The Word in Focus with Dr Larry Taylor

Jesus said, “Everyone, then, who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on rock.  And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!”  (Matthew 7:24-27 NRSVUE)

I don’t want my life to collapse into ruin. So, how do I become a doer rather than just a hearer? How do I join this Jesus movement? How do I live as a citizen of heaven’s kingdom?

First, I have to change my mind in light of the fact that the Kingdom of the Heavens is here, now. Change my mind about what? I have to align my thinking with Jesus’. I must turn away from power, control, greed, self-promotion, violence, religious, ethnic, or national superiority, coercion, manipulation, and thinking morality can be legislated. 

The Kingdom of God is upside down. In it, the first are last, the greatest are servants, evil is met with nonviolent resistance, hatred is conquered by love, and death is overcome by dying. Come out of Babylon. 

Turn towards Jesus by choosing to rely completely on him. That involves trusting God rather than money for security. It involves developing a habit of doing the right things for the right reasons. It means spending time every day with Jesus, learning from Jesus how to be like Jesus.

Being with Jesus means having a righteousness greater than the typical religious person. It means searching the Hebrew Bible for the deep wisdom under all those laws and begets. It means reading the Bible through the lens of the cross. It means that the words of Jesus trump everything else.

To follow the Lamb, we need to regularly cleanse our hearts of bitterness, anger, judgmentalism, and arrogance. Our minds must be scrubbed clean of national exceptionalism, contempt, and hatred. We learn not to cultivate lust or practice misogyny or divorce as was common in first century Palestine. Our speech should be simple and truthful.

Following Jesus means turning the other cheek, going the second mile, and loving our enemies. It means being people of prayer, fasting, and charity, and going about doing good, especially to those Jesus called the least of his siblings. 

A Jesus-follower takes the initiative to proactively do for others what we’d like done for us. Jesus’ people are committed to justice, peace, nonviolence, and solidarity with those who are struggling in life.  A Jesus-follower loves.