Serve the Lord your God and abandon all else

There are a lot of pastors out there who like to say Jesus would use hyperbole in his lessons to his followers to get his point across.

In Mark 9: 42-48, we see this example.

“If anyone causes one of these little ones — those who believe in me — to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, where ‘the worms that eat them do not die, and the fire is not quenched.’”

There may be a little hyperbole in Jesus’ statement, I’ve heard preachers say such, but Jesus isn’t exaggerating in these verses.

In our daily life, a believer should seek to never stand between a person and salvation. How important is this? Important enough that Jesus said it would be better for a millstone to be hung around our neck and thrown into a large body of water than for us to keep a person from coming to Jesus.

Charles Spurgeon once noted that everything that offends God should offend us. Much of what is acceptable, and in fact upright, in society today is offensive to God. These compromised morals have found their way into churches and now what is acceptable in society is acceptable in church.

“Where two hearts are bound together in the bonds of love, they are quite sure to endeavor to remove everything out of the way that would cause pain to either,” Spurgeon noted in one of his sermons. “You cannot love me if you favor my enemies. You can have no affection for me if you delight to thrust before me that which vexes my spirit and grieves my heart. True love feels a sympathy with the person loved and learns to put away that which is obnoxious. Now say, Heart, do you put away from yourself that which God hates? Do you hate it because he hates it — not so much because your fellow Christians dislike it, or because the public judgment would go against it — but do you hate evil because it is detestable in the sight of God?”

For centuries empires ruled through divide and conquer. An outside force would move into an area and divide the people against themselves, once a society begins to devour itself, then it was easy for the invader to come in and take charge.

Folks, that is happening in our churches today. The enemy, in this case is Satan, and he is dividing our churches and our land.

At this point in my life I can confidently say I really don’t care about my country, my only goal is to do what is right in the sight of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and trust me, his views run contrary with that of our government and the direction of this land.

Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 6:17, “Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,’ says the Lord. ‘And do not touch what is unclean; and I will welcome you.’”

Some have taken this command to the extreme, we call Amish and folks like them extreme, but they have refused to compromise with the world. What have we done? We have wallowed in the pigsty and the stench of our filth covers us. As Jesus concluded in Mark 9:49-50 we are salt, “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt among yourselves, and be at peace with each other.”

When we have wallowed with the pigs, how can we tell others to clean up their act?

We have failed to separate ourselves from society. We condone sexual perversion; we aid in the breakup of the family; we complain at the slaughter of innocents known as abortion, but we do little to stop it. We have utterly failed in our missionary work in this world, but what if we followed Spurgeon’s advice?

What if, we opened God’s word and opened up a line of communication with our Savior. He will speak to us through his holy word, and then our hearts will begin to align with that of our Savior.

The Pharisees were looked up to by the people in Jesus’ day, we would say they lived commendable lives, but Jesus held them in little regard and he called them the biggest hypocrites and sinners of all.

Many of Jesus’ indictments against them can be directed toward Jesus’ followers of today.

I would hate to count the times when I have caused someone to stumble, or to commit a sin against God. That is something for which I will have to answer for when Christ judges my life. While my salvation may not be in doubt, what I have done for Jesus is. I have offended many and for that I pray for Christ’s mercy.

As an individual believer, as a group of believers, as the corporate of believer known as the church, we should seek to let go of that which causes offense to God, as it would be better for us to go limping into heaven than send a single soul to hell because of the ineffectiveness of our witness to the world.

Do we want to be the church of Laodicea?

“I know your deeds, that you are neither cold or hot. I wish you were one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm — neither hot nor cold — I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see,” — Revelations 3:15-18

Will we be this church, or will we be the church of Philadelphia that will keep the word of God and not deny the name of Jesus?

Align our hearts with God. For those who are searching for truth, they should see us and say, “I want what they have?” For the world, we should be an offense, and take that as a badge of honor.

Serve the Lord your God and abandon all else, for nothing else can survive his refining fire.