how then should we live?

Luke 2

25 A large crowd was following Jesus. He turned around and said to them,

     26 "If you want to be my disciple, you must hate everyone else by comparison—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life.

      Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple.

     27 And if you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple.


28 "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?

29 Otherwise, you might complete only the foundation before running out of money, and then everyone would laugh at you.

30 They would say, 'There's the person who started that building and couldn't afford to finish it!'


31 "Or what king would go to war against another king without first sitting down with his counselors to discuss whether his army of 10,000 could defeat the 20,000 soldiers marching against him?

32 And if he can't, he will send a delegation to discuss terms of peace while the enemy is still far away.

33 So you cannot become my disciple without giving up everything you own.



Over & over again Jesus says in the Gospels that following Him is going to cost us everything.

There is no such thing as following Him halfway, any more than there is any such thing as a little bit pregnant!

He says things like, we have to love & follow him more than we love & follow our own families - & family was a BIG deal back then.

He also says that we should love Him more than our own selves - abandoning ourselves to him.

And then there's the kicker like in verse 33 where He says we have to quit loving our worldly goods to the point of letting them go & love Him more.


How does that square with what we see in the modern christian lives of people here in America?

Do we see much of that kind of living in the Christians we know?

Do WE live like that?


I don't think we serve people well by indicating that following Jesus in this world is anything else but extremely tough, & sacrificial.

He says we have to love Him more than the most important people in our lives,

     more than our own selves,

     & what's more, we need to disconnect from our possessions to the point of being willing to give them away.

Nothing & no one can be more important nor engender our love more than our love for Jesus.


So, the question is, what are we gonna do about this?

How then should we live?