I listened to another really great sermon from my pastor at Restoration Fellowship. As is his custom, my pastor knows where he is going to start, but being sensitive to the Holy Spirit, he has no idea where he will end. Yesterday, he started in a continuance of his series on the church, but he moved onto being able to listen to God and then to an emphasis on the difference between merely believing Jesus is God but declaring him as Lord. And God gave me a new light on a passage that many people struggle with.
In one of his most difficult sermons, Jesus tells his follows they must give up everything to follow him. One asked to let him bury his father. Another asked to let him say good-bye to his family. Jesus was harsh and told them not to do that and follow him. He went as far as saying that unless you HATE you mother, brother, sisters, friends, etc, you cannot be his disciple. Many people interpret that as loving Jesus more than them. But God showed me something that might put this in perspective.
God has taught me so much about spiritual warfare and I wonder if Jesus had a spiritual perspective when he told his followers that sermon. In Revelation, we know God wants us hot or cold. He doesn't want us lukewarm. To put it simply, you cannot be a fence-sitter with Jesus. The truth is, you have to be 100% with Jesus, or in God's eyes, you are 100% against him. Trying to live half your life with Jesus and half your life on your own is not going 50-50 or any other percentage. God says he'd rather you be in complete and total rebellion than trying to meet 'halfway'. So to be a Christian, it is a total commitment.
Also, Romans 10:9 says if you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, then you will be saved. Many people just want to be believe in thier heart. But they don't want to make Jesus the Lord of thier life. 1 Corinthians 12:3 says that no one who lives by the Spirit can curse Jesus. It then says that unless you are living by the Spirit, you cannnot declare Jesus to be Lord. We know that when we become Christians we receive the Holy Spirit. If you have the Holy Spirit, you will not be able to deny Christ. At the same time, unless you have the Holy Spirit, you cannot make Jesus Lord of your life. You also cannot declare it.
And this brings me to the point I learned yesterday. When you become a Christian, in a spiritual context, you change alliances. You were once allied with your father, the Devil, but now you are allied with your Father, the Lord God. Now when Jesus was saying we must hate those who we consider family, he was saying we must consider them as an enemy. In America in the Christian home, this is not easily seen. But in the non-Christian home or in places like China or the Middle East, this is a very real issue. There are many stories where a person in a Muslim home becomes a Christian and in an instant the family memebers become enemies. Jesus said he would turn father upon son, mother against daughter, brother against brother, and this is what he was talking about. Any family member or close friend who is not a Christian is allied with the ultimate villain in Satan.
This is also why Jesus taught us not to yolk ourselves with someone that doesn't follow him. Why do marriages where one is a Christian and the other is not end up being so difficult? Because they are, in the spirit, enemies of each other. Marriage between enemies doesn't necessarily bring peace as it does in some cultures. Only God can do that. By marrying an unbeliever, you are bringing a double agent into your home. They will seek an opportunity to destroy you, even if the spouse doesn't intend to. As a non-Christian, the spouse is likely an unaware agent of the devil and will lead you astray or worse. That is what happened to Solomon. Don't use marriage as a witness opportunity. It doesn't work that easily.
But Jesus also taught us how to treat our enemies. If we have a family member that is not a Christian, it is our responsibility to witness to them and pray that God will bring them over to our side. Only God can change them, but he often will not act until we do. Not that he can't, but he chooses to act through us. Any family member who is a Christian however is not to be considered an enemy, but as an ally. It's a lot to think about, but a lot of meat.
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