Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

1 John 2:4-6

John doesn’t hold back in the verse above, does he? If we claim to know him and do not follow, we are liars.

How often do we think that following Christ means that we fit Him into our already pretty good lives? I remember when I first read this line in The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer –

As we embark upon discipleship we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with his death—we give over our lives to death. Thus it begins; the cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise god-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.

We don’t like the idea of dying, do we? We may prefer the idea of a self-help Jesus who motivates us to live a better life and doesn’t interfere too much with our daily life. But, dying to ourselves is the first step to really living.

Walking in obedience is how we follow the Leader. Paul expanded on how we are to walk in his letter to the Colossians –

“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony”.

(Colossians 3:12-14)

And so let’s