Test of Self Love, Counting the Cost of Discipleship

If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:26)

We will fail to be a disciple of Jesus Christ if we stop at ’Jesus loves me this I know’. The context of what Jesus spoke on following Him concerns the issue of love, as with a woman forsaking all others and be betrothed to one and only. As much as we cannot serve two masters (Luke 6:13) we can only can call One Lord. Jesus hits the nailed on the issue of discipleship with regard to the first and great commandment (Matt 28:38). If we miscomprehend the context of ‘hate’ than the disciple will be deprived of joy of the Lord and in the process living life judging everything and everyone, picking the speck out of people’s eyes, joylessly murmuring ‘I am carrying my cross, where is yours?’ Carrying the cross involves having joy that we have a glorious hope that does not disappoint (Heb 12:2). Jesus is asking us if we counted the cost in being His disciple in relation to everything else especially that where self has a stake.

The next statement is about taking up the cross, the requirement of discipleship. Everything that doesn’t bear the cross carrying Christ nature must be laid down. The cross is firstly about God’s good and secondly the grace to esteem (hold in high regard) others above self (Php 2:3). True Godly love concerns others; the converse is to lust which revolves around self. There is always joy to build up and not tear down. The attitude is be filled with joy even if there is a need to suffer for His and others sake (Col 1:24). We know that we are carrying the cross when there is genuine self denying love for the Lord and others. Self will dies and His will is being worked out. This is how the early apostles lived, suffered and died, the same path the Master Himself took. Much today concerns self good, including self righteousness; ‘how I am better than my lesser brethren’. The cost need to be counted, self love and self will must be eradicated from the equation and His glorious and eternal will becomes manifested in and through His body, the church that we may attain to the resurrection from the dead (Php 3:11).

Carrying my Cross Daily

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: (Php 2:5)

The cross of Jesus Christ is not a beautiful ornament on walls or worn on chains. It is an offense (Gal 5:11). It is a daily reality that every believer is called to. As Dietrich Bonheoffer puts in, ‘When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die’. It is dying to one’s selfish expectations and the like that Christ will be done in and through us. It is never for the betterment of self, but a decreasing that Christ may increase.

From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. (John 6:66)

The message of the cross is gravely lacking in churches because it carries the risk of losing crowds. Jesus wasn't interested in the majority, but the minority who will lay down their own lives to live out His will on earth. Jesus life exemplifies the cross, the apostle Paul was the articulator of the cross. Where are the messengers of the cross today? What has the pulpit become? Is it about self serving or God serving (Col 3:23)?

Jesus says ‘Follow Me’, not follow after our heart and its desires or dreams. Our first confession of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior starts us off with the world behind us and the cross before us. Discipleship will cost us, but is brings us into a deepening communion and transformation into His likeness. Are we ambassadors of Christ or ambassadors of self (1 Cor 5:20).

Handling the Word

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. (Psa 119:105)

Wisdom is to receive the commandments of God as a lamp and the reproofs of instruction are the way of life (Prov 6:23). Let us not be slack concerning the Word of God which brings to us faith (Rom 10:17), growth and life (1 Pet 2:2). True Wisdom is the Word of God, any second hand presentation is but an interpretation; taking the Word from another man is liken to hearing how wonderful a particular meal is without tasting it firsthand. It is good to be taught, preached, but it is more noble to search out the matter for ourselves (Prov 25:2, Acts 17:11).

Give us this day our daily bread. (Mat 6:11)

The picture provided for us by the Psalmist is the need for each one to carry his or her lamp in order not to stumble in darkness. The lamp provides sufficient light for subsequent steps, we may not yet see the end of our journey. Each day passes and another comes, we continue our journey with our personal lamp filled and lighted. We cannot depend on others to light our path, God has given us the privilege access to His Word daily, not only that but the Word Himself will be nigh to us when we conscientiously walk the walk of faith.

How to be a Father

And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. (Mal 4:6)

To be a father who turn my heart to my children, I must first turn my heart to the Father. The Father is seeking sons who would do so, so  He will father them and bring many sons to glory.

Below is a question in Chabad.org about being a father. 

Dear Rabbi,

I’m a father, and I have no idea how to bring up a Jewish boy. All I know is not to do as my father did. Although that’s generally exactly what I end up doing. I want my son to grow up strong in his Jewishness and confident about his own self.

A. Dad

Shalom Dad,

There’s only two short lines you need to know. It’s the first dialogue there is between a father and his son in the written Torah:

Then Isaac said to his father, “My father?”

And Abraham said, “Here I am, my son.”

There’s more, but we need to stop here first, so you can see the forest.

We’ve had those words before—only once before—at the beginning of this same tale. Abraham is answering his son with the same words he used earlier to answer G‑d:

So it was, after all these things, that G‑d tested Abraham, and He said to him, “Abraham!” and Abraham answered, “Here I am!”

And then G‑d asks Abraham to do something that goes against every cell of his body and soul: To harden his heart, turn off his mind, take his son and “raise him up for a sacrifice on one of the mountains I will show you.”

Men know the modality. Numbness. Gotta do what I gotta do. We do it when we go to war and when we go to work, when we fire an employee and when we discipline a child. There’s a small voice inside, screaming, This is not who I am! How can I do this? And we just tell it to shut up so we can get the job done.

We’ve all been there. You’ve got a deadline at work. A major meeting about a big contract. Nudniks to deal with, driving you nuts. Rush-hour traffic stuns your nerves. 7:30 AM the next morning, and you don’t want to go. Not a cell in your body wants to go. But you have to.

Okay, it’s not who you are; you’re a family man with family priorities. But to feed a family, a man’s got to make sacrifices. Don’t feel what you feel, don’t think what you think. To do so would be to drive yourself insane. Smother that voice inside. Be a man, as men have been ever since their feet met the cold, hard earth. Just do.

The dad inside gets turned off. And along with him, so do his kids.

“Dad?”

“Dad?”

“I’m busy now.”

“Dad?”

“Sorry, son, I’m busy. Go talk to Mom.”

That’s what this bizarre world can do to a man: on the way to provide for his family, he sacrifices them on their own altar.

So here is Abraham, in the midst of his greatest test. He can have only one focus: to do what he was told. And that’s where he is, 100 percent. After all, this isn’t just about making a living. This is about hearing G‑d’s voice. And so, Isaac calls out to him, not certain that his father is really there.

“My father?”

“Here I am, my son. All of me. For all of you. What’s up?”

Perhaps that was the whole test. Perhaps, with that alone, Abraham proved that he was fit to be the father of the nation that would bring G‑d’s compassion into the world.

Perhaps. But this I know for certain: With those words, Abraham passed on the torch to the next generation. Because when Isaac saw that his father was all there for him, in the same way and to the same degree as he was there for G‑d when G‑d spoke to him, then he was ready to be all there for his father and for his father’s G‑d.

Those words are all you need to know to be a real Jewish dad. The rest will follow.

“Here I am, my son. All of me.”