August 23, 2010
The Cost
When my children got their drivers licenses I told them that driving under the influence was unacceptable and if I even so much as suspected them of drinking and driving I’d turn them into the police myself. I was of course concerned first with their safety, followed by the car, the insurance and the possible loss of their license. I was shocked when I recently heard the media reporting that the cost of a DUI is over $10,000. I doubt that many of today’s offenders have ever actually counted the cost of driving under the influence. Jesus told his followers, those then and those today, that there is a cost to becoming his disciple. “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:22-27 NIV)
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----The cost of a DUI is paid only if one is caught DUI. But the cost of discipleship will be paid whether one becomes a disciple or not. The wages of sin is death. And we all are caught sinning, generally before we even know what it is to sin. We all will pay that price against the desires of the self to not pay it. But the disciple decides to pay the price before it is exacted from him, agreeing that the cost is proper. Then it becomes apparent to the disciple what the difference is between the cost of a DUI and the cost of discipleship.
-----The cost of a DUI is penalty meant to form a disincentive to drive under the influence. The cost of discipleship is a realignment from what is tragically wrong to what is gloriously right.
-----Man, as created in God’s image, is an autonomous individual. He has been given the ability and the opportunity to decide not only his own actions, but also the purpose of those actions. The life he is born into is more death than it is life, because it requires so much of his efforts to be focused upon the maintenance of his own life and situation. God’s moral boundaries around man’s efforts to do this are far subtler than man’s own compulsions to do it. So, when man decides his own actions and purposes, there is little consideration given to the mutual benefit of others. His nature is a competition with others in the least, and a using of others for resources more over. God, being about love that is the consideration to mutually benefit others, is quite the opposite of hate that is about the selfish use of others. The cost of discipleship is the laying aside of the nature that uses others in order to engage in the nature that benefits others.
-----But since sin is a subtle twist of the truth, the cost of discipleship can not be so simply described. Man’s autonomy is given not only for deciding his own actions, but also for directing their purpose. One can be so mutually beneficial to others that he makes Sister Theresa appear to be a selfish hoarder, and still pay no cost of discipleship whatsoever. For if the purpose of mutual benefit is to establish one’s own righteousness, it is still directed towards the tragic wrong of self benefit. The ultimate cost is in paying mutual benefit to God’s needs. And as mutual benefit is null and void unless it addresses the needs of the other party as they actually are, God’s needs must be addressed as He defines them, rather than as they are defined by one’s own self. Therefore, meeting God’s needs looks to God’s definitions of purpose, and He gave those in Jesus Christ. Then, the cost of discipleship is not paid until the purposes as defined by the self are laid down and the purposes as defined by Christ are picked up. At that point one discovers that what he has laid down is death itself, and what he has picked up is actual life. Although it appeared to be a cost from the perspective of not having paid it, it is found to be a gift of new life from the perspective of actually living it. The penalty of a DUI is indeed a cost. But the cost of discipleship is in fact a gift.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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