(Audio)
Which of you wishing to construct a tower
does not first sit down and calculate the cost
to see if there is enough for its completion?
The cost is all that we have and all that we are. To be a disciple means putting Jesus before not only all that we have, not only all our friends and relations, but even before our very selves. We must sell all that we have to purchase the treasure in the field, the pearl of great price.
When Jesus is first we don't lose everything else. Rather, those relationships are brought into right order. There is no one that gives up anything for Jesus' sake that won't receive it back. We can't hold that to which we cling. But Jesus is never outdone in generosity.
Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life (see Mark 10:29-30).
We see this principle of non-attachment and rightly ordered relationships at work in Paul's letter to Philemon for Onesimus. We see that he himself is unwilling to insist on his own rights for the sake of love. He allows this to be an example for Philemon so that he too may come to a new and rightly ordered relationship with his former slave.
Perhaps this is why he was away from you for a while,
that you might have him back forever,
no longer as a slave
but more than a slave, a brother,
beloved especially to me, but even more so to you,
as a man and in the Lord.
This principle of transformation can renew all of our relationships. We aren't aware of how much we treat others on the basis of what they can do for us. We tend to use people and love things. Jesus can put this in proper order for us as well.
We may be tempted to try to resolve our issues of priority on our own. It would be tempting to make lists or diagrams to see what matters now and what ought to matter. But our own wisdom tends to deceive us. We need the Holy Spirit from on high.
Or who ever knew your counsel, except you had given wisdom
and sent your holy spirit from on high?
And thus were the paths of those on earth made straight.
If we want our paths made straight our course is clear. We put Jesus before all else and let his Holy Spirit control our hearts and minds.
And thus were the paths of those on earth made straight.
The psalmist has done this and can therefore sing, "In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge."
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