Thursday, April 8, 2021
A note in one of my study Bibles tells me that when Jesus said to His parents, “I must be in My Father’s house,” He was expressing a sense of obligation, but I respectfully disagree.
I believe that we can keep the law motivated by duty and obligation, and do it as perfectly as possible, but remain completely alienated from the Father.
I also believe that we can fail a million times and repent a million and one, and God will forgive the sincerely penitent heart.
The difference is love.
Jesus wasn’t disobedient to His parents, and He wasn’t hiding from them. He was utterly transported by His love for the Father and simply wanted to be about His business, in His house. Nothing else mattered. Really. He proved it with His works in this passage (Luke 2.41-52).
Therefore He, even God in the flesh, sought the Father’s presence so eagerly that the cost He would preach about much later in life became evident when He was only twelve: That no one can come to Him and be His disciple unless he leaves everything behind. Even his own family. Jesus could preach that because He exemplified it.
You too must be careful how you press in. Take care what you preach; God will reserve a special call for you to live it out, and when the opportunity comes you’ll see plainly whether you’re serving for love or duty. Trust me that I know precisely what I’m talking about here. If you want to see how much you need Jesus, just keep walking with Him “faithfully.” Yes, I’m mocking our version of faithfulness; it’s an offense to God.
Do you love Him more than these? Or will your concern for stuff, for comfort, even for other people, keep you from total surrender and total obedience? Certainly there is grace, but the heart that loves would never attempt to plumb the depths of grace intentionally, sinning all the more so that grace could abound. And certainly everyone’s call is indeed different—to a degree—but really all of us share the same call to come to Christ first, leave behind all others, and lay down our lives for the One who showed us how to do it properly.
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