Matthew 19:16-22
The Rich Young Man
16 Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”
17 “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments.”
18 “Which ones?” the man inquired.
Jesus replied, “‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, 19 honor your father and mother,’[a] and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’”
20 “All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”
21 Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
22 When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.
John 6:60-66
Many Disciples Desert Jesus
60 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”
61 Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? 62 What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! 63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. 64 Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. 65 He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him.”
66 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
Matthew 7:13-14
The Narrow and Wide Gates
13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
Romans 7:14-25
A Christian Follower's Struggles
14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[c] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
They say that a picture paints a thousand words, and I believe this...It is also said that actions speak louder than words, and I very much believe that also...
A goal I have in life is to be a more consistent Christian, but it is a struggle...
Many years ago G. K. Chesterton was ask by a London newspaper to join other authors and thinkers to address the weighty and important question of "what's wrong with the world." His response was a very short one...It really had only two words...His answer was "I am."...He understood his own struggles in trying to follow Jesus...Chesterton also wrote about this quote...He wrote "It's not only a witty reply, it also reflects a great deal of humility and wisdom...In fact, I'd argue it is almost Zen-like in its simplicity and truthfulness...If all of us -- including myself -- would just stop trying to fix all the problems of the world and instead focus our efforts internally on improving ourselves, the world would be a better place."...He knew about the sinful nature of man and his own personal daily struggles...
In the Gospel of Matthew we learn of another one wanting to follow Jesus...He too would struggle...The rich young man, listened to Jesus and then turned away from Him, because one of His teachings was too difficult for him...And when you read the four gospels, their are many hard and tough sayings of Jesus that are very difficult to follow out in our lives...Following Jesus and His teachings is a very hard thing to do...
Not only does it have an impact on the life that you lead, it has an impact on the lives of others...It has an impact on you personally, because following Jesus means a strong foundation in life, comfort when things go wrong, and after your death -an eternal life with Him and His Father...These are just a few things we get from following Him...
But the impact on others is quite significant...If all Christians could live their lives out similar to Jesus, I do not doubt that the followers of His would increase dramatically...But when we do our best to study Him and follow Him, we just cannot quite come near the life that He led -and this has an impact on others, and bringing others into following Him....Being a good consistent Christian each and everyday is hard, very hard...It was tough for the rich young man...Jesus had a group of His followers once desert Him, because what He taught was very hard to live out in their lives...Maybe humility does get in our way...Maybe our ego gets in the way of one or more of His teachings...But something gets in our way...There is something quite difficult to live out what He teaches...
It was even tough for one of the best Christian examples we have in the history of Christianity....His name was Paul...Paul wrote almost half the books of the New Testament and he had issues always doing the right thing, and trying to carry it out...He struggled with evil, and following the narrow path each and everyday...He wrote about this in his epistle to the Romans...If all believers could just live out their and our lives more like Jesus and focused all the time on the effort to improve ourselves by following His teachings -the world would be a much better place...And the number of Christians, I think, would increase and grow dramatically...