At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus wraps up his teaching by telling his followers:
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” (Matthew 7:24–27)
In this passage, Jesus makes clear that it’s not enough to simply hear Christ’s commands or to have a vague understanding of what they mean. It’s only when we put those commands into action that we can find the kind of foundation necessary to weather the storms that will inevitably come our way.
Most people in America today have at least a passing awareness of who Jesus is and are even familiar with some of his teachings. But familiarity is not enough. Christ demands obedience, and nothing less will suffice.
We are blessed to live in a time when at least some elements of Christ’s commands for how we should live and how we should treat one another are already accepted as the morally right thing to do. That puts us head and shoulders above those first Christians, who lived in a world built on a view much closer to Thucydides than Jesus.
At the same time, though, the lost around us are unlikely to take that next step from awareness to obedience unless they see us do it first.
So, as we finish up for today, ask the Holy Spirit if there are any areas of your life where you’ve settled for less than full obedience? Are there cracks in your foundation, or rooms built on sand?
Most of us have some area we have tried to keep back as our own. But God’s promise is that they won’t hold up for long. And I fear the same will be true of our nation as well unless something changes.
And that’s where you and I come in.
God has given us the privilege of partnering with him in helping to bring our culture back to Jesus, one life at a time. – Dr. Ryan Denison
Leave a Reply