Matthew 8:18-22 (ESV)
Now when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. And a scribe came up and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” Another of the disciples said to him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” And Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”
This section of Matthew also includes a parallel thought to the above:
Matthew 10:37-39 (ESV)
Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
When God calls us to follow Him, there is no half-in follower. You are either all in by faith, or not in. Our love for Him should make all other love like hatred. The church at Ephesus was actually called out about this by John in the Revelation:
Revelation 2:4 (ESV)
But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.
Our having one foot in the arena of God and one foot in the arena of the world is not what God called us to do. Leaving all to follow Him means all, and not all, but this. In the above passage we read that Jesus was demonstrating this truth when He walked this earth. There is nothing wrong with owning home, but He had none. There is nothing wrong about having a career, but He had none (His will was to come to His Father’s will). We are to remember that his si not our home. We are homeless, because He is our home.
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