Tuesday-Follow

Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.

2 Peter 2:2,3

When it happens, all you can do is shake your head. A couple we know in a different part of the country was going through a really bad time. Trust had been blown up and they were living in different parts of the house. Words are just not enough to begin to tell you how this tied my stomach up in knots.

Listening to the partner that had been deeply, deeply hurt was really awkward and painful. Their face was an open book of shattered dreams and bitter disappointment. And while they spoke in a quiet voice, their face and body language were all screaming in pain.

They agreed to try and repair their marriage through counseling. So, I screwed up my courage and asked how it was going. Boy was that a mistake. They lashed out with anger and frustration. I can still hear their words bouncing around inside my head.

They’re going to do whatever they want to do. They always have and always will.

And while those words were said out of their anger and excruciating emotional agony, there is a deeper truth to what they said. It’s true of all of us. Left to ourselves, we’re only going to do what pleases us. What we’ve learned to do. What we’re familiar and comfortable with. This probably sounds harsh to some, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t true.

Peter’s saying the exact same thing about these false teachers. They are going to do what they’re going to do. They’re not interested in what anyone else says or thinks. It also doesn’t matter what God has already said.

They know best and they’re going to run their lives the way they want. And if that was all, then maybe that wouldn’t be so bad. But they are influencing many and dragging them along with them.

God has shown them the way of truth. It’s a whole lot more than a list of dos and don’ts. It’s the way God made for us to live. How to respond to God through worship and loving obedience. It’s how to live together with one another, treating everyone with honor and respect.

It’s more than a way. It’s more than any road in this world. It’s God’s road of truth. But not just any road, it’s “the” road of “the” truth. And because this true truth comes from God, we need to pay really close attention to it.

Following and living on God’s road of truth must change the way we live. If it doesn’t then we’re really not following it. We might say we’re following, but actions speak a whole lot louder than words.

Living on the road of God’s truth isn’t just something we do for a while. If all we do is follow it for some time, then something’s really wrong. The truth of who God is and the road he’s put in front of us is supposed to take us all the way from where we are to the end of this life.

All the different parts of our life are to be seen and experienced as being on the road of the truth from God. From the way we treat our family to the stranger in the checkout line that’s moving too slowly, God’s truth is to be seen and lived through all our relationships. It will have a huge change in us.

• Change the way we see them.

• Change the way we feel about them.

• Change the way we speak to them.

• Change the way we treat them.

Did you notice that the change is in us and not in them? I know that’s not what you wanted to hear, but it’s the truth. God is in the business of changing us. Our job is to work with God, cooperating with him and changing to become more and more like Jesus each and every day[1].

It’s God’s business to change other people. Not ours. Yes, we have a part to play in the way we act and speak to them. And there may come a time when we have to say something hard. Words that we don’t want to say. Words that we know that they don’t want to hear.

Look at all the master classes, books, and seminars. They’re all focused on becoming a champion. An overcomer. Learning to lead. Living like the child of the king. But is this how Jesus came to earth? If we’re going to follow Jesus, then we’re going to have to become more and more of a servant. Not someone who people bow down to and serve, but someone who washes the feet of others. Someone who gives up their rights and does anything and everything for someone else. This is the life of following. It’s not an easy life, but it is God’s true road. The truth that that leads us to the life that we were made for.

Noodling Questions

• Is following easy or hard for you? Explain.

• Where does the truth hit you the hardest? Describe.

• How does God want you to become more and more he follower?

[1] 2 Corinthians 3:18