July 2
  
THE CONDITIONS OF DISCIPLESHIP 

"If any man come to Me, and hate not . . . he cannot be My disciple." Luke 14:26, also 27, 33

If the closest relationships of life clash with the claims of Jesus Christ, He says it must be instant obedience to Himself. Discipleship means personal, passionate devotion to a Person, Our Lord Jesus Christ. There is a difference between devotion to a Person and devotion to principles or to a cause. Our Lord never proclaimed a cause; He proclaimed personal devotion to Himself. To be a disciple is to be a devoted love-slave of the Lord Jesus. Many of us who call ourselves Christians are not devoted to Jesus Christ. No man on earth has this passionate love to the Lord Jesus unless the Holy Ghost has imparted it to him. We may admire Him, we may respect Him and reverence Him, but we cannot love Him. The only Lover of the Lord Jesus is the Holy Ghost, and He sheds abroad the very love of God in our hearts. Whenever the Holy Ghost sees a chance of glorifying Jesus, He will take your heart, your nerves, your whole personality, and simply make you blaze and glow with devotion to Jesus Christ. 

The Christian life is stamped by 'moral spontaneous originality,' consequently the disciple is open to the same charge that Jesus Christ was, viz., that of inconsistency. But Jesus Christ was always consistent to God, and the Christian must be consistent to the life of the Son of God in him, not consistent to hard and fast creeds. Men pour themselves into creeds, and God has to blast them out of their prejudices before they can become devoted to Jesus Christ.

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The message is unmistakably about loyalty.  A disciple is loyal to his teacher above all.  Divided loyalty, is no loyalty at all.  If I am to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, even my dearest family member or friend cannot have my loyalty over Him.

Devotion to principles or causes, although they my appear to be noble and right, should never supercede devotion to relationships.  Even worship is a matter of devotion and should have as its object a relationship, and that relationship to our Lord alone.  Any divided loyalty is in essence infidelity.  The whole purpose of God is to love and to be loved as in a perfect marital union. 

Only the Holy Ghost can enable us to have a passionate love for Jesus.  It might better be said, that only the Holy Spirit is capable of loving Jesus fully and passionately.  So those who would desire to become passionate lovers of Jesus, must be so devoid of self and so full of the Holy Spirit that the Holy Spirit within energizes our faculties to the glory of God.  It is living from the inside out.  And it is becoming so empty of self sufficiency that the total sufficiency of the Holy Spirit motivates every attitude and action.

The attitudes and actions of our lives will not look "natural" to those around us.  The Holy Spirit will whimsically urge us to do things we would not consider in the natural.  And it is obedience to the Spirit which our Lord Jesus called us to.  The sign of the true Christian is spontaneous, original, action which delivers the love of God to those with whom we come in contact.  

Give you your religion and traditions.  Live out the love and compassion of God.  And as Jesus did while on earth, allow the Holy Spirit to command every action and attitude in your life.  You will be blessed and God will be glorified.