments.
Nevertheless, it is still the case that we can learn moral
principles from the Law. And there is no
doubt that we should apply into our lives the principles in the two
commandments Jesus cites in this passage.
Let’s think for a moment about what these principles involve.
Firstly, to love God with all our hearts, souls, minds and
strength means quite simply that there is no room left for anything else! It is a way of life that encompasses
everything we do, say and think. Even
loving our neighbours as we love ourselves is really included in what we mean
by loving God in this way.
And if we think specifically about the command to love our
neighbours as ourselves, it also stops us in our tracks. The vast majority of people put the interests
of themselves and their families far, far above the interests of other people. But Jesus is saying that we should treat
others on a par with how we treat ourselves.
Jesus’ teaching in this passage is massively counter-cultural and
highly radical.
Matthew 22:34-40 and Luke 10:25-28 contain similar teaching.
John 12:25
Here Jesus states:
‘Anyone who loves their life loses it, but anyone who hates their
life in this world will keep it for eternal life.’
This is similar to the passage we looked at that speaks about
losing our lives for Jesus’ sake. But here,
a bit differently, Jesus tells us that in order to be a Christian, we need to
hate our lives!
Of course, He doesn’t mean that we should literally go out of our
way to do ourselves harm. There is
clearly hyperbole in this verse. But He
is implying that our devotion to God should be so great that it is as if we
hate our own lives in comparison.
Human nature to its core spurs us on to love our lives and to live
for ourselves. But Jesus has no time for
anything like this. He bluntly tells His
followers to hate their lives instead. What
He says here is radical in the extreme.
1 Corinthians 9:24-27
In this passage the apostle Paul writes to the church at Corinth
‘24 Don’t you know that those who run in a stadium all run, but
only one receives the prize? Run in such
a way that you win. 25 Everyone who
competes in the games exercises self-control in everything. They do this to receive a perishable wreath,
but we do it to receive an imperishable one.
26 Therefore I run in this way: not without purpose. I box in this way: not hitting the air. 27
But I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, having preached to
others, I myself won’t be disqualified.’
Professional sportsmen in Paul’s day took great pains to make
themselves as good at their sport as they could possibly be, just as they do
today. And Paul sees the Christian life
as similar to this. Normal Christian
living involves exercising self-control in everything and making our bodies our
slaves. This is radical teaching.
2 Corinthians 5:15
In this verse Paul states:
‘And He [Jesus] died for everyone, so that those who live might no
longer live for themselves but for the One who died and rose for them.’
The vast majority of people channel all or almost all of their
energy into living for themselves and their families. In this verse Paul doesn’t just say that Christians
should put some effort into living for Jesus as well as living for ourselves. He says that we should live for Jesus instead of living for ourselves! This is totally radical.
Philippians 1:21
Here Paul writes to the church in Philippi :
‘For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain.’
Paul is implying that the whole fabric of his life is saturated with
Christ, with aiming to do His will. He
implies that there is no part of his life that is outside the scope of this. Paul’s attitude to being a Christian is
clearly a highly radical one.
And Paul, of course, is given to us as an example to follow.
Philippians 3:7-8
In this passage Paul says:
‘7 But whatever things were assets to me, I have considered as
loss for Christ’s sake. 8 What is more,
I consider everything loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus
my Lord. For His sake I have lost all
things, and I consider them excrement, so that I might gain Christ . . .’
Note Paul’s emphasis here on losing everything to gain Christ in
return. He even uses the shocking Greek
word skubala, which in this passage probably refers to excrement rather than
ordinary rubbish or refuse.
All the things that the vast majority of human beings spend their
lives pursuing, Paul considers excrement!
He chooses to gain Christ and to have knowledge of Christ instead. This is an utterly radical approach to the
Christian life.
Colossians 3:17
In this verse Paul tells the church in Colossae
‘And whatever you do in word or in deed, do everything in the name
of the Lord Jesus . . .’
It is not easy to define precisely what Paul means by ‘in the name
of the Lord Jesus’ here. But the meaning
seems to include the ideas of acting in submission to Jesus and acting for His
sake.
So Paul is apparently teaching that everything we say or do should
be done under Jesus’ authority and for Him.
Paul doesn’t think of a normal Christian as someone who spends time saying
and doing things for Jesus. He thinks of
a normal Christian as someone who spends all their time every day saying and doing
everything for Jesus! This is completely
radical.
Summing up
I could list many more passages in addition to the ones I have
quoted. But I think I have said enough
to make my point. According to the Bible,
the normal Christian life is a radical one of extreme and wholehearted
commitment to Jesus as Lord. It is about
using 24 hours of every day to do the will of God to the best of our ability,
and then doing the same the next day, and so on.
A tale of two camps
We could perhaps compare incorrect and correct ideas of what it
means to follow Jesus to two camps.
The name of the first camp is ‘May My Will Be Done’.
In Western countries most Christians spend a lot of their time in
this camp.
Many spend the majority of their time there. They make a few sorties out of the camp every
day to do things for God and for others.
But then they quickly return.
Other Christians are more obedient. They spend considerable time outside the camp. Most days they will be away from camp for
several hours, and they have even been known to be away for days at a time. But they always make sure that they return to
camp often enough for them to feel comfortable and at home there.
Other Christians are more obedient still. They spend so much time outside the camp that
it is not clear whether they really live there or not. But they are frequent visitors to it, and
they always enjoy visiting.
What God wants us to do, however, is not just spend more time away
from this camp. He wants us to burn it
to the ground! And then He wants us to
walk away and never even come near the place again.
Instead God wants us to take up residence in another camp. Its name is ‘May Jesus’ Will Be Done’. This is where Christians are really at home,
and it is where our loving God lives.
The Christian life
should not be a heavy burden
It is very important to recognise, however, that living for Jesus
does not mean that we should expect our lives to become miserable burdens to
bear.
It is true that there will be a cost, high at times, in following the
Lord. The Bible makes it clear that
suffering is a key part of normal Christian living. See, e.g., Luke 9:23; John 16:33; Romans 5:3;
8:18; 2 Timothy 2:3; James 1:2-4; 1 Peter 5:10; Revelation 21:4.
But, crucially, it is often the will of Jesus for us to do things
that we want to do anyway. It is not that
we surrender our lives to Him and that He then afflicts us constantly. We surrender, and then we trust Him to lead
us in His will, knowing that a large part of His will is for us to be blessed.
In Matthew 11:30 Jesus tells us that
His yoke is easy and His burden is light.
This doesn’t mean that we should expect life to be easy. But it does mean that the normal Christian
life should not mean that we feel we are weighed down with many burdens. We give our lives to the Lord and He gives
much back to us.
But for Jesus to give back, we first need to hand everything over
to Him. It takes courage to do that, to
step into the future without having control over our lives. But that is what we are commanded to do. And when we meet Him face to face, we will see
clearly that it was all well worth it.
See also:
