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A New Way of Life
Aug 9, 01:05 PM
“As Jesus went on from there, He saw a man called Matthew, sitting in the tax collector’s booth; and He said to him, ‘Follow Me!’ And he got up and followed Him.” Matthew 9:9
When Matthew encountered the call of Jesus Christ, he left his office and followed Him. Matthew left his life behind and embarked on a whole new way of living. In the same way Peter, James, and John left their fishing business and entered an entirely new way of life. They were not enamored with Jesus’ teaching, entranced by His charisma, or drawn to His particular perspective on religion. They were captured by Christ and willingly gave up one life in favor of another. Their response to Jesus was not a temporary obsession or a faddish impulse. Christ had taken custody of them. The Apostle Paul experienced the same captivation and expressed it this way, “I press on to take hold of that for which Christ took hold of me.” (Philippians 3:19) Christ had taken hold of him: his intellect, his possessions, his ambition, all that he had, and all that he was. One cannot claim to be in Christ and still maintain ownership of his own life. The blood of Jesus has purchased you; the call of Christ has taken possession of you. You are not your own; you were bought with a price. (1 Corinthians 6:19)
In those days, those who followed Christ left their old lives completely behind. “We have left everything to follow you,” Peter exclaimed. (Mark 10:28) The disciples left houses, families, land, riches, jobs, ambitions, and dreams in order to fulfill the dream of the One who had apprehended them. The Samaritan woman left her bucket at the well and never went back to it. In her case, it was not wealth and ambition she left behind, but a very old and tired life. No big loss there – her old life had not served her very well anyway. She abandoned old excuses, failures, obsessions, prejudices, and poor thinking. What all of these people had in common was that Jesus had summoned them to a new adventure in living and showed their existing lives to be a mere shadow of that for which they were created. What they did not do is to simply add Jesus to their existing lives.
Most modern-day disciples try to follow Christ in the context of life as it currently is. They don’t leave anything – they try to merely add Christian principles to their existing way of life. By so doing, they basically live the same life they always have; only now they go to church, read the Bible sometimes, pray a bit more, and perhaps curse a bit less. Rarely do you see someone leave life as it is in order to follow Christ in life as it should be. Following Christ entails a whole new life in big ways and small. Christ deals with the macro as well as the micro. He will capture your thoughts and alter your habits. He will change your career and the flow of your finances. He will amend your ambition and cut away your comfort. He doesn’t want you to remodel; He wants you to move.