“Come, Follow Me” Jesus said as He began to call His first disciples. And it is an invitation that continues to go out to all the nations of the world. “Come, Follow Me”
But what does it mean to follow Jesus. Many churches today around the world equate following Christ with following the rules that are written in scripture. Rules that we struggle hard to keep, and feel guilty about when we don’t, or like many people, simply write off the message of the gospel.
Many people want nothing to due with the church because of the experience many have had with the expectations to follow the rules, and the judgements that followed when they didn’t. But Jesus didn’t come and say, “Follow the rules and be made right”. He simply lays out an invitation to “Come, Follow Me”
Christians all over have gotten things backwards when they think that they have to follow the rules to make God happy. Religion makes the demand “Change, and then you can join us.”
Jesus offers us the opportunity to come to know Him, and to follow Him. Jesus makes the offer “Follow Me, and you will change.” We get it backwards when we think that following the rules makes us acceptable to God. Yes there are many rules listed in scripture. And God does want us to be following them.
The problem comes when we put following the rules ahead of knowing and following Christ. The “fruit “ of following Christ is that we will begin to do what God desires. We will find ourselves keeping the rules without having to push and fight and beat our head against the wall. It will happen as a natural outcome of us following Jesus.
When we put our focus on following the rules, we end up not following Jesus and always put the cart before the horse which always is a lot more work. Jesus extends His hand to us all and invites us to “Come, Follow Me”
The Blog of Tom Sanders 