God receives no glory from a half-hearted disciple.

Sounds a little extreme, I know, but let me explain. We, the church, have considered for generations a discipleship option that doesn’t exist. You see, Jesus has always given us two options. There is the wide gate and the narrow gate. There is the wide road and the narrow road. There is destruction and there is life (Matthew 7:13-14). It seems we have invented a third option that Jesus never offered or intended. That option is the middle road. Rather than committing fully to Jesus, we keep our commitments to the things of this world and add Jesus to our list.

When Jesus invites us to press through the narrow gate, He requires that we drop everything. That is the only way through. We can hold on to nothing when we choose His way. Our allegiance and obedience are all to Him or they are not at all to Him. There is no middle option. When we hold on to our plans and our stuff, we are saying, “Sure, Jesus is important, He has value, but so do these things.” We essentially put Jesus in the balance and put our jobs, possessions, relationships, plans, future, etc. also in the balance. We weigh Jesus against everything else and see to what degree He is worth committing. We test His value against things. We measure the value of the Creator against things of His creation. As the Almighty God, He is worth everything to you or He is worth nothing. There are no degrees of His worth and, as such, there can be no degrees of discipleship. He will not share glory with anything or anyone. All your worship is God’s or none is.

Back to that narrow gate. Yes, you have to drop everything to press through and follow Jesus, but take heart. Jesus will pick up the things you have dropped. He will give you back whatever you need. He will return to you the relationships, the job, even the possessions that will help you follow Him. This time, however, you will see them for what they are – gifts. Then, the Giver will receive glory not the gifts.

James 1:17 – Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.