“Are you following Jesus this closely?”. I saw this sticker in the rear window of a car this morning as I drove to work. With my distance vision being good for my age, I read it quite easily as I was not very close to the car ahead of me. It made me realise, as I was listening to Dr. Myles Munroe talking about purpose and being made in the image and likeness of God, that as a Christian, I am so far off the mark in terms of following God.
I go to church, and I do as good as I think is good enough towards others, but I fail hopelessly in terms of portraying His image as I claim to follow Him. I think that doing good, even in the church, is going to get me to heaven. Yet my relationship with my brother is messed up; I don’t show brotherly love, yet God says in Matthew, “Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.”
That’s just one example. There are many more, like the ten commandments we are warned about in the Bible, as we see in the following passage. Mark 10:17-21 tells us, “Now as He was going out on the road, one came running, kneeled before Him, and asked Him, “Good
Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery.’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Do not defraud,’ ‘Honor your
father and your mother.’ ” And he answered and said to Him, “Teacher, all these things I
have kept from my youth.” Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, “One thing you lack: go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow me.” I believe that Jesus here is saying, Do these things, follow these commandments, and other commands in my Word, as you follow me, and you will portray my image and likeness.
Following God but choosing how and when and why and for what selfish reason is problematic because that is not following God, never mind closely. We cannot follow God and choose our own way at the same time. We will not end up where God is leading us if we do that.
In His book “Good or God? Why Good without God isn’t enough,” John Bevere unpacks this. We get so caught up in doing good that we don’t realise we are not doing what’s right according to God. We must be about our Father’s business and doing good does not always equate to being about His
business.
Following God entails taking up the cross. When I look at the cross of Jesus, it is about compassion; it is about love; it is about forgiveness; it is about honouring The Father;
Doing good outside of doing what’s right in God’s eyes is the problem when I say I am created in His image and likeness but act otherwise. I am self-deceived. God help me.
