Post by Cindy on Aug 28, 2016 9:07:24 GMT -5
You are free to love the people in your life when you love God more than anything. Because their love and acceptance is not your ultimate goal, you won’t be enslaved by your expectations for them and the disappointments that inevitably follow. Jesus is calling you to turn from love of self to love for him. Think about how Jesus has loved you—he lived the perfect life you should have lived, and he died the death you deserved. When you wake up every morning and interact personally with the one who has done all this for you, your family’s slights and insults won’t plague you in the same way. This won’t be automatic or easy. Jesus said that each of us must take up our cross every day (Luke 9:23). You must daily die to your self-centeredness by finding your identity in what Jesus has done for you in his life, death, and resurrection. As you do this every day, you will turn from making anything else in creation more important to you than the God who has rescued you from your self-centeredness. Growing as a disciple is gradual, in the same way that the crucifixion was slow and agonizing. As we die to self and embrace our new identity in Christ, God is slowly and patiently bringing us to the end of ourselves, so that he might fill us with the life of Christ. (1 John 2:1–14 posted at end) Heart of the matter: Daily reflections for changing hearts and lives.
“Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23)
deny himself: Jesus does not speak of denying ourselves some thing. We are to deny ourselves, our ambitions, our self-interest. Self must no longer rule our lives. take up his cross: Jesus pictures His disciples as condemned to death and carrying their crosses along with Him to the place of crucifixion. We must live dead to self-centeredness. The Open Bible
The Jews understood that “the cross” referred to a once-for-all death. Condemned criminals had to carry their own cross (the top beam) to the place of execution. We die to self so as to live for God. (cf. Rom. 6; 2 Cor. 5:14–15; Gal. 2:20; 1 John 3:16). The fall has made mankind’s independence and self-centeredness the goal of life, but now believers must return to selfless dependence on God. This should become a world view and life directive (i.e. daily). It is not a one-time decision, but a recurrent, volitional choice of priorities (cf. 14:33). The Gospel according to Luke
cross.To them it would have evoked a picture of a violent, degrading death. He was demanding total commitment from them—even unto physical death—and making this call to full surrender a part of the message they were to proclaim to others. This same call to life-or-death devotion to Christ is repeated in Matt 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 14:27. For those who come to Christ with self-renouncing faith, there will be true and eternal life (Matthew 10:39). Self-denial was a common thread in Christ’s teaching to his disciples (cf. Luke 14:26-27; Matthew 10:38; Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34; John 12:24–26). The kind of self-denial He sought was not a reclusive asceticism, but a willingness to obey His commandments, serve one another, and suffer—perhaps even die—for His sake. The MacArthur study Bible
The Jewish nation had witnessed hundreds of Roman crucifixions & had come to classify the cross as a symbol of shame & suffering as well as death. Jesus didn't leave His audience room for conjecture, for He defined this metaphor of the cross as meaning self-denial. Furthermore, He extended His definition to encompass all of life, so the appeal to take up one’s cross daily & follow Him is a demand that the believer subject his whole life to Christ, just as thoroughly as a victim’s whole life was nailed to the cross. In case there should be any misunderstanding, Jesus repeated His point here (& parallels) as being that a believer loses his life to the cause of Christ so as to gain a fuller life, eternally.The Life of Christ
Jesus laid down the stern requirements for discipleship. We must first say no to ourselves—not simply to pleasures or possessions, but to self—and then take up our cross and follow Christ daily. The Bible exposition commentary
“My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did. Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining. Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him. I write to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name. I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, dear children, because you have known the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.” (1 John 2:1–14)
“Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23)
deny himself: Jesus does not speak of denying ourselves some thing. We are to deny ourselves, our ambitions, our self-interest. Self must no longer rule our lives. take up his cross: Jesus pictures His disciples as condemned to death and carrying their crosses along with Him to the place of crucifixion. We must live dead to self-centeredness. The Open Bible
The Jews understood that “the cross” referred to a once-for-all death. Condemned criminals had to carry their own cross (the top beam) to the place of execution. We die to self so as to live for God. (cf. Rom. 6; 2 Cor. 5:14–15; Gal. 2:20; 1 John 3:16). The fall has made mankind’s independence and self-centeredness the goal of life, but now believers must return to selfless dependence on God. This should become a world view and life directive (i.e. daily). It is not a one-time decision, but a recurrent, volitional choice of priorities (cf. 14:33). The Gospel according to Luke
cross.To them it would have evoked a picture of a violent, degrading death. He was demanding total commitment from them—even unto physical death—and making this call to full surrender a part of the message they were to proclaim to others. This same call to life-or-death devotion to Christ is repeated in Matt 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 14:27. For those who come to Christ with self-renouncing faith, there will be true and eternal life (Matthew 10:39). Self-denial was a common thread in Christ’s teaching to his disciples (cf. Luke 14:26-27; Matthew 10:38; Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34; John 12:24–26). The kind of self-denial He sought was not a reclusive asceticism, but a willingness to obey His commandments, serve one another, and suffer—perhaps even die—for His sake. The MacArthur study Bible
The Jewish nation had witnessed hundreds of Roman crucifixions & had come to classify the cross as a symbol of shame & suffering as well as death. Jesus didn't leave His audience room for conjecture, for He defined this metaphor of the cross as meaning self-denial. Furthermore, He extended His definition to encompass all of life, so the appeal to take up one’s cross daily & follow Him is a demand that the believer subject his whole life to Christ, just as thoroughly as a victim’s whole life was nailed to the cross. In case there should be any misunderstanding, Jesus repeated His point here (& parallels) as being that a believer loses his life to the cause of Christ so as to gain a fuller life, eternally.The Life of Christ
Jesus laid down the stern requirements for discipleship. We must first say no to ourselves—not simply to pleasures or possessions, but to self—and then take up our cross and follow Christ daily. The Bible exposition commentary
“My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did. Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining. Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him. I write to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name. I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, dear children, because you have known the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.” (1 John 2:1–14)
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