the cost of following Christ (part II)

October 11, 2003

a thought that has been resting on my mind for the past little while has been regarding the cost of following Christ. i've been reading a book called "don't waste your life" by john piper and the chapters thus far deal a lot with it. the verses that i've been memorizing in philippians deals with it. the sermon i heard last sunday about the favour of God (by david nasser at 7:22) dealt with it. the passage of Scripture that we talked about at SALT last night dealt with it briefly. when pui-wing (our Bible study leader) mentioned that we'll suffer as a Christian, a complete silence blanketed the room, as if a bomb had hit. why are we so afraid of talking about this reality?

the church doesn't talk a lot about suffering as a Christian. we've somehow fallen into a trap of believing that Christianity is this "if you accept Christ, you will be happy for the rest of your life" notion. we've fallen into a whole kind of prayer of jabez mentality which is basically that God is out to bless us. we talk a lot about how there's all these 'benefits' of being a Christian, that heaven is our home, that God has a unique plan for our lives. and while these are true, we fail miserably at understanding the complete picture of the Christian life. did Christ ever say that living the Christian life was an easy life, full of perpetual happiness?

Christ suffered. so shall we. it's clearly stated in john 15:20, "remember the words i spoke to you: 'no servant is greater than his master.' if they persecuted me, they will persecute you also." it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when and how. there's different types of suffering that we will face. romans 8:35 says, "who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?".

why are we so afraid to present the sobering reality of this truth? maybe because it's hard to accept. it's hard to swallow. no one in their right mind would welcome suffering if they could avoid it. we're so drunk with convenience (in the words of david nasser) in our lives that we desire things that only better ourselves or make us happy. we don't want to endure hardship at the sake of our own convenience. that's just how we are. we live in a self-absorbed, it's all about me society. as a Christian, we should be living in it's an all about Him society. where it has everything to do with the glory of God, and has nothing to do about us. if that means being persecuted for the glory of God, then so be it. if it means dying for the glory of God, so be it. can we wrap our hearts around that? philippians 1:21 says "for to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain" do we really believe that?

if we truly love God, then everything will pale in comparison to Him. and that includes our convenience, our comfort, and even our own lives. because at the end of the day, at the end of it all, it's all about Him.

"not to us , O LORD, not to us but to Your name be the glory, because of Your love and faithfulness." (psalm 115:1 [NIV])

Posted by Leo Chan at October 11, 2003 10:09 AM