The Cost of Following Jesus

“Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.” (1 John 2:15-17 NLT)

Have you ever pondered what pleases God? Most of us are so focused on what pleases us we forfeit any notion of anything that might please God. Grace and mercy have been so distorted in our thinking we’ve come to believe being a Jesus follower is more about us than Him.

Though I’ve never served in the military, my perception is that combat soldiers understand perhaps better than anyone, what obedience, sacrifice, and service truly mean. Having lost a lot of friends in the controversial Viet Nam war, I’ve seen firsthand the misery and heartache caused to those who came home, and the suffering of the families of those who didn’t.

Days before the war ended, a good friend of mine dove on a grenade to save the lives of his comrades. That’s so foreign to how most of us think, yet that’s what Jesus did on the Cross. With full knowledge of what His decision to come to planet earth would cost Him, He didn’t hesitate to do whatever needed to be done to give us – you and me – the privilege and honor of being His servant.

Why do we wrongly assume that being a Jesus follower is an invitation to have a good time? It’s an invitation to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him. It’s an opportunity to see life as the privilege it is, not to pamper ourselves and live it up so we can enjoy the pleasures of this world to the fullest.

The closer I get to Jesus the less attractive the things of this world become. The older I get the more I want to live to the glory of my Master and Lord. It frustrates me to have been so blinded by the things of the world when I was younger and had so much more of my life to give in His service. And yes, I served as a Pastor for many years, but those weren’t necessarily years I gave my life, too often they were years I had the life sucked out of me.

It’s ironic how “godly” people can make such ungodly demands of others, often including, but not limited to their Pastor(s). I entered ministry to serve Jesus, but much of what I was taught and required to do had very little to do with Jesus, and a whole lot to do with the whims of people.

We like to talk about the significant cost of following Jesus, but few of us truly understand what that looks like. If only we could spend a few months in Iran, Iraq, North Korea, or many other places where it’s radically different for a Jesus follower to live, we might catch a glimpse of what sacrificing for Jesus really looks like.

Would to God we could calculate “cost” based on the number of lives we effect positively to follow Jesus and not on the few dollars we give to our local churches. We’ve got to stop calculating our effectiveness as a believer on the meetings we attend or the verses we memorize, and start agonizing in prayer over how we can lead our lost loved ones, friends, neighbors, colleagues, and others in our spheres of influence to the foot of the Cross.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊