Partial Obedience = Disobedience
By: Kristen L. McNulty
Reprint rights available on request. Email the author at kristenmcnulty@hotmail.com.
Author G.K. Chesterton once wrote: "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried."
Here Chesterton is describing an experience so many of us Christians have. We become believers and get to know Jesus and His grace and love and everything seems simple and easy. But then something happens. We're called to do something that seems so hard or impossible and instead of pressing through, some give up and walk away from a life of faith. Or some continue to go through all the motions as a Christian, but they don't truly follow Jesus in every area of their lives.
We all have the potential to become part-time followers of Christ, to be people who confess Jesus with our lips but don't live out complete obedience to Him and His teachings.
Following Jesus & His Commands
Following Jesus and the commands He left for us in the Bible can be difficult because He doesn't call us to just do easy things. Let's take a look at some commands left for us in scripture as an example.
The Bible calls us to:
Love our enemies (Matthew 5:44)
Pray for those who persecute us (Matthew 5:44).
Give to those who ask and without expecting to be repaid (Luke 6:34-35).
Be reconciled to those who have something against us (Matthew 5:23-24)
Not judge others or condemn them (Luke 6:37).
And that's just from two chapters in the Bible. The truth is, we as Christians are called to do hard things. And while they are hard to do, they are essential for us to do if we really want to be followers of Jesus because these are the commands that Jesus gave his followers to follow.
Watering Down The Word
Many of us when faced with difficulty when trying to follow Jesus either give up, like those Chesterton spoke about, or we attempt to rewrite the book and water down some of the things Jesus said.
We lie to ourselves, justifying yes I should love my enemies but my self-respect says I should never talk to them again.
Or when someone approaches us and asks for our financial help, we balk, blame the ongoing drug problems as a good reason to say no and walk away, never once entertaining the thought that there are many ways to meet a need besides handing someone money and walking away.
Or when we hear our elders or pastors share an opening to serve in the church, we don’t even entertain saying yes, justifying our busy schedules as a reason to not even consider it. All the while we ignore that Jesus calls people to commit to serving Him, even if that means cutting into their excess free time or saying no to something not essential so we can say yes to something with eternal implications.
The highway to heaven isn’t an easy road to travel, but it wasn’t meant to be either. Jesus teachers us in Matthew chapter 7:
"You can enter God's Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it." Matthew 7:13-14
If we ever find ourselves coasting in life, thinking it’s easy to be a Christian, then there is a good chance we are not actively following all of the commandments of Christ. And that’s not a place where any of us want to find ourselves in. Partial obedience Christ equals some form of disobedience every single time.
Instead of trying to avoid the hard, we should embrace it, knowing that not only is it shaping our character into people like Jesus, but it is also going to teach us to rely on Him to do whatever it is He calls us to.
We Can Rely On Christ
In rejecting our flesh, the parts of us who would prefer to live life selfishly for ourselves, we find we can rely on Christ who gives strength to the weak, endurance to the weary, an abundance of love to those who have been rejected and patience for those of us who are on our last shred of it. Obedience might mean difficult, but it's not a journey we walk alone. With Jesus as our guide and the Holy Spirit within us, we are equipped for the journey, every step of the way.
Closing off with the call Jesus gave to follow Him in Luke chapter 9:
"Then he said to the crowd, 'If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but are yourself lost or destroyed?'" Luke 9:23-25
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