Worth Dying For

Is there anything you want so much you would give your whole life to it? Go past living and die for it?

In the early church, for the first Christians, calling themselves followers of Jesus came with the assumption that they would suffer, that they would probably be killed, that they would die for the Kingdom of God.

The decision to follow Christ was truly a decision to lay down their lives.

In Matthew 16:24, Jesus tell His disciples that they must deny themselves and pick up their crosses if they wanted to follow Him.

We often talk about "picking up our crosses" as just dealing with the burdens of life or sin or whatever bad things are happening. We don't interpret it as truly being prepared to pick up a gun and hand it to our executioner. Yet the early Christians did this. They watched as their friends were burned, waiting their turn to become a human torch. They walked steadily into the arenas, joining hands and singing praises to God as they awaited the lions and beasts.

They looked death in the face and said, "My God is greater."

All they had to do was deny Jesus and their lives would be spared.

But they looked death in the face and said, "My God is worth it, this is not my home."

What if we lived like that?

We talk all the time about living for God, living a life that reflects Jesus. Living in a way that honors and brings glory to the King of Kings. I very truly believe God desires us to live for Him. If you love someone you want to live for them, and so it should be with God.

But what if we weren't just willing to live for Jesus, what if we were willing to die for Him as well? What if Jesus meant so much to us we were truly willing to give Him everything?

I just wonder how different we would be, if our focus was so on Christ that not even our lives mattered anymore.

There are many countries in which the choice to follow Jesus is still a choice of life or death. The following Jesus is choosing to give up family, friends, lifestyle, and possibly life. I've never had to make that kind of decision about anything. No decision in my life has ever had the potential to cost me my life.

What if we thought about Christianity that way? That it wasn't just a box to check off on the "religious views" part of an application, that it wasn't just which church to attend on Sunday or who to pray to before bed, but that Jesus died for us, and now we are willing to die for Him.

Perhaps our lives would then begin to reflect His more, too. Less focus on the seemingly important trivialities of today, and more focus on the things that matter to God - justice, mercy, love, freedom from oppression, redemption, healing.

I want to live more like that. Outwardly focused, loving others, serving others. If Jesus matters so much I would give up my life for Him, then me and my interests begin to matter less and less, until my focus is fully on Him, the one who loves me, loves you, loves everyone, so much He died for us.