TO BE A FOLLOWER OF JESUS

What does it mean to be a follower of Jesus? It means to abide by all of God’s Words as He did:

·       For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.” (John 12:49-50; ESV)

This means to live by every one of the Father’s Words:

·       But he answered [the devil], “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Matthew 4:4)

We find God’s Words in the Scriptures. This is why Jesus said “It is written” three times as He answered the devil out of the Scriptures. If Jesus abided by every Word of the Father, we can do no less. This is how we must love God:

·       Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. (John 14:23-24)

This is the consistent message of the Scriptures. Nowhere does it give us the liberty to set aside any verse that hasn’t yet been fulfilled (Matthew 5:16-19). Consequently, we cannot sit in judgment over Scripture, taking what we want and spitting out the rest. Instead, we have to allow Scripture to judge us.

Jesus didn’t pick-and-choose but accepted the totality of the Scriptures as we must:

·       If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. (John 15:10-11)

If we want our joy to “be full,” we have to keep all of His commandments as Jesus had done. King David was a man “after God’s own heart.” He had obeyed the commandments of God, but he also had some lapses. Pride had gotten the better of him and he ordered Joab, his military chief, to number the troops. Joab, knowing that this violated the Word of God, warned David against such a thing. However, David brushed off Joab’s warning, bringing great loss to Israel (1 Chronicles 21:1-17).

It can even be argued that every tragedy that had befallen Israel had been due to their breach of the Word of God. There is only one way to love and honor God – adherence to His Word:

·       To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn. They will pass through the land, greatly distressed and hungry. And when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will speak contemptuously against their king and their God, and turn their faces upward.  And they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into thick darkness. (Isaiah 8:20-22)

Abiding in the Word of God is to abide in His blessings, as Paul had assured Timothy:

·       Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. (1 Timothy 4:13-15)

God had instructed Joshua that courage was a matter of obeying His Word:

·       Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. (Joshua 1:7-8)

Never did God offer Israel any other means of blessedness. Nor was there any other source of His curses other than failing to abide by His Word:

·       “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today, and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today, to go after other gods that you have not known.” (Deuteronomy 11:26-28)

Too many today are selective about the commands they are willing to follow. Therefore, when Jesus sent out His Apostles, He commanded them:

·       “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20)

Consequently, an unwillingness to “observe all” is an act of rebellion. It is a betrayal of trust, as if to say, “God, I know better than you what is good for me.” It is also to reject trusting in our Savior and to erect a separating wall safe from God’s unwanted meddling. It is to go-it-alone with all its disastrous consequences.