True disciples devote themselves, absolutely and ultimately, only to Jesus
Jesus said: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” (Matthew 10:34–37, ESV)
Jesus speaks in these verses about those who live in a way “worthy” of him. To be worthy of Jesus is to respond to him in a way fitting to who he is and what he has done. Jesus is the eternal Son of God who became a man and suffered and died for our sins, enabling us to have forgiveness of sins and eternal life. Thus, we owe him everything. Therefore, true disciples devote themselves, absolutely and ultimately, only to Jesus.
Absolute and ultimate
Notice our devotion to Jesus must be absolute and ultimate. Absolute means “having no restriction, exception, or qualification” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). Ultimate means “the best or most extreme of its kind: utmost” (Merriam-Webster).
So, our devotion to Jesus must define everything in our lives. It must precede and control any other devotion in our lives. In the terminology of card-playing, our devotion to Jesus must trump all other devotions.
When I initially wrote this principle, I mistakenly said our devotion must be exclusive. But Jesus does not call us to exclusive devotion to him. That would mean we have zero devotion to anyone else. The Bible, however, makes clear elsewhere that we are to be devoted to other important people and things. Romans 12:10 (LSB) says we should be “devoted to one another in brotherly love, giving preference to one another in honor.” God wants Christians to be devoted to one another. He wants husbands and fathers to be devoted to their wives and children, and wives to their husbands. He wants them to fulfill faithfully their responsibilities toward their dependents.
If our devotion to Jesus is absolute and ultimate, then these lesser devotions give way to whatever God’s will is for us. In other words, if Jesus tells me to do one thing and my employer asks me to do something opposed to that, then I must do what Jesus says. If my devotion to my boss were absolute and ultimate, then I would listen to him and ignore Jesus.
Your cross
Jesus said, “Whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:38–39)
To take one’s cross means to die to other desires. Taking your cross is similar to what people do who join the Marines. They give up their clothing, their style of dress, their hairstyle, their living situation, their job, even their ability to communicate when they want to their family and friends. They give up control of their own schedule. They give up control of what town and building they will live in. When you go into the military, you truly devote yourself to that branch of the military. You literally are willing to die for it.
Idols
God reveals himself in the Bible as a jealous God who will not be worshiped or valued alongside other gods or idols.
When God gave Israel the Ten Commandments, he said, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God” (Exodus 20:2–5, ESV)
The challenging words of Jesus in Matthew 10 are perfectly in keeping with what God said in Exodus 20 about being a jealous God. This is God’s nature, his very name and identity. He will not accept being belittled as less important than something in his creation, something infinitely inferior in power, wisdom, love, mercy, compassion, truth, goodness, life. God is infinitely superior in every imaginable way to everything in his creation. Since he created all, then everything that exists is inferior to him.
When God calls us to abandon our idolatry of created things, he is doing us the greatest favor possible, because he is infinitely greater and more good than anything he has created. He calls us to the abundant life for which we were created. God designed us to find maximum happiness in him. Any substitute is the poorest imaginable trade-off.
Substitutes
Substituting something else for Jesus hinders non-Christians from giving devotion to him in the first place. They love the things of this world and do not want to surrender them to the Lord. Rather than loving Jesus above all, what they love most are movies, sports, money, career, friends, shopping and possessions, cooking and eating, building the best body they can through exercise, the approval and acclamation of others, success, sexual pleasure and pornography, drugs, and partying.
Many things that stand in the way of devotion to Jesus are good things of this life that become bad things because they compete with God.
On the other hand, we can also refuse to devote our lives to Jesus because we cherish particular sins as absolute and ultimate. Last week I was evangelizing on the sidewalk, and two young ladies approached, holding hands. I announced what I normally do, “The Kingdom of heaven is near. God raised Jesus from the dead. There’s hope for everyone.”
One of the girls responded, “We’re gay.” In other words she understood correctly that her sin was a barrier to following Jesus, and if she were to devote herself to Jesus she had to leave behind homosexual practice.
Any sin can stand in the way of following Jesus: for example, living together outside of marriage, viewing pornography, stealing, living for money and greed, lying, envy and jealousy, hatred, bitterness and unforgiveness. When we choose to cling to a sin instead of following Jesus, we are refusing to devote ourselves to Jesus. We may want Jesus in our lives, but we want our sin more, or we want something we love in the world more.
Jesus is uncompromising about requiring absolute and ultimate devotion.
People can claim to be disciples and claim to be Christians, but if they have not devoted themselves absolutely and ultimately to Jesus, they are kidding themselves. They may be believers in a proposition, in an idea; they might give assent to a theological truth, just as someone can assent to the truth that the sky is blue, but they are not disciples. They might be the nicest people in town, morally upright in every way, but if they are not devoted to Jesus, then they are not worthy of Jesus and not true disciples. Very likely, they will not be saved unless they are confessing this fault and praying for forgiveness and seeking earnestly to grow into full devotion. If they do that, there is hope for them.
Jesus must not be an add-on to one’s life. He must be the center of devotion.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, I choose to have you as the highest aim and devotion of my life. You are my everything; you are my all. You are my Lord, and you alone are my Savior. I will not love any other person on earth the way I love you. I will not live for any other cause, pleasure, or experience; instead I will live for you. You will be my highest joy, and my relationship with you will be my highest priority. You alone are worthy of such devotion. Amen