As a young Christian, I was taught that there was a cost for following, there was a cost for claiming to be his disciples. What is the cost of following Jesus? What is the cost of being a Christian or a disciple Christ, I often wondered? Did it mean to be willing to die for Jesus or to lay down everything that was important to me?
Jesus answered these questions in today's devotional.
“If you want to be my disciple, you must, by comparison, hate everyone else—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple. And if you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple. “But don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it?" Luke 14:26-28 NLT.
Jesus describes a disciple as someone who has counted the cost of following him. He describes a disciple as someone who in COMPARING their love for God to others, know the whole world and all it has to offer means nothing anymore. A disciple is someone who has taken up their cross, to follow Jesus.
To carry ones cross in Jesus' day meant a death sentence. Everyone who carried a cross was going somewhere to die on that the same cross.
A disciple has signed the dotted lines of their death certificate; they have died to self, died to the worries of this world, died to the allures of sin, that is what it means to be a disciple.
"So you cannot become my disciple without giving up everything you own." Luke 14:33 NLT.
Are you a disciple of Jesus?
