“While Jesus was still speaking to the crowds, his mother and brothers came and stood outside, asking to speak to him. Someone told him, ‘Look, your mother and your brothers are standing outside wanting to speak to you.’ To the one who had said this, Jesus replied, ‘Who is my mother and who are my brothers?’ And pointing toward his disciples he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.’” —Matthew 12:46–50
Just as living in a garage will not make us a car; neither will family relationships make us true disciples of Jesus. It is only through faith in the Lord Jesus that one is cleansed and has a right standing with our heavenly Father. This faith in Christ will produce eternal works in keeping with true repentance just as naturally as an apple tree produces an apple.
It is not what we muster up; it is what we flesh out. It is that which is within us—the good fruit of the Holy Spirit—that matters. This good fruit is never produced by our own abilities, but by the Holy Spirit’s all achieving power.
Jesus’ words in John come to mind:
“You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because the slave does not understand what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because I have revealed to you everything I heard from my Father. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that remains, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you.” —John 15:14–16
Jesus makes this same point in our verses for today. It is only those who do the will of His Father in heaven that are rightly related to the Savior. It is those being dominated by His dominance; those being filled with the fullness of God.
This is a lifelong process. We never “get there” in this fallen world. We never fully comprehend God, but we can grow closer and closer to Him in our understandings. The more we know Him, the more we love Him, and the more we love Him, the more we trust Him and desire to serve Him.
“I pray that according to the wealth of his glory he will grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner person, that Christ will dwell in your hearts through faith, so that, because you have been rooted and grounded in love, you will be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and thus to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you will be filled up to all the fullness of God.” —Ephesians 3:16–19
Too often we want to blend in with this world. We are hesitant to take a stand for truth because we are eager to be embraced by family, peers, or even our church. We do not want to stand out by standing up. The idea that we may appear foolish or ridiculous is simply unappealing. We prefer to blend; drawing little or no attention to ourselves regarding our walk of faith. We remain silent when we should speak; indifferent when we should act; often disregarding the Holy Spirit’s nudging and leading. Instead, we seek to go our own way and expect God to bless us.
The Bible, on the other hand, is full of people that looked foolish to the world. How about believing God, as did Abraham, when his ninety-year-old wife was told she would conceive and give birth to a child? Or what about Noah building an ark with no water in sight and it had never even rained? Certainly Joshua had to have seemed foolish in simply marching around the walls of Jericho and expecting them to fall. The examples from Scripture go on and on ending with the cross of Christ which seemed foolish to the world, but was God’s ultimate perfect plan to save the souls of men. Indeed, being trail blazers in God’s kingdom can often look as foolishness to the world.
Remember, Jesus’ place was to suffer outside the camp. A place away from the embrace of the world. It was a place of scorn—a place reserved for criminals and outcasts—just as we all are before Christ.
“Therefore, to sanctify the people by his own blood, Jesus also suffered outside the camp. We must go out to him, then, outside the camp, bearing the abuse he experienced. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.” —Hebrews 13:12–14
Become More
“The true Christian cannot be hid, he cannot escape notice. A man truly living and functioning as a Christian will stand out. He will be like salt; he will be like a city set on a hill, a candle set upon a candlestick. But we can also add this further word. The true Christian does not even desire to hide his light. He sees how ridiculous it is to claim to be a Christian and yet deliberately to try to hide the fact.
“A man who truly realizes what it means to be a Christian, who realizes all that the grace of God has meant to him and done for him, and understands that, ultimately, God has done this in order that he may influence others, is a man who cannot conceal it. Not only that; he does not desire to conceal it, because he argues thus, ‘Ultimately the object and purpose of it all is that I might be functioning in this way.’” —Martin Lloyd-Jones
Further Reflection
“I
pray that according to the wealth of his glory he will grant you to be
strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner person, that Christ
will dwell in your hearts through faith, so that, because you have been rooted
and grounded in love, you will be able to comprehend with all the saints what
is the breadth and length and height and depth, and thus to know the love of
Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you will be filled up to all the
fullness of God.” —Ephesians 3:16–19