Some parts of the Bible are very clear and easy to understand. "Love your enemies." "Love your neighbor as yourself." These may not be easy to apply, but we can understand them.
Other parts of the Bible seem clear, until we go to apply them. One such part of the Bible for me is the call of Jesus to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him. It seems simple, but what does this look like in our present day & age?
Throughout the Gospels, Jesus repeats a call to take up our cross and follow Him. (Matthew 10:37-39 and Luke 14:25-34). He also tells his disciples to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him (Matthew 16:24-27, Mark 8:34-38, and Luke 9:23-26)
I get caught on these instructions. They seem so clear and simple, but then they are so hard to live out.
Deny Ourselves: This one is unpopular in our current culture in the USA. Modern wisdom says that if we deny ourselves we are striking a blow to the economy because we should be spending money instead of denying ourselves things. To deny myself...what exactly?
Take Up Our Cross: Very few people take this one literally. What is our cross?
Follow Him: What does it look like to follow Jesus? Do we need to eat like He ate? Talk to the kinds of people He talked to? Wear the kinds of clothes that He wore? Do the things that He did? Do the things that He commanded?
We like to live comfortable lives, but to follow Christ is to set aside our preferences and our rights in order to follow and obey Him.
It's to choose not to spend all of my money on myself, but to recognize that it is God's money and I am the steward of a portion of His money. It's to spend in accordance and alignment with His will.
We are called to die daily to ourselves in order to live for Christ.
When we follow Jesus, there is an aspect of obedience. We aren't saved through our obedience, but rather our obedience stems from our love of Christ and our gratitude for His saving grace.
What does it look like to live out this passage in this world today?
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