Luke 6:37…

Those who follow Jesus Christ have more to offer mankind than anyone who walks according to religion or according to the world’s ways.

When I first got saved, the Lord would give me imaginations of the whole world being saved, and what it would be like if everyone was a born-again believer in Jesus Christ.

It is inarguable many of those who have called themselves Christians have NOT followed the teachings of Jesus down through the centuries. There have been many atrocities committed “in Jesus’ name” as ‘Christians’ that are completely contrary to all Jesus taught. These people were not born again – they were carnal. They were not Christians at all.

This is why we are to follow Jesus and no man. It can be helpful to have a man as an example for us of what it means to follow Jesus Christ, but we must be careful to make certain the man we follow is genuinely following Jesus Christ, and not some version of Christianity of his own making.

But oh what a world it would be if everyone did genuinely follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. How different it would be from the exceedingly cruel and petulant world we experience on a daily basis.

When we consider the cruelty man is obviously capable of, it can be a fearful thing. It scares me to think under the right circumstances I may be capable of the very things I regard as the worst human atrocities imaginable. But I know myself well enough to know apart from Christ, I am capable of extreme wickedness.

This is why Jesus commands those who will follow Him in the way He does. He knows what we are capable of apart from His instruction and guidance. He also knows His instruction and guidance may fall upon deaf ears apart from the presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. This is why being born again and being filled with His Holy Spirit is the bare minimum of what it means to follow Christ.

But what if everyone was born again? What kind of world would that be? Well, it still wouldn’t be a perfect world, because born-again people live in fleshy bodies prone to sin. But it would be a loving, non-judgmental, forgiving, and giving world. And what a wonderful place that would be! (It would be a glimpse of heaven.)

-Pastor Bill