As we pursue Jesus’ definition for His disciples, we learn it was essential for them to take up their crosses daily and follow Him. True discipleship is a life of sacrifice. It is a daily sacrifice of our own desires to serve Him. Still, to live for Him this way is the greatest, most fulfilling life we can live, regardless of how difficult. And rest assured, this will be the most difficult life we can live. It is a life contrary to all the ways of this world and all the people of this world, as well as of most professing Christians. It is not meant to be easy. It is not easy, but it is worth it.
Jesus said, “Whoever wishes to 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?” (Matthew 16:25-26) Our new life in Christ cannot be compared to our former life of living for ourselves. His ways are infinitely higher than ours, and there is no greater life we could live than to be His disciples. However, He is the Truth, and we must not lie to those considering following Him saying, “It will be easy.” We must instead be forthright in telling them, “This will be the most difficult life they can live, but also the best.”
Anything that eclipses our devotion to Christ is an idol. Yes, it is important to be a good spouse, parent, or worker. In fact, the greater our devotion to Christ, the more these are all elevated in importance because everything we do is for Him, and everything we do for our King requires our greatest devotion and excellence.
However, if the second commandment, to love one another, begins to eclipse our first devotion, to love God above all, our devotion to the second commandment will become defiled and our service to God tainted at best. If this continues, our devotion to others will become an object of worship in place of Him. He must be our first love and our first devotion.
Jesus will consider our marriages, professions, and everything else as part of our discipleship, if we keep them in proper alignment behind our devotion to Him. We keep these in order by doing all as worship unto Him. When we go to work, we do it for Christ—not for our boss, the company, or a paycheck. We do it for our King. In Christ, marriage and family are some of the greatest gifts we can receive from God, but they are also means by which we can learn how He leads and cares for His family.
When Jesus called His disciples, they all had to leave their jobs or professions. This is still a requirement to be His disciple. However, He may leave us in our job or profession as a part of our discipleship or curriculum for learning from Him. Still, a profound change must come to what we do and why we do it. Our focus and ambition in life can no longer be success in our profession or any advance or accolade this may provide. We should want to be the best in our profession because it is our service to the Lord, who deserves the best.
Thus, the best disciples of Christ are more likely to be successful because of their higher devotion. However, success must not be our main goal, rather learning from Jesus and becoming like Him must be our highest goal.
A disciple must also be ready to leave anything behind when called upon, including their physical life. For a disciple, our purpose is first and foremost to follow the Lord and to do His will. If, at any point, a disciple is called to leave their profession, they will.
For those who are content like most to “follow from afar,” there is certainly more benefit to this than not following Him at all. But they should not deceive themselves or others to think they are paying the full price when they are not. Was that not the sin of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5? They wanted to be counted with those who were giving, while holding back a part of the price. Holding back was not the sin; lying was. We are all called to speak the truth in all things, especially to God.
© 2022 Rick Joyner. All Rights Reserved.
