Daily Devotions

We move from the characteristics to the cost of discipleship as out lined by Dietrich Bonhoeffer “Every moment and every situation challenges us to action and to obedience. We have literally no time to sit down and ask ourselves whether so-and-so is our neighbour or not. We must get into action and obey - we must behave like a neighbour to him.”

In the Bible, the "cost of discipleship" is most prominently described in Luke 14:25-33, where Jesus says that to be his disciple, one must be willing to "hate" their own family, "take up their cross," and put Jesus first above everything else, even their own life, essentially signifying that following Jesus may require significant sacrifice and commitment, even to the point of facing opposition or hardship. 

The strong contrast in Jesus’ words (hate father and mother) is a Hebrew idiom for what we would call establishing priorities. We may have to make choices between the call of the Lord and the pull of family. Jesus is talking to the large crowds who were drawn to him; here as elsewhere he warns against an attraction that is too impulsive and emotional. What do you ask of me, Lord? Let me know the cost.

We may give to God and to others much in the same way as we pay our income tax--as the satisfaction of a grim duty which we cannot escape. 

Someone may give purely from motives of self-interest. Consciously or unconsciously they may regard their giving as an investment. An individual may regard each gift as an entry on the credit side of their account in the ledger of God. Such giving, so far from being generosity, it is selfishness. 

Someone may give in order to feel superior. Such giving can be a cruel thing. It can hurt the recipient much more than a blunt refusal. When a someone gives like that they stand on their little self appointed platform and looks down. They may even with the gift throw in a short and smug lecture. It would be better not to give at all than to give merely to gratify one's own vanity and one's own desire for power. The Rabbis had a saying that the best kind of giving was when the giver did not know to whom they were giving, and when the receiver did not know from whom they were receiving. 

Teach us, good Lord, to serve you as you deserve; to give, and not to count the cost, to fight, and not to heed the wounds, to toil, and not to seek for rest, to labor, and not to ask for reward, except that of knowing that we are doing your will. Amen