Called to Follow Jesus' Lead

We are called to follow Jesus's example and act like Jesus through our words and actions.

Throughout the Bible, some have tried to take matters into their own hands rather than wait for God's guidance.

Moses was so upset about how his Jewish brothers and sisters were being treated that he killed one of Pharoah's soldiers. He had to run and hide until God called and used him to lead the Hebrew people out of slavery.

Jonah was so upset because God wanted him to go and save the Ninevites that he tried to run away. After three days in time-out – in a whale, not a chair – Jonah went and helped the Ninevites change their ways of living.

Peter was so upset they came to arrest Jesus that he drew a sword and cut the ear off one of the centurions. Jesus immediately told him to drop the sword and healed the man's ear.

James and John were so upset with a Samaritan village not accepting Jesus they proposed bringing fire down to destroy the whole town. Jesus rebuked them and continued his journey.

Jesus ushers in God's salvation not with weapons, but through sacrifice and dying for us on the Cross.

Today, as in years past, we have people who are impatient and want to use words and weapons that injure or kill those who they believe are anti-Christian and un-American.

However, Jesus' words and actions remind us how we are to live our faith.

Jesus took time to eat with sinners, not shun them.

Jesus took time to heal both Jews and Gentiles.

Jesus took time to teach through word and deed.

Jesus took time to come out of heaven and die for our sins.

I believe Jesus does not call us to take matters into our own hands, judge others, or kill another person with guns or words.

Jesus calls us to be his followers, to love our brothers and sisters, and to be a light to the world.

Paul sums up Jesus' love the best when he wrote these words, which we find today in 1 Corinthians 13:1-13:

If I speak in the tongues of humans or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.

For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.