In Luke 6:46-49, we see Jesus saying he doesn’t want shallow commitment rather he wants devoted obedience. I thought of an allegory that might put this into perspective.
Say you have a master and he just commanded you to go build a house, but you’ve never built one before. He starts in on some basic instructions, but you ignore them because you have ideas of your own. You’re smart, driven, resourceful and you’re confident that you can pull it off. Plus you want to impress your master with your ideas. You want him to see that you’re competent and that he should entrust you with more stuff in the future.
You diligently set to work with all the enthusiasm in the world, only you’re met with failure after failure. Your determination and creativity are quickly exhausted and after a while, you’re forced to recognize just how badly you underestimated the difficulty of the project. Utterly defeated, you return to the master all downcast, miserable, and confused as to why he would even give you such an impossible task.
To your dismay, he again commands you to build this house, only with some added urgency this time. Out of swelling frustration, you complain, “How am I supposed to do this, it’s impossible!” He responds, “Well, you need to listen and do what I instruct you to do this time.” To your surprise, his instructions are pretty straightforward and readily achievable. Then he goes with you to show you how it’s done.
Jesus is our master and he expects us to walk the walk. We often don’t do the things we are supposed to. In Luke 6:46-49, we see Jesus calling out those who call him master but do not commit to obeying him. Convicting stuff, if I’m being honest. We need to commit to obey whatever instruction he gives, even if it seems simplistic. Let’s make sure we have the foundation to weather the storm.
Jonathan Duncan