Family,
One of the greatest misunderstandings about Christianity today is the difference between believing in Jesus and following Him.
Many people are willing to admire Jesus.
Many are willing to agree with His teachings.
Many are willing to call Him Savior.
But Jesus never invited people to simply admire Him.
He called them to follow Him.
That invitation has not changed.
In a world that often presents Christianity as a way to improve your life, Jesus presents discipleship as a call to surrender your life. That may sound difficult at first, but it is actually the pathway to true life. The One who calls us to deny ourselves is the same One who laid down His own life for us.
As we continue our journey through the teachings of Jesus, we come to one of His most searching passages.
"And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them,"
— Luke 14:25 (KJV)
Notice the setting.
Large crowds were following Jesus.
From the outside, it looked like success.
The crowds were growing.
People were listening.
His influence was increasing.
Yet instead of making discipleship easier, Jesus made it clearer.
He did not lower the standard to keep the crowd.
He revealed the cost of following Him.
That should make us pause.
Today, we often measure success by attendance, popularity, or influence.
Jesus measured something different.
He looked for surrendered hearts.
Jesus then says something that can sound startling to modern readers.
"If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple."
— Luke 14:26 (KJV)
At first glance, this seems to contradict everything else Jesus taught about loving others.
But Scripture never contradicts itself.
Jesus is using a common Hebrew expression of comparison.
He is not commanding hatred toward our families. Elsewhere He commands us to honor our father and mother and teaches us to love even our enemies.
His point is this:
Our love for Christ must be so great that every other earthly relationship is secondary by comparison.
Jesus will never share first place.
He is either Lord of all, or He is not Lord at all.
That truth confronts every one of us.
What occupies first place in my heart?
My career?
My comfort?
My reputation?
My possessions?
Even my family?
Or Christ?
Discipleship begins with rightly ordered love.
Jesus continues,
"And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple."
— Luke 14:27 (KJV)
We often wear crosses as jewelry.
We place them on church buildings.
We display them in our homes.
Those things can be meaningful.
But in the first century, the cross represented something entirely different.
It was an instrument of execution.
When Jesus spoke these words, His hearers understood that a man carrying a cross was walking toward death.
Jesus was calling His followers to die—not physically in that moment, but spiritually to self-rule.
This is the heart of biblical discipleship.
Following Christ means laying down our own agenda so that His will becomes our own.
It means saying with John the Baptist,
"He must increase, but I must decrease."
— John 3:30 (KJV)
That is not a loss.
It is freedom.
Because the life Christ calls us to surrender is the very life He came to redeem.
Jesus then gives two illustrations.
A man building a tower.
A king preparing for battle.
In both examples, He asks the same question.
Have you counted the cost?
"For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost..."
— Luke 14:28 (KJV)
No wise builder begins construction without understanding what the project requires.
No wise king enters battle without considering whether he is prepared.
In the same way, Jesus calls people to thoughtful commitment.
He never manipulates.
He never pressures.
He never hides the reality of discipleship.
Instead, He invites people to understand exactly what following Him means.
That is one of the beautiful marks of our Lord.
His invitation is honest.
He promises forgiveness.
He promises eternal life.
He promises His presence.
But He also promises that following Him will require surrender.
One of the greatest theological truths in this passage is that salvation and discipleship must never be confused.
We are not saved because we surrender enough.
We are saved by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ alone.
Paul writes,
"For by grace are ye saved through faith... not of works..."
— Ephesians 2:8–9 (KJV)
Our surrender does not earn salvation.
Christ accomplished that through His perfect life, atoning death, and victorious resurrection.
But the grace that saves us also transforms us.
It teaches us to deny ungodliness.
It teaches us to live for Christ.
True faith does not leave us unchanged.
The One who justifies also begins the lifelong work of sanctification.
That is why Jesus speaks so plainly about discipleship.
Not to earn God's favor.
But because those who have received His grace now desire to follow Him wholeheartedly.
As I read Luke 14, I cannot help but ask myself a difficult question.
Have I truly surrendered every area of my life to Christ?
It is easy to surrender the obvious things.
It is harder to surrender control.
Harder to surrender plans.
Harder to surrender pride.
Harder to surrender the future we have imagined for ourselves.
Yet those are often the very places where Jesus lovingly calls us to trust Him.
The Christian life is not simply adding Jesus to everything else we value.
It is allowing Him to become the treasure above everything else.
That changes how we work.
How we spend our time.
How we treat people.
How we respond to suffering.
How we make decisions.
Every area of life comes under His lordship.
One of the greatest examples of this is found in the Apostle Paul.
Before meeting Christ, Paul valued his education, his reputation, and his religious achievements.
But after encountering Jesus, he wrote,
"But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ."
— Philippians 3:7 (KJV)
Paul did not lose everything.
He found Someone greater.
That is the secret of discipleship.
Jesus never asks us to give something up without offering something infinitely better in return.
He is not trying to take joy from us.
He is leading us into lasting joy.
He is not taking away life.
He is giving abundant life.
So let me ask you the same question Jesus asked the crowds without speaking it aloud.
Have you counted the cost?
Not because salvation must be earned.
But because following Christ means giving Him every part of your life.
The remarkable truth is this:
Whatever Christ asks us to surrender will never compare to what we gain in Him.
Our greatest treasure is not what we leave behind.
Our greatest treasure is Christ Himself.
He is worth every sacrifice.
Every act of obedience.
Every surrendered dream.
Every difficult step of faith.
Because the One who calls us to take up our cross is the same One who carried His cross to Calvary for us.
He counted the cost.
He willingly endured the cross.
He bore the wrath our sins deserved.
He rose again on the third day.
And now He invites us, not into a life of empty religion, but into a life of joyful discipleship with Him.
There is no greater privilege.
There is no greater treasure.
There is no greater King.
So this week, don't ask,
"What will following Jesus cost me?"
Ask instead,
"Is there anything more valuable than Christ?"
The answer is found in the words of Peter.
"Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life."
— John 6:68 (KJV)
There is nowhere else to go.
There is no one greater to follow.
Until next time, keep learning, keep growing, and keep staying near to Christ
Randy Faulkner
The Learning Disciple