So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions. – Luke 14:33
Jesus made it very clear that in order to follow Him, a person must abandon everything else in his or her life.
Typically, when this topic is discussed, we think of someone leaving a past that was devoid of Jesus. For example, Matthew quit tax-collecting, Peter dropped his fishing net, Paul quit chasing Christians, you get the picture. We usually add in sinful lifestyle choices to the equation, such as coarse language, rude behavior, or even bad attitudes. Simply put, it is commonly understood that to follow Christ, we must leave the “old” and “bad” behind, but what about the “good?”
What about our strengths? What about those personal attributes that others admire in us? John, the baptizer, once said that he must decrease in order that the Messiah might increase. How willing are we to forsake that which gives us our greatest identity in order that we become invisible for the sake of the increasing visibility of Christ?
Do you wish to be His disciple? You must give up all.
God owns all; He owns me; He owns my home; He owns my children; He owns my property. I have called your attention before to the fact that the modern idea of ownership is pagan. The Christian idea is this: that God is the absolute owner of all things. – Clovis G. Chappell
