We really do some ridiculous stuff sometimes, don’t we? For example, Francis Chan uses an easy analogy that points something that is pretty simple that we all do that really is unquestionably stupid. Imagine you have a teenage daughter, and you tell that daughter to clean her room. If she comes to you an hour later and says, “Hey, I went and I memorized what you told me: ‘Go and clean your room!’” are you going to be happy with her? What if she says, “I can now say ‘Go and clean your room’ in Greek!” or “Some friends and I have organized a study to get together weekly to talk about what it would look like if we followed what you said and cleaned our rooms”? While this would lead many lists of most inventive ways to avoid doing chores, this would probably not amuse you as the hypothetical parent.
The thing is, we do the same thing with our not-so-hypothetical Father, and He isn’t amused either. Jesus said it clearly;
If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
-John 14:15 (ESV)
What does this mean? It means that if you love Jesus (aka Christian) you will do what Jesus said. What does it imply? If you do not do what Jesus said, you do not love him (aka not-Christian).
This doesn’t mean that following Christ, keeping his commandments, is easy. The next verse in John is Jesus’ promise to send the Holy Spirit, whom he calls “The Helper” because he’s here to help us, and we most certainly need the help! But we have what we need to follow Christ – we have the help and the words, and it isn’t any more complicated from that point on than doing what Jesus said. Part of that is knowing what Jesus said.
We must know the Bible, understand what it says, study it in depth, and talk about it at church and in small groups. It should become central to our lives and the foundation for everything that we do. However, if we study the Bible but we don’t let it change us, there really isn’t any value in the study. If the Bible isn’t radically changing how we view and interact with the world around us, then we would just as well to study The Hobbit or Crime and Punishment or some Harry Potter novel. At least those wouldn’t make us uncomfortable.
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
-James 1:22
Check out Francis Chan in “BASIC: Follow Jesus”
Driven 