When I was in high-school I got a job at a clothing store in the mall. On the last day I worked there, a young man came in who was interested in an expensive jacket. The job was commission-based and my manager constantly reminded me —“Whatever it takes to make the sale.” The young man was reluctant to splurge on the jacket and my manager saw me fidgeting in reluctance to make the sale. So, the manager came over and convinced the young man to buy it. As the young man walked to the register, I was compelled to tell him the whole truth: “You need to know that the zipper on that jacket is broken.” Needless to say, my manager advised me that my services were no longer needed.
One of the many things I love about the Bible is that it doesn’t leave out the ugly parts. God tells us about the broken zippers. The Bible isn’t trying to sell anyone Christianity, its focus is truth, more so than any particular emotion. And often times, truth can be ugly. Like, Peter-denying-Jesus-three-times-even-though-he-swore-he-wouldn’t, kind of ugly (Mark 14:31,67-72). Scripture paints no illusions as it shows us the full gamut of the human condition: betrayal and faithfulness, sorrow and joy, perversion and purity. We see failure, weakness, and fear, along with victory, strength, and courage.
For a long time Christianity has attempted to sell people cheap happiness, instead of teaching them how to have costly joy. And to teach people how to have costly joy, we must tell them the whole truth of what it means to be a Christian, both the struggles and the joys. We must do exactly as our Master instructed, “teach them to observe all I commanded…” (Matt 28:20). And Jesus never commanded us to sell Him to anyone, He never told us to focus only the good parts, He never said, “Whatever it takes to make the sale.” He commanded us to “count the cost,” and for someone to accurately count the cost, means that we tell them about the broken zippers (Luke 14:28).
We tell them that eternal joy in Jesus Christ is costly. Jesus communicates this emphatically in His teachings (Matt 13:44,45; 16:25,26; Luke 14:16-35). It will cost us our own right to ourselves as we submit to Him as Lord. It will cost us our pride as we humble ourselves before Him. For Christ to be our supreme devotion, means that our walk with Him is one of increasing narrowness (Matt 7:14), allowing nothing-- not family (Luke 14:26), not possessions (Luke 14:33), not ambitions (Luke 14:8,9), not worldly obligations (Luke 14:18-20), not anything in all of creation to come between us and Him.
Beloved, here is the whole truth: Jesus Christ gives us Himself freely by our faith in Him, but we must be prepared in our heart to have Him at any cost.
(Matt 13:44,45) The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and in his joy he went and sold all he had and bought that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.
(Matt 16:24,25 ) Then Jesus told His disciples, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”
(John 15:1,2) I am the true vine, and My Father is the keeper of the vineyard. He cuts off every branch in Me that bears no fruit, and every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.
(Acts 14:21,22) After they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying, “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.”
(Prov 23:23) Invest in truth and never sell it—get wisdom and instruction and understanding.
(Posted on Facebook 11/15/2020 Talitha Koum)
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