The Encourager
“The Disciple and the World; by Jeff Curtis”
The Disciple and the World
by Jeff Curtis
Mark 8:34-38 should be seen as having a connection with the previous verses, 8:27-33. Jesus had just heard the confession of His apostles and revealed to them His approaching death in His first passion discussion with them. In those discussions, and in Peter’s rebuke of Jesus, two approaches to life come to the surface. One is seen in Peter. It is the human, conservative view. It emphasizes saving what we have. Jesus held the second view, the view of yielding completely to God’s will. It emphasizes giving what we have to God.
This text says that Jesus gathered the crowd and His disciples so He could give them direct teachings on what discipleship means. He goes to describe His followers by what they must believe and how they must live.
Who is a follower of Christ?
- A devoted disciple. Jesus said, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me” (8:34b).
No one is a disciple of Christ involuntarily. Each Christian is a disciple because he has chosen to be a disciple. Discipleship is following and learning from whomever or whatever we are following. The only way we can be disciples of Christ is by following Him and learning from Him.
- A sacrificial Servant. Jesus said, “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it” (8:35).
His follower understands that the wrong kind of living means dying and the right kind of living means dying and the right kind of dying means living. The word “life” has a double meaning. Jesus was saying, “Whoever will give up his life and well-being in this world will gain higher spiritual life and eternal life in the world to come.” He said the converse is true also: “Whoever determines to preserve the life of this world, with its pleasures, profits, and popularity, will lose his spiritual life and eternal life.” If we give ourselves to spiritual things of God and to the gaining of eternal life, we will gain everything that has any real value. Henry Barclay Swete paraphrased this teaching this way: “The man whose aim in life into secure personal safety and success, loses the higher life of which he is capable, and which is gained by those who sacrifice themselves in the service of Christ.”
- A Wise Servant. Jesus said, “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? What will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (8:36-37).
He conveyed this truth by asking two questions. The first one sets before us, in the realm of the moral and spiritual, the alternatives of profit and loss. He used exaggeration to make His point. If the price for the soul were the whole world, the loss would be entire and eternal. The whole world, when put on one side of the scale, is lighter than a feather when the soul is on the other side of the scale.
The other question is this: “For what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” The implication of the question is that nothing ins the physical world is worthy of this exchange. Once the soul is lost, nothing can buy it back. Character determines destiny; and character does not remain fluid, but becomes fixed.
Jesus has called each of us to be a certain kind of follower. The Christian is called to bear a cross. A choice must be made between temporal and eternal values. The present determines the future.
At the center of all His teachings, Jesus is the model character and the standard of truth. Our relationship with Him is what matters now and forever. Which philosophy will we choose? One philosophy says, “Keep this world so that you can live.” The other says, “Die to the world so that you can really live.”
