Walking In The Light Of Truth

Now great multitudes went with Him.

And He turned and said to them,

“If anyone comes to Me and does not

hate his father and mother, wife and children,

brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also,

he cannot be My disciple.

And whoever does not bear his cross

and come after me cannot be My disciple.

Luke 14:26–27

            How misunderstood and misused is this Scripture. On the face it seems horrible for Jesus to say that we must hate in this manner. Jesus never makes statements just off the cuff. Always Jesus has a point in mind to teach people and that teaching is how we are to be as disciples of Him. When we allow our closest relationships, anything in this life to come into conflict with the claims of Jesus Christ, Who is God, Who is the Creator, and Who wrote the Law which He gave to Moses, that Law that applies in all ages, we all out of obedience to Him and that is not to be a disciple. What is discipleship to Jesus Christ? OBEDIENCE! You must have a personal passionate devotion to Jesus Christ, to His principles and not to a cause. Jesus did not give us a cause, He gave us this: our personal devotion to Him. A disciple is one who is a devoted slave, a bondservant to Jesus Christ. Many people who call themselves Christian are not devoted to Jesus Christ, they have not converted to Jesus Christ, but they have causes that seem to make them pious and a disciple. How can you have this devoted passion for Jesus Christ when you are still in the throes of sin, original sin? Only by the power of the Holy Spirit! It is when the Holy Spirit spreads abroad and has imparted to a person does a person have this live and reverence and respect for God, for His Son Jesus Christ and for the Holy Spirit. How often is it that we are more devoted to a cause, i.e., teaching Vacation Bible School, to teach Sunday School, to work at missions, to be a missionary, to be a pastor, or elder as though this is what shows reverence to God. Yes, in some ways it does when you are actually led by the Holy Spirit to do so, and not due to your own preference to somehow be “so” Christian. You should be aglow by the power of the Holy Spirit that encompasses you very being, your nerves, your heart, and your devotion. It is Jesus first, and it is Jesus last. Out of this devotion, this personal devotion that we are able to carry the cross and put Him first and to have the priority in our lives. Our lives are to be stamped with Christian morality, a willingness to remove everything, every object that receives devotion other than Jesus Christ. How often do people pour themselves into matters of indifference in a church, to recite creeds, which in of itself is not wrong, and yet they come to either recite them by rote, or believe that somehow by reciting them they are more worthy of God’s love. You are not! We have prejudices that must be removed before we can become fully devoted to Jesus Christ. The question is: “Are you willing to heed the Holy Spirit? Are you willing to be a disciple of Jesus Christ? If you do not then you cannot be His disciple.

            I have undertaken this defense of God’s church for many people say one thing but practice another. I have done it and maybe you have too. But when the truth is presented I am obliged to heed the truth if I am a disciple of Jesus Christ and not of myself. Last blog I began this discourse about idols, even those things which we hold dear, i.e., pictures that are supposed to depict Jesus Christ, or that little doll on the dashboard of a car that is of some saint that is suppose to protect you from accident, of course for many this protection they want comes to them, they hope, when they are driving faster than what the posted speed allows. Hmmm…..!!! Again, you might cavil, and object vehemently and say: “We do not suppose that there is anything diving in the image which we adore. We adore it only to honor him whose likeness it is.” Let us examine this: Put a representation of Jupiter, Saturn, or Mercury, or of Peter, or Paul. Are not those representations of Jupiter, Saturn, or Mercury only representations of gods, and those of Peter or Paul not apostles? Neither one are men, they are representation of what one thinks either appears to be, yet the same thing is done, veneration to both pictorials. This error persists, in the past and now. Should we not venerate and adore the living and not the dead? Should we not consider carefully that which we allow to be of our adoration and our worship? If the image is not God, not a supposed picture of God, rather God, the Living One, Jesus Christ, the Living One, and the Holy Spirit, the living One, and instead it is from the hands of man which gets this honor, then we are honoring and adoring in vain and we have arrogated to ourselves divine dignities. Is this not worshipping the creature, those supposed representations rather that our Creator, our God, our Savior?

            Why do you humiliate yourselves and bow down to them, in some fashion, or use them to somehow enhance your devotion? Is this not foolishness to look for help from an image? Are you a captive to such things? Lift your eyes to heaven, look above to God and avoid those things which are below, put Jesus Christ ahead of all things. Pick up your cross, and this may mean to rid yourselves of such images, and practices that are dishonoring to God, to Jesus Christ, and inhibits the Holy Spirit. Exalt your hearts to heavenly heights. This is what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

So He said to them: “Assuredly,

            I say to you, there is no one

Who has left house or parents or brothers

            Or wife or children, for the sake

Of the kingdom of God, who shall not

            Receive many times more in this

Present time, and in the age to come

            Eternal life.

                                    Luke 18:29–30

Walk In The Light Of Truth

Richard L. Crumb