Jesus told us in Matthew 6:24 that “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other . . .” Jesus’ point in our text is that we have to make the choice to put God first over all others and all things. As a disciple of Christ it is important to follow Him wholeheartedly because Jesus is the only One with all authority and only He can save.
Think about what it means to be a disciple in relation to serving one master (or teacher). By definition, a disciple follows their teacher. This means that the disciple is training to be like their teacher and only their teacher. There can be no halfhearted disciples. This is because a halfhearted Christian weakens the image of His disciples. Unbelievers’ perception of uninvolved and unfaithful Christians is often detrimental to the body of Christ. If a Christian is wholeheartedly following Jesus, then the belief surrounding His disciples is one of involvement and faithfulness.
As a wholehearted disciple, we know from Luke 6:46 that we not only need to know what Jesus teaches and tells us to do, but to actually do what He says. As a wholehearted disciple, we see from Luke 9:23-26 that following Jesus means bearing a cross. That might not resonate too well with us in the 21st century, but those words in the first-century context meant a tortuously painful death. For us, today, daily cross-bearing and daily dying to self, sin, and shame is what wholehearted disciples of Jesus do every day.
Jesus tells us in Luke 14:25-33 that the wholehearted disciple allows absolutely nothing to come before their Master Jesus. Whether challenging times or blessed times, wholehearted disciples imitate Jesus. Imitating our Master Jesus is what wholehearted disciples do even when it is inconvenient (or when we would rather not do it). Wholehearted disciples yield to, submit to, and obey Jesus. Disciples of Jesus count the cost by putting Jesus first in everything as we take up our cross to follow Him.
Too many have begun their discipleship journey without counting the cost, and when their journey becomes difficult, they either leave the faith or change the meaning of discipleship so that it’s less demanding. Since His disciples are to be the salt of the earth, such halfhearted disciples are no longer salty (Matthew 5:13).
The commitment of the wholehearted disciple will bring continual personal and congregational growth (both spiritually and numerically) until the day when our time on this earth is done. The halfhearted disciple won’t achieve such growth unless they commit to moving beyond mediocrity and halfheartedness.
If you are a disciple, then by definition you have chosen to follow Christ. As a wholehearted disciple, your faith-journey should be getting easier for you with less thinking required and fewer decisions to make because you’ve already made the most important decision: to follow Jesus wholeheartedly.
