by Jacob Ninan
There are four types of Christians. The first group is the largest, with people who merely imagine they are Christians, but they have not been born again and received that name from God. In the second group, people have made a decision to follow Jesus, thinking that now God will provide for them, protect and bless them in their life on earth, and finally take them to heaven when they die. The next group has disciples of Jesus Christ, who want to learn from Jesus and obey Him, but who are also, at the same time, interested in taking care of themselves. They are not the type of disciples Jesus wants, because He said that those who were not willing to lose their own life in order to gain His life would lose it (Matt.16:25). The last group has comparatively very few people in it, but it is these people whom Jesus referred to as the ones who find life (Matt.7:13,14). These are the ones who have found God to be more valuable and important to them than everyone and everything else, and who have therefore chosen to walk in the narrow way that leads to Him. It is these last two groups I would like to contrast with each other.
Who are those who are willing to give up 'their own life' in order to receive the life of Christ? Certainly, like the merchant of pearls who found a pearl of greatest value, and in order to get that, sold off all the other pearls he had, these are the ones who have been so taken up with the life of Christ that nothing else is valuable to them in comparison any more (Matt.13:45,46). The third group of people above are not willing to go all that way. They too want Jesus, but on a moderate scale, because they say we have to live in this world, we have to be realistic, etc., and they want to be street-smart, and avoid what they consider to be extreme positions. But Jesus Himself took some extreme-looking positions when He described the qualifications of true disciples. If we don't understand what He has in mind, we may come even up to the third group, but miss out on what He really wants for us.
"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" (Lk.14:26). In another place, Jesus said, "He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me" (Matt.10:37). So, He was using the word 'hate' in the sense of comparing our love for Him with our love for other people. The idea is that if our 'love' for someone makes us compromise, or bend His principles a bit for them, then it would show that this other person is really more important to us than Jesus. When we see it this way, we can see that this is not an extreme position at all, but just a normal, reasonable approach in our relationship to Jesus.
But in actual practice, Christians can compromise right and left in this area of keeping to the path of Jesus, thinking that they are doing it only out of their love for other people, to protect them, to avoid offending them, to leave a testimony of love, etc. But don't we need to realise that we cannot really do good to anybody by, for example, doing something unrighteous for them? Isn't this something each of us needs to look at carefully?
"Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple" (Lk.14:27). Some people have a wrong idea that their cross is some difficult person they have to deal with! But a better understanding is like this. When we want to do something, and the Lord Jesus wants us to do something else, don't we have to deny ourselves and die to our own desires? A true disciple is one who is always carrying his cross, knowing that his own desires must die and he must do the will of God (Gal.5:24). If we want to please ourselves or indulge ourselves now and then, can we be disciples of Jesus belonging to the fourth group?
"So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions" (Lk.14:33). In the early days of the church, some people actually sold off their possessions to give to the needy. But as they grew in maturity, they realised that there might always be the rich and the poor among them, and how it was the responsibility of the able to also take care of the weak. So, what does Jesus mean here to give up all our possessions? It means that nothing should be allowed to become so important that they become more important in different situations than the will of God. In other words, we should be detached from everything we have or want to have in this world. If we are willing to displease God for the sake of obtaining or holding on to anything in this world, we cannot be pleasing to Him. It could be money, pleasure, reputation before people, power, position, recognition, etc. It is God in comparison to everything else. Sin is to choose against God. When we choose people or anything else over God's known will, we sin.
Now let us look at ourselves. Do we have a perfect record along this line? After we came to know the Lord, has it been that we have never displeased Him or pleased ourselves? None of us has that record. If we have had enough experience to know what is in our flesh, we will not even dare to say that we will never again compromise. But if we have had the experience of being born again through the supernatural working of the Holy Spirit in our heart, then we will be able to say that we wholeheartedly wish to be pleasing to the Lord without compromise. These are the ones in the fourth group, who do not want to compromise with God for any reason. We do not want to do any favours for anyone at the cost of displeasing God. We do not want anything for ourselves which would make the Lord sad about us.
This is not an extreme position to take. Anyone who has come to know who God is, who has seen himself as God sees him, and experienced the grace of God showered freely upon him cannot really have any other response (2Cor.5:14,15).