# What will you quit for Christ?



## MW (Mar 8, 2010)

Samuel Rutherford (Communion Sermons, 60-61):



> Many will talk broad words for the kingdom of heaven, and of the worth of Christ; but when it comes to this, What will ye quit for Christ? Will ye quit your farms and your lands for Christ? Will ye quit your five yoke of oxen for Christ? And will ye quit your new married wife, and your children, for Christ? — then they make a stand, and question all. We are all good Christians till we be tried. We often make a fair profession, while we mar all in practice. Many do with Jesus Christ as onlookers do in a great fair; they go through the market, and commend everything they see, but never open their purse to buy any thing. So multitudes can say, “It is good to be a Christian; O! the Son of God is worth all the world;" but they will never offer a penny for Christ's cause. They will not want a ridge of land, nor suffer the loss of an ox for Him. They will rather lose their immortal souls than lose their gear. All you who now speak proudly of Christ, when persecution comes, see what ye will lose for Him. Oh! the Lord Jesus has many friends, who yet are but false friends and flatterers at bottom. They will speak good of Him, but will do no good for Him. Few leave their nets and custom-box for Him. But the man who finds the pearl, he sells all, and buys it.


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## TimV (Mar 8, 2010)

> And will ye quit your new married wife, and your children, for Christ?



Don't some parables use hyperbole? Under Biblical law, you can't even go to war to protect your country if you're new married, since marriage is the foundation of social structure. You have to stay at home. Would Christ have told someone to leave their new married wife in actual fact? 

Thanks in advance for ideas.


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## MW (Mar 8, 2010)

If your new marriied wife told you to deny Christ or she would leave you, what would you do? If you refused to deny Christ then you would have quit your new married wife.

I believe it is referring to the priority of affection even where providence does not require the action.


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## TimV (Mar 8, 2010)

Thanks, Pastor. We recently had another post about men who "felt" the missionary calling and their wives weren't willing to go. They used that verse as an excuse to abandon their wives. That scenario frankly seems more likely than the scenario where a new bride demands her husband deny Christ.


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## MW (Mar 8, 2010)

TimV said:


> Thanks, Pastor. We recently had another post about men who "felt" the missionary calling and their wives weren't willing to go. They used that verse as an excuse to abandon their wives. That scenario frankly seems more likely than the scenario where a new bride demands her husband deny Christ.


 
In that scenario I would say that the husband has a duty to fulfil his marital responsibilities to his wife on the basis of 1 Corinthians 7 and its teaching on divided devotion, and on that basis should not require her to go where she is not willing to go.


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## OPC'n (Mar 8, 2010)

All His children will quit everything they are suppose to quit bc He predestine them to quit those things from the beginning of time. He gives us the heart to quit those things He want us to quit. We might acquire that heart through much hardship but we will acquire it and we will give up those things He wants us to give up. Many times ppl talk about those around them who seem to have everything and are not giving up anything for Him, but who says that He has asked them to give up those things? Much poetry has been written which speaks of other ppl's godly or ungodly actions when that poetry should be speaking of the author's actions which reflect God's work in their lives. When a person speaks of other ppl and how they perceive them they should take in account they do not know where God has them in His timeline of sanctification. Jesus states that if we are not willing to give up everything up unto our lives to follow Him we are not worthy to follow Him and yet we know that if one is truly saved he would certainly give up his life for Christ. That statement from Christ is stated only to divide the sheep from the goats not to measure success or self-righteousness among His children. In another verse it states that if we give up our lives for another and yet have not love it ain't worth a pot of beans. Of course that love is love for Christ. Our holiness comes from Christ and He gives it as He pleases in His own timing. So to ask what we will give up for Christ is a rhetorical question...we will give up everything and poems written about how other Christians don't seem to be giving up as much as they should are useless poems...they are just stating in essence that they feel God's sanctification process in some Christians is too slow.


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## rbcbob (Mar 8, 2010)

What will you quit for Christ? 

This world and every thing less, I trust, God helping me. There was a time (all too lengthy) in my Christian walk as a young man in the prime of life that even contemplating such options, I confess that I sensed hesitation and timidity.


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## O'GodHowGreatThouArt (Mar 8, 2010)

> What will you quit for Christ


Answer: If I wasn't in Christ, I would've been mad to have abandoned all I have for Him thus far. 

This even included things that was for His glory and His Kingdom, because He has something even better awaiting me that would glorify Him even more than what I did prior, and that doing these things would have to come at the expense of the other things I did.

Mathematics major (as much as I desired to stay in it)
Christian radio show
Editor/Staff writer of an underground Christian music magazine
A standing internship as an actuary that probably would've put me in six figures within 10 years if things went well.
And most of all, my life

The last is the biggest price of taking up your cross and following Him. You will lose your life.

In a spiritual and moral sense, and very possibly a physical sense. 

Dog owners. Ever had days where you were walking your dog and he/she just bolted out in front and practically dragged you down the road with no idea where you're going and what will happen? This is why there are so few true converts. Everyone wants God, but no one wants to be dragged down that road by Him not knowing if they're going to see their best friend around the corner or fall off a cliff. They have to know, they do not trust Him 100%.



Luke 14:26 - ESV said:


> If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.





Matthew 10:37 - ESV said:


> Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.


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