Perhaps THE most discussed difference among brothers and sisters in Christ (between true Christians, this isn’t a point of understanding/contention within the Gospel message) is the role of our day to day choices within the scope of the coming to pass of the Will of God. The two verses I would like to focus on for this article are:

1: Joshua 24:15
“If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

2: Matthew 6:24
“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. “

The first thing to point out here is the abundant popularity of the last part of the verse used constantly on pictures, bumper stickers, etc., “…but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” I’m not sitting here making light of the importance of that choice, Christ’s sheep must daily crucify the desire of their flesh in order to become conformed to His image. I would like to bring to light an aspect of this verse that I have personally not heard taught on, the fact that the only choice to be made within this verse as well as the verse in Matthew, is WHICH master we are going to serve. We are never given an opportunity to exist in a state outside of servant hood on this earth, because of our inherent fallen nature in Adam. We are either serving the Lord Jesus in what we do, or we are serving our flesh in sin, we as human beings don’t have the capacity to perform actions outside of our nature. Our natural state is one of slavery unto sin (Genesis 6:5, Romans chapters 1-3 and 8), only when we have been made alive in Christ (Ephesians 2:5, Colossians 2:13) are we able to begin to make choices because of our fundamental nature change (ezekiel 36:25-32, Jeremiah 31:31-33) that bring Glory to God.

I would like to urge those who read not to persist in glorifying our ability to choose, but to glorify God in His greatness to bring us from death to life, our life is for the purpose of bringing Glory to God alone, not to anything we bring to the table at any point. Christ on earth made abundantly clear that His sole purpose was to do the Will of His Father (John 5:30 and 8:28) and exclusively that. He commands all of his disciples to give up all things that would be a hindrance to their submission to God’s Will, those things included possessions, relationships, careers, hobbies, anything at all that could be placed ahead of God in priority. (Luke chapter 9, Romans 12:1-2, Hebrews 12:1-2)

James 1:14-15, “But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.”

When we act on our natural impulses, the only outcome possible is death, we are unable of ourselves to make any choice that brings forth an outcome glorifying to God. Our best day, our most righteous act is unto God as, literally, used menstrual garments (Isaiah 64:6) The instant we begin to live in submission to God’s Will and take our minds off of the things in our lives that have no eternal significance (houses, vehicles, electronics, social media,etc.) the sooner we will get to experience the kind of walk that the Apostles did, the kind of walk the Patriarchs got to experience, a walk of intimacy with God unhindered by any other idol.

My attempt here is not to make light of the struggles of day to day living, it is simply to point out that if we (I say WE because I certainly include myself and my household in the aim of this article) move our concerns away from a focus on a building up of the here and now to a focus on the Eternal Kingdom of God and living according to His Righteousness in Christ (Matthew 6:33-34) we will be able to much more effectively reach the lost with the Gospel through the witness of our lives.

To conclude, we must see that we are going to be a slave to either our sin or to Christ, we don’t get to sit in the stands and watch the game unfold without consequence. Are we willing to be submitted to Christ not only as the payment for our sin, but as Savior AND Lord Who truly holds all things together (Colossians 1:16-17, Hebrews 1:3) and works all things to the Counsel of His Will? (Ephesians 1:11, Psalm 33)

If we’re going to accurately represent the whole counsel of God’s Word (2 Timothy 2:15) we must be committed to studying it in humility, with a focus on objectivity and a heart open to all things God has to say regardless of what our emotions tell us to feel about what’s being said. If we seek Him with everything we’ve got (Jer. 29:13, Deut 6:4) we will find Him and He will give us wisdom freely (James 1:5)

By God’s Grace,

Joshua