Matthew 22:37
God's true Church, the body of Christ, consists of those of us
who are willing to surrender their heart, mind, soul and all their strength fully
to Christ.
Love the Lord your God with all your
heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. Mark 12:30
We must be willing to follow Jesus' instruction:
Then Jesus said to his disciples,
“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross
and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save their life[a] will lose it, but
whoever loses their life for me will find it.”
Matthew 16:24–25
Sadly, today, many believers more interested in saving their
lives, having a good time, fitting into this present society, and living
according to the standards of this world that they find it very difficult to
even consider actually obeying the powerful teaching and the standards set by
God in His mighty word. They want a
relationship but they don’t fear or reverence God. They speak and act through their lips but their
hearts are not in it.
These people honor me with their
lips, but their hearts are far from me. Matthew 15:8
We cannot afford to harden our hearts against God. God uses and works with those who have
pliable hearts.
A new heart also will I give you,
and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart
out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. Ezekiel
36:26
A perfect relationship with God is one where the heart is pure
before God.
Rend your heart and not your
garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. Joel 2:13
It is the contrite heart gets God's attention. Make no
mistake, it's a heart thing!
The sacrifices of God are a broken
spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. Psalms 51:17
You may not have this attitude of submission or surrender that
is born from a contrite, pure and pliable heart, but it is something that we constantly
and consistently strive for. It is the
only way we can truly serve Him – through true submission and surrender to Him.
But why do you call Me 'Lord, Lord,'
and not do the things which I say?" Luke 6:46
Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord,
Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father
in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your
name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you
who practice lawlessness! Matthew 7:21–23
We must be careful to obey God according to His standards and
not the standards of men. We don’t want
to hear those horrifying words, ‘depart from me’.
Those who subvert the truth of God; pretending to teach His
word, but who in actuality dummy down and invent excuses to "water
down" the most basic attributes of godly character are in for a rude
awakening! We cannot select those parts
of God’s word that we like and overlook or not do the things that we don’t like
or agree with.
For whoever keeps the whole law
and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. For he who said, “You shall not commit
adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder. If you do not commit adultery but
do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker. Speak and act as those who are going to be
judged by the law that gives freedom, James
2:10–12
The disciple James was clearly referring to the Ten
Commandments. Those are the commandments that teach against murder and
adultery. He shows that we must obey all of God's commandments; not come up
with clever reasons as to why any of them are no longer applicable or that some
are to be modified or "watered down" to fit our modern lifestyle.
Rather, the body of Christ consists of those of us who have a
genuine fear (reverence) of God who are tired of playing games with religion,
and who are willing to diligently seek a true relationship with God, obey His
commandments and truly yield ourselves to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ in
order to live obediently to Him through His Holy Spirit. Have the mindset of Apostle Paul who said:
I have been crucified with Christ
and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body,
I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians
2:20
This declaration by Apostle Paul exemplifies the very essence
of true discipleship, of true surrender, true submission of a believer and
follower of Jesus Christ.
(Biblical Studies)
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