“You have died…”

Posted on August 12, 2025 by Pastor Foley

In Colossians 3, Paul brings together everything that he has taught in Colossians 1 and 2 and gives us the great “If-then” transition to everyday application.

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” (Colossians 3:1-4)

These days, people like to preach the gospel as follows:

  1. Christ died for my sins
  2. So I am forgiven by God
  3. Now God will give me a joyful, peaceful life
  4. And I will go to heaven when I die.

But this is not a good summary of the gospel at all. In fact, it is distorted for many reasons. This distorted gospel makes it sounds like a change happened to Christ, but no change happened to us except for our status with God.

But in Colossians 3 we see that we “have died” and “have been raised with Christ”. Christ’s death for our sins becomes effective for us when we die by entering Christ’s death through baptism. The gospel is not only about a change that happened to Jesus but about a change that happens to us.

Many Christians think that Paul is speaking metaphorically when he says that we died and were raised, as if Paul were saying, “The Christian life is like moving from death to life”. But Paul is not speaking metaphorically here. He is saying that we actually enter into Christ’s death through our baptism.

A VOM Korea partner baptizes a new Christian in Laos.

When Christ was crucified and died, this present creation lost all connection to him. It lost any power or control over him that it may have had. It can do nothing to him. It is completely impotent in relation to him.

“He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.” (Colossians 2:15)

This means that nothing in this creation has any power related to Christ at all. He is presently already Lord over everything in this present creation. He has triumphed over it. He is in complete control of everything that happens in this creation. It is easy for him to do anything he wants. He does it with a single word, without a struggle.

When Christians today hear this, they think “Yes, this is why I believe he will give me a joyful, peaceful life now. Then I will go to heaven when I die.”

But remember, Paul said in Colossians 3:3, “You have died”.

There are only two statuses available to humans with regard to their relationship with Christ and the world. Either they are alive to the world and dead to Christ or dead to the world and alive to Christ. There is no being alive to the world and alive to Christ.

That is why a Christian cannot talk about having a joyful, peaceful life now and going to heaven when they die. They are already dead.

You may be thinking, “But I am still here. I am still alive in this world. How can I be dead to it?”

“For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” (Colossians 3:3-4)

When you were baptized, you died. You officially forfeited your life which you knew you would lose anyway when the wrath of God comes upon the world.

Thus, this present creation has also lost all connection to you. It lost any power or connection to you that it had. It can do nothing to you. It cannot even give any benefit to you. It is completely impotent in relation to you.

When you were baptized, you didn’t receive a promise that your sins are forgiven, you will live a good life, and then you will die. Instead, you died. And you became alive to Christ. His life is the only life that exists outside of the present creation. He gives this life to you.

This is not a metaphor. You no longer have an existence separate from Christ. Your existence ended in the waters of baptism. You have literally been made a part of His life. Your current life is presently hidden with Christ in God. This is the only life you have.

But you will of course say, “But I am still here…”

I think a picture will help us understand this. An old-time theologian, L.S. Thornton, provides a good picture. Thornton said that, when we hear something like, “Your life is hidden with Christ in God”, we usually think of our life like a pebble that will be put into a box, Christ. That is why we get confused. Our pebble still seems to be here, on the earth, and not yet in the box.

Thornton said that a pebble in a box is not the right picture. Instead, we are a branch on a tree. Through baptism we have been cut off from the world’s tree and grafted onto Christ’s.

When we heard the word “body” we tend to think of a “body” as everything from our skin inward. But “body” is an outward, connection word. Biblically, “body” is what connects us to that which is outside of us.

One way to think about this is to think of yourself as covered with sticky stuff. Because you are covered with sticky stuff, you are always stuck to something. It is not possible for you to exist unstuck, just floating around independently. Whatever you are stuck to is what you are drawing your life from. That is how the Bible talks.

For example, when Isaiah prophesies the death of Christ in Isaiah 58, he says this: “he was cut off out of the land of the living” (Isaiah 53:8).

If someone is “cut off” from the land of the living, what do they stick to? They stick to their ancestors in the land of the dead.

That is why the Bible describes Abraham’s death like this:

“Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people.” (Genesis 25:8)

In scripture the body and the soul are always stuck together. In various forms of paganism, they are separated at death. The separation of body and soul is not a Christian or biblical way of thinking. It is certainly not a Hebrew way of thinking.

The Hebrew way of thinking sees your body and soul as distinguishable but not separable. They are like parts of a branch. The body is like the wood and the soul is like the leaves.

The Bible always asks the question “What tree are you attached to?”. Are you attached to this world, or to Christ?

“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,” (Philippians 3:20)

“When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” (Colossians 3:4)

Paul did not say “we are waiting until we go to our savior in heaven”, or “when you die, you will appear with him in glory”. Paul speaks of Christ coming here again to bring the wrath of God on the old creation and bring the new heavens and new earth with him.

What does it mean to “appear with him in glory”? It means that your body will be changed into a glorious body like Christ’s resurrected body. That is the only Christian hope.

I am going to tell you something absolutely true from a biblical perspective: nothing actually changes when you die on this earth. The death-transition happens at our baptism. At our baptism, the branch of our life is cut off from the tree of this present creation and grafted into Christ. It isn’t that we “go to Christ” when we die. We are already with him. Our life is in him.

When the physical bodies finally stop working, what happens is that all of our five senses stop receiving input and our brain stops. But our life in Christ remains unchanged from what it was in this lifetime. That life in Christ cannot be touched, altered, or ended by this creation or anything that happens in this creation. It continues just as it has in this lifetime.

In our present day-to-day lives, we are so focused on this creation that, most of the time, we live with very little awareness of being in Christ. But, one day, when our physical body dies, everything else will fall away and only our life in Christ will remain.

“Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 5:8)

Yet it is important to remember that our location does not change when our body dies, but when we are baptized.

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” (Colossians 3:1-2)

Paul is not recommending that we go to a prayer mountain, lock ourselves in a prayer closet, or fast for long periods of time. The goal is not to reduce our sensory inputs in order to see heavenly visions.

“If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.” (Colossians 2:20-23)

You cannot come to a greater awareness of Christ by “turning down the volume” on the world. It doesn’t work to try to change what you eat, look at, or do. That sounds like the right answer, but it never works. We all know this from our own experience of trying to overcome sin that way.

Since we are branches, the solution is not to somehow be less connected to the world. The solution is to come to understand that our branch has already been cut off from the world and has already been grafted onto Christ. Because Christ is a good tree, he is already providing us with the nourishment we need every day.

“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.” (Colossians 3:12-14)

Paul is not saying, “Be more holy, be more compassionate, be more kind, be more humble…” This would be impossible for us to produce from the nutrients that the world provides us. Instead, these are gifts that Christ gives us. These gifts come from him and originate in him. He is the tree that produces these things and we are the branch whom he supplies these things to. This is why Paul says to “put on” these things and clothe ourselves with them. We don’t have to produce these things, we just receive them.

Unfortunately, the world continues to reject that Jesus is Lord. So, when you are baptized, it doesn’t change anything about the way the world deals with you. The world doesn’t think you are dead. Your family does not think you are dead. Your country does not think you are dead. If you say, “I am dead,” your family will think you are crazy and irresponsible. The world and everything in it will continue to insist that your branch is still attached to the tree of the world. Your country, society, family, and other worldly bodies will continue to try to provide you with worldly “nutrition” which the world has provided to you and everyone in the world so far.

“Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices” (Colossians 3:5-9)

Paul is not saying, “turn the volume down on the world”. He has already explained that that strategy does not work. Paul is saying, “Let the dead dog die. Even though the world does not accept it, your life is already cut off from the world and grafted onto Christ. Therefore, the nutrients that the world was sending you cannot force their way into you anymore. You belong to Christ, no matter what the world says. Christ, not the world, is your life.”

The first Christian martyrs, when they were arrested and interrogated, were asked, “What is your name?” They answered, simply, “I am a Christian”. This is our full identity. The world, your family, and the country will disagree with that. But it is still true.

The world has already put a lot of worldly nutrients into you. Since you are baptized, it can no longer force any new ones in, but what do you do with the ones that area already inside of you? Let those things die. Now that your branch has been cut off from the world and attached to Christ, those things that are inside you will be surrounded by the nutrients which Christ sends and will be destroyed just like white blood cells destroy viruses.

To us, those worldly viruses feel really powerful. In fact, they seem undefeatable. The white blood cells that come to us from Christ (compassion, kindness, humility, patience), seem so weak by comparison. But that is just the world’s illusion trying to mislead you.

Remember, Christ defeated the world and everything in it through the cross. The cross looks like weakness, but it has made all the powers of this world impotent.

A good picture to keep in mind in this regard is the story of Jesus asleep in the boat during the storm. The disciples were terrified, but Christ was not. So, when they woke him up, he called the storm with a few words. Which is more powerful, the storm or a few words of Christ?

“and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.” (Colossians 3:10-11)

The way to overcome the world is to recognize that the powers of the world have no power over us. When we try to turn their volume down, we are treating them like they still have power over us, which they do not. Instead, we are being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Christ is that image.

The more we listen to him and the more he reveals himself to us in his word, this is what renews us in his image. This is what gradually makes our branch more like the tree.

Even though our branch is already cut off from the world, Christ does not take us out of the world. This is because it is his world; he has already defeated all of the enemies in it. We do not need to be afraid of them. He is just giving these enemies a time of mercy in which they can surrender to him and receive his grace, just like you received his grace. The Lord will surely come back soon and transform this world—and us!

So when the world tries to give you the nutrients for sin, don’t receive them into yourself as nutrients! Instead, bring everything to the Lord. Worship him. First, always receive the nutrients he wants to give you. Then next, ask him to show you how to use for his glory whatever it is the world was trying to give you. He’ll show you how to do that.

That’s why worship services conclude not with you speaking with a counselor about your problems and the “storms” in your life but by us all coming to the Lord’s Table. We come to focus on Christ, our life. We come to hear his words. We come to let him reveal himself to us. We come to receive these nutrients, from his tree to our branch. Everything else will fall away.

In the end, there will only be us with Christ.

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Faith, hope, and love–What do they really mean?

Posted on July 29, 2025 by Pastor Foley

“Faith”, “hope”, and “love” are important biblical words which we tend to understand only vaguely. We define them according to modern definitions, not biblical definitions. We think of “faith”, “hope”, and “love” as feelings or psychological states:

We think of “faith” as “believing in something you don’t see”.

We think of “hope” as a kind of optimism that things will turn out well.

We think of “love” as an emotional attachment to another person or thing.

But in scripture, “faith”, “hope”, and “love” are objective realities. They are real things that do not change based on what we are experiencing or feeling.

Many pastors preach “You need to have more faith, hope, and love!” So, Christians feel bad about not having enough “faith”, “hope”, and “love”. As a result, they work harder to exert their wills to do better in these areas.

But “faith”, “hope”, and “love” are gifts from God that do not change. They are part of the “easy yoke” of the Lord, which he gives to us.

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

Throughout scripture and Christian history, “faith”, “hope”, and “love” are the basic Christian virtues, the main gifts from the Lord upon which the Christian witness is founded.

 In Luke 18:8, Jesus asks, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” He does not ask, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find Christian values on earth?” Jesus is concerned with whether we are stewarding the gifts of “faith”, “hope”, and “love” he has given us.

“Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:1-2)

What is true of the gospel is true of “faith”, “hope”, and “love”. They are things that the Lord has given to us, which we steward carefully.

“We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel,” (Colossians 1:3-5)

We should note here that receiving “faith”, “hope”, and “love” is connected with hearing the gospel. And, interestingly, here hope and love do not come from faith, but faith and love come from hope.

Paul says that hope is “laid up for you in heaven”. But Paul is not talking about rewards we get when we die. Paul tells us in Titus 2:13 what he means by hope:

 “…while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,” (Titus 2:13)

There is only one “hope” that the New Testament talks about: the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. To say that this “hope” is stored up in heaven is to say that Jesus is currently enthroned and reigning in heaven but will come again soon to judge the living and the dead. It is the same as what Paul says in Colossians 3:1-4:

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” (Colossians 3:1-4)

Scripturally, our hope is not that we will go to heaven when we die. Our hope is always in Christ’s soon return. Even if we die before he returns, he will take us to himself and bring him with when he comes again to bring the new heavens and new earth.

If “hope” is hope in Christ’s return, and “faith” and “love” come from hope, we cannot have faith or love if we omit Christ’s return from our proclamation of the gospel.

This is why, in the Gospels, Jesus’ main activity on earth was not telling people that God loves them, that he would die for their sins, or that heaven is a great place to live after dying. Jesus main activity was to preach about the day of the Lord, the judgment, hell, the eternal destruction of God’s enemies, the bodily resurrection of the righteous, and the new heavens and new earth. 

Jesus comes with a final offer of mercy before that judgment and seals that offer of mercy in His own blood. He gives the disciples the gift of Himself and the promise of His return in the Lord’s Supper and tells them to watch for Him.

Hope in Jesus’ return is the anchor of the Christian life. It is what holds everything else in place. When other people do wrong to us, we don’t take revenge on them. Instead, we anchor ourselves in the blessed hope, knowing that at Christ’s return every wrong that was done against us will be made right.

When we are ill, we pray for healing. But we never lose hope even when we are not healed because we know that, on the day of the return of the Lord, that…

“in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.” (1 Corinthians 15:52-53).

If this is hope, then what is faith?

Hebrews 11:1 tells us.

“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1)

Faith is the substance of hope. Most of the things that we will receive when hope is realized are things that we do not have now. But some things we do receive now. Scripture calls these a “deposit” or “guarantee”. They are gifts of faith–the substance of hope.

When we are baptized in Christ in faith, we receive the forgiveness of sins, the Holy Spirit, the direct teaching of Christ, relationship with the Father, and much more…even though such things are still “unseen” to us. 

“And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.” (Ephesians 1:13-14)

“Faith” is a deposit on our future “hope”. This is why “hope” comes before “faith” and why “faith” grows from “hope”. “Faith” is the part of “hope” that we get to receive and hold tightly to in this lifetime.

Paul says that “love” is also rooted in “hope”. “Love” is our using the gifts we receive in “faith” to the benefit of other members of Christ’s body.

In the story of Simon Magus in Acts 8, a magician named Simon tried to give money to the apostles so that he could have the gift of giving other people the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands. He was trying to use the gift of faith for his own benefit. This is not “love”. “Love” is when we use the gifts of “faith” for other believers.

 Now we understand “faith”, “hope”, and “love”, and why “faith” and “love” spring forth from “hope”.

The Lord’s Supper is the gift of faith that we receive in this present age as a deposit—a guarantee—of our invitation to the wedding supper of the Lamb that will happen at Christ’s return, which is our “blessed hope”.

In 1 Corinthians 11:20-21, Paul rebukes the Corinthian church, saying: “When you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, for as you eat, each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else. One remains hungry, another gets drunk.”

When we eat the Lord’s Supper focused only on our own needs and benefits, we are like Simon the magician: we do not have love. So as you partake of the Lord’s Supper, pray for the person who is in front of you in the line. Pray that as they receive the Lord’s Supper, that the Lord anchors them into the blessed hope of his return. Pray that they receive the fullness of the gifts of faith available to us believers in this lifetime, including the blessings of this bread and cup.

That is the prayer that comes from true Christian love.

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What kind of a “thing” is the gospel?

Posted on July 11, 2025 by Pastor Foley

In math, if you get the first step wrong in an equation, the whole equation will be wrong. It is the same in the Christian life. If you get the first step of the Christian life wrong, all of the other steps will be wrong. So it is important to get the first step right.

Before becoming Paul the Great Apostle, Paul was Saul the Great Pharisee. And we see in Acts 9, that he was on the way to persecute Christians when a bright light knocked him off his horse and a voice said to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me.” Saul answered, “Who are you, Lord?”

Saul had probably memorized most of the Old Testament. He was faultless according to the law (Philippians 4:6). But because he got the first step wrong, he is here at step one, asking God “Who are you, Lord?” By the grace of God, Saul was granted the humility to be able to start again at the first step.

Martin Luther also had the experience of having to begin again. He was ordained as a priest in 1507. He was extremely serious about his faith. He fasted frequently and prayed for hours. He confessed his sins often. He taught theology at a university and chaired the theology department. And then the Lord showed Luther through Paul’s letter to the Romans that Luther had gotten the first step wrong. Luther later wrote: “To make progress in the Christian life means to begin again.”

For both Paul and Luther, they didn’t focus on beginning again in order to sin less or increase personal holiness. Instead, they began again by recalibrating to a proper understanding of the gospel.

The way forward for the church is to begin again by re-examining what our understanding of the gospel is. Not only what the content of the gospel is but, even more fundamentally, what kind of a “thing” the gospel is in the first place.

So, what kind of a “thing” is the gospel?

The gospel is the name for the specific message given by God to the Son of God, Jesus Christ, to proclaim to the people of God, Israel. Jesus was the first preacher of the gospel. He commissioned his disciples to preach the gospel to the whole world exactly as he preached it in both content and method.

This understanding of what the gospel is is not a new idea, nor should it be considered controversial. Scripture is clear that God sends His Son to bring a message:

“Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.” (Hebrews 1:1-2)

 “how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard,” (Hebrews 2:3)

 We see in the gospels how Jesus is described as proclaiming the “gospel of God”:

 “Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:14-15)

 “For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak.” (John 12:49)

 Paul claimed to be an apostle of “the gospel of God” and claimed that there is no other gospel:

 “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,” (Romans 1:1)

 “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.” (Romans 1:6-8)

Scripture is clear that the gospel is a message entrusted by God to Christ to give to his disciples. We are not given the right to adjust, reformulate, or update the gospel message. We are specifically denied that right. This not only applies to what we say, but how we say it (i.e. the method of proclaiming the gospel).

In Luke 10, Jesus commissions the disciples to go to the places where he is about to go. And he tells the disciples “Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. Carry no moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road.” (Luke 10:3-4)

Jesus laid out the method which the disciples consistently followed when they went out to preach the gospel throughout the New Testament. The gospel is never to be proclaimed from any position considered desirable or advantageous from a human perspective. It is to be proclaimed by lambs to wolves. Messengers of the gospel are to go out with nothing to give other than the gospel.

Messengers of the gospel are not to “greet anyone on the road”. Preaching the gospel is not about friendship evangelism.

The place where they are to stay is the first place that does not throw them out, and their wages are the food and lodging the hosts of such a house give them.

“Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house!’ And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, it will return to you. And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house.” (Luke 10:5-7)

They are not to rent the house, set up a mission center, and host short-term mission groups for tours. They are to immediately proclaim the gospel to the people in the town. And, if they are rejected, they are to announce to the town that its residents are in trouble and then move on to the next town.

“But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’” (Luke 10:10-11)

In 1 Corinthians 2, we see that this method of preaching the gospel from a position of weakness continued on to the mission of the gentiles as well.

“And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” (Luke 10:3-5)

This method was not peculiar to Jesus and Paul. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4 that this method was the common experience of all the apostles.

“For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.” (1 Corinthians 4:9-13)

The reason why Jesus sent the apostles to preach the gospel in this way is because it is the way that the Father sent Jesus to preach the gospel. Christ tells those who want to be Christ followers these things:

“As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:57-62)

 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26)

So, if Christianity is a math equation, the first step is to get the content and method of preaching the gospel right. That is, to know what the gospel is and how it must be preached. We are not permitted to change the content of the gospel nor the method which it is proclaimed. That method is the method of human weakness.

 To be very clear, you are called to leave behind all earthly ties in service of a message.

You may be asking yourself, “What does that mean? Should I quit my job? Forsake my family? Leave my parents alone in their old age?”

 Interestingly, those are the same kinds of questions which people ask throughout the New Testament. And Jesus is clear that we should remove anything in our lives that stops us from following him.

“If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.” (Matthew 5:29-30)

This doesn’t mean that Jesus is against us having jobs and families. But it does mean that Jesus expects that when we are forced to choose between our calling as servants of the word and our worldly responsibilities that we will always choose our calling as servants of the word even if it means being thrown out of our job, thrown out of our families, or losing our material possessions.

We hired a young woman for a job at VOMK one year ago. She had been using her talents in the world and making a lot of money. But she told us that she felt it was meaningless and that the Lord was giving her the opportunity to use her talents for him. But then, right before she was scheduled to start work, she sent us a short text message saying that she had decided not to accept the job because her parents felt it was too dangerous.

That is an example of a wrong choice.

Another woman worked at VOMK for about a year. Then her father died. Her mother said, “Now you need to come and take of me. I am lonely.” So the woman quit and went to take care of her mother.

That is an example of a wrong choice.

Paul talks to the Corinthians about what to do if you are married to a nonbeliever. He says

“To the rest I say (I, not the Lord) that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you[b] to peace. For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?”

He is not saying that if you have an unbelieving spouse that you are excused from your role as a servant of the Lord. Paul is not saying that you have permission not to talk about Jesus in front of your unbelieving spouse and children. Christians are never excused from our role as servants of the word. This is true in public, in your family, with your children, and certainly your spouse.

In the same way, if you have a home and many material possessions, the counsel of the New Testament is this: Hold on to your role as a messenger of the gospel tightly and hold on to your material possessions loosely, removing anything from your life that prevents you from proclaiming the gospel in human weakness.

Do you own a dog? When a dog gets sick, the way that you get a dog to take pills is to wrap the pills in meat because dogs love to eat meat.

Today, Christian workers think of the gospel as a pill that must be wrapped up in meat in order to get people to accept it. The meat that they wrap the gospel in is things this world finds desirable like food, money, relationships, security, comfort, wealth, physical attractiveness.

But the gospel is not a pill and people are not dogs. The desires of this world cannot be used to make the gospel of God more appealing.

“Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.” (John 6:56)

The word of the Lord which has been given to us in the gospel of God is real food. And the gospel can only be proclaimed in human weakness and believed in human weakness.

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