Outside Disciples

Matthew 10:34 “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword.

Are you an outsider? Do you feel as though friends, family, and those around you treat you differently now? Do you feel as though your heart for God and your faith has left you an outsider from those you once held dear? It is a painful reality of a true disciples life; it is a reality of feeling as a stranger in a land you once called home; it is a reality of solitude, of feeling only intimacy with your Savior and those who share the same passion for him as you. A disciples life, is in reality a lonely life, one that has truly forsaken one’s life, to gain eternal life. 39 He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.

I was reading Paul’s epistle to the Galatians; of how they were an early church who Paul had delivered the Gospel to, and now they found themselves being led astray by false teachers. There was a group teaching them they had to become circumcised to really be saved, they had to obey the law Jesus fulfilled. Judaizer’s were likely manipulating many of the Gentiles hearts, preying on the weaknesses and telling them what they wanted to hear. It would seem right for us to have to do “something” in order to be saved; that belief alone goes against all that Jesus came, died for, and rose from the dead conquering death; that is a works belief system of faith. Paul told the Galatians how they were being led astray. Galatians 4:16 Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth? 17 They make much of you, but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them.

Was Paul who had brought the Good News to them, now being treated as an outsider? Was he bold enough to tell them the truth, to hurt their feelings, to be held accountable only to God and not friendships or family? Do you know that Jesus also said to his disciples in Matthew, as he sent them out into the world, the trouble, persecution, and division they will face? 35 For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; 36 and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ 37 He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. Jesus asked them of their level of love, their level of commitment, and warned them of persecution; he told them they will be outsiders against the world. He told them only a few houses will welcome them, but to shake the dust off their feet when they didn’t. Are you willing to live this life as an outsider; forsaking the temporal worldly pleasures for eternal paradise? Are you willing to be a true disciple of Jesus Christ?