Today's post is not long, but there are two key verses about discipleship below. I like to take time and reflect on his two when I think about what it is that Jesus is calling us to in a relationship with him.
“And he said to all, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.”
Luke 9:23-26 ESV
http://bible.com/59/luk.9.23-26.esv
Disciples of Jesus are called on to their suffering and shame for Jesus sake. This does not mean that suffering and shame on its own is good, but only in the pursuit of God's truth. Dying to yourself includes putting pride and judgment of others to death. We should strive to only know things through the lens of Jesus is love and sacrifice. We need to stop striving to serve ourselves when we have not even asked God how we can serve him.
“Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.' Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.”
Luke 14:25-33 ESV
http://bible.com/59/luk.14.25-33.esv
It is usually easy for most non-Christians to admire the values highlighted in the Bible up until this point. Hating your family in comparison to your loyalty to Jesus is hard. The pursuit of a relationship with Jesus must come before every loyalty in life. I know that I fall short of the standard almost daily, but that is still what Jesus is requiring of us. And despite not being perfectly up to the standard, I have made great progress in recent months. The transformation started happening when I read these two passages almost 9 months ago and asked myself if I was really living up to (or even honestly trying to live up to) the standard of what Jesus says a disciple is.
It is important for us in our quest to follow Jesus do you honestly evaluate what the cost of discipleship is and whether or not we have the strength, endurance, and willpower to pursue it to the end. The reward of eternal life is infinite, but the cost here right now and dying to ourselves is very hard. Luckily, those who decide to take the leap of faith in order to live as a disciple of Christ have help from Jesus and hopefully a church. It is not something that is possible for anyone of us to do alone.