Count the cost . . .

Never tell your children that having a dentist work on their cavities will not hurt them. When they sit in that chair and experience that huge needle in their mouth, and when that drill, whose very noise almost hurts, begins to spin, their trust in you will either vanish or be severely diminished.

We once were members of the church whose pastor is the author of the devotional guide I am using this year. During our time with that congregation, we participated in an outreach ministry. We learned the importance of telling people that when someone becomes a Christian, their life will change. They must know what would happen to them and “count the cost.” If they were not willing to give up their sin, or have God change their lives, then they were not ready to receive Jesus Christ and eternal life.

I didn’t know anything about that when I was saved. No one explained to me that part of what it means to be a Christian is learning to love God with all my heart. While that doesn’t mean that I would stop loving others, He would be first in my life. Of course this caused some conflict. Jesus said it would:

“Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:34-39)

These tests within family life are not as difficult in our culture as they are in others. When people who are born into one of the major religions find themselves called into the family of God through faith in Jesus Christ, they will also find themselves at great odds with their earthly family. They might be ignored as if dead, or severely persecuted. Some will even die rather than deny their Savior. Others will struggle, perhaps because they, like me, were not expecting family opposition.

Besides the warning here about priorities, these verses raise other questions after someone becomes a Christian. Some read them and say that there are Christians who cannot be disciples, as if there are two classes of Christians. They say that if a believer has not denied himself and taken up his cross to follow Christ, then he or she has not reached the level of commitment that makes them worthy to be Christ’s disciple.

Whoever makes such judgments forgets one important thing; when Christians are brought into the family of God, we have been spiritually ‘reborn’ and are like babes. We have some growing to do.

In the ‘honeymoon’ joy of those early days of salvation, I thought I would do anything for God, but none of my zeal had been tested. I was just a babe. Someone in my family had not yet said to me, “Lots of people get along just fine without your kind of faith.” I’d not yet been mocked or betrayed. Those tests would come later. I would discover that the faith God had given me would stand the tests, yet in those early days my faith was more emotion and zeal than firmly grounded in truth.

These things are not taught much in today’s churches. Far too many Christians tell others that believing in Christ will solve all their problems, turn their lives around, make everything wonderful. While He does do that, along with the joy and wonder of belonging to Him there is also opposition, conflict and times of testing. If anyone wants to follow Christ, we must tell them that they will continue to live in a sin-cursed world and will most definitely struggle against that sin. Heaven is certain, but that bliss comes later.