Monday 1 March 2010

Half-hearted discipleship


"Christ himself shows us how to make disciples. He said, "Follow me;", and he insisted that his disciples did follow him. He was only willing to have men who accepted his standards. It is instructive to observe his treatment of two contrasting types (Matt. 8: 19-22). The first said, "Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest." Instead of patting him on the back and saying, as we should have done, "That's the spirit we want", he cautioned the man. Did he really know what he was letting himself in for?

The second man was of the opposite type. He explained to Jesus that he would be free to follow him when his father was dead and buried. This earned a sharp rebuke, "Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead". We may wince at the severity of the Lord's words and yet miss the point. It is our bounden duty to stress the fact that the standards are very high. Christ wants dedicated people and nobody else. Is our half-hearted discipleship evidence of the fact that we have not heeded the Lord's instructions and have made the way too easy?"

- Peter Watkins
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Some Difficult Passages
CIL - Book 4

Dutch translation / Nederlandse vertaling > Halfslachtig leerlingschap

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