Do not count the cost
I read this a few days ago, and realised that through the stories that Jesus told before this verse, talk about what happens if we count the cost and then go ahead despite the cost being too high. So I logged this thought in my mind.
So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions. Luke 14:33
I do not need to count the cost before following Jesus, because if I counted the cost I might find that it is too much for me to be able to handle. Right now if the cost of following Jesus is keep wife or lose wife. It hurts, but there is no competition, I would give up my marriage to follow Christ. As a friend said, my marriage should not become my idol!
That would not mean that I would not do what I could to save My marriage, but faced with the ultimatum I would choose to follow Christ. That has always been my thought process for over 40 years. That is even before I first became married.
And so the stories that come before this verse. Who would start building a new tower without counting the cost first. Why? Because he would not want to look a fool for staring and not being able finish because it is too expensive. (my paraphrase) This is what Jesus said. He counts the cost to make sure he can complete the building, before he starts.
For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Luke 14:28-30
Here is the truth, I we could not afford the cost we would not start the project. That is why we would count the cost first. Lets put it another way. If we sat down and counted the cost of following Jesus, we might think that there is too much to give up. We might think that it is to hard, the price to pay is too high. We want to save our old way of life rather than follow Jesus.
I think that if every Christian was made to sit down and calculate what the cost was going to be, before they made the decision for Christ. there would be very few Christians. Think about it, would there have been 3000 added to the church on the day of Pentecost, if Peter had got up and preached, “Repent, be baptised, receive the Holy Spirit, then you will be persecuted for your faith, some of you will be tortured and killed. Things will get so bad that you are going to be run out of your homes; you will have to flee all over the world to protect your lives.
That would have been Peter laying out the cost of following Jesus to all before they made the decision to repent. Counting the cost. If I had been told before I accepted Jesus as Lord, that I was going to be thrown out on my home by my parents, and that I was going to be threatened that I would be murdered. Then later, because of my faith, my wife and mother of my children were going to leave me, and take our children away form me. I could have thought really, that cost is too high. I might have said as many have, if that is what it takes to follow Jesus, it is too much, I will not. That is because I had placed a high value upon those relationships. On the life that I wanted to build for myself.
Jesus said, “Take up your cross and follow me.” Elsewhere he said let the dead bury the dead, just follow me. In other words do not count the cost just follow me. It dos not matter what may be going on in your life, we have to look at our lives as of no worth compared to following Christ.
More to come
Charlie
