Laying a foundation
This week's study is on Luke 6:46-49:
Jesus is teaching a powerful lesson here about integrity. It's part of a longer conversation about how what is in our heart will affect our behaviour, but in this bit he's talking about obedience and how it's tied to integrity. Integrity is the correlation between what we say and what we do. If I promise you I'm going to help you move a refrigerator, and then I decide on that day to go to a food festival instead, I have no integrity, because my actions and my words didn't line up. If I show up to help move the refrigerator, even if I am lazy about it and show up late, I have integrity because I did what I said I was going to do.
We also see integrity, or its lack, in how we make promises and commitments to each other. If you have a friend who says they'll always be there for you, no matter what, and then they avoid you like the plague when you get diagnosed with cancer, that friend has no integrity. People vow in a wedding ceremony that they'll love each other forever, and then two years later they're divorced and no longer on speaking terms. One guy tells his friend he's got his back no matter what, but then when his friend wants to borrow some money he's all excuses. In Jesus' case, people call him Lord but then don't do what he says to do.
The repetition "Lord Lord" is an emphatic statement. Like in the sense of "seriously," if you were to say "You're my best friend, seriously, like I'd do anything for you." It was common for people in Jesus' day to say things to be polite, so to use the emphatic would be to say that it wasn't just politeness, but that they really meant it. So Jesus isn't talking about people in general, or nominal Christians who have never been to church, but people who make a point of seriously claiming to be Christians and then go and do whatever they want, ignoring what Jesus asks of them.
For a God of truth, it must have been baffling. Why would you say you're going to serve someone and not serve them? Why would you call someone your friend and not treat them like a friend? Why would you profess love, and then not love someone? Why make a vow of submission to someone as your lord and then live in rebellion or indifference against them? It makes no sense, but we do it anyway!
Jesus tells us why we do it. The person who is faithful to him, who does what he is asked, who stands firm to his commitment, is the guy who has built his commitment on a solid foundation. He's dug down, plumbed the depths, removed any doubt, and having been unable to dig any deeper, he built his promise on that solid foundation. It's part of him.
If that guy, who knows himself, and who took the time to make a decision to commit, calls Jesus Lord, he means it. If something else comes up, or if things get hard or stressful, he doesn't budge. That decision to commit is welded to him. A man who digs his foundation to bedrock is a man who knows that floods and storms will come, and wants to make sure, up front, that what he builds will continue to stand. He's an engineer. He's considered the risks and the costs. He's thought it over and then implemented his design.
Contrast that to the kind of person Jesus is exasperated about in these verses: The person who doesn't do what God asks is a person who commits hastily. They don't take time to dig the foundation. They don't consider that something else might come up. They don't mull it over and see if it might come at a cost. Their commitment isn't engineered as much as it is hastily thrown together. It is built on the surface of emotion or a sense of cultural obligation, not on a firm decision.
So when the guy whose commitment is based on his feelings in the moment, or his sense of not rocking the boat culturally, runs into trouble or encounters a better offer, his commitment is going to break. His initial feelings were genuine, but his commitment wasn't built on anything substantial.
And that's the dilemma that Jesus poses. Why do you say that Jesus is your Lord if he is not actually your Lord in your heart? If your actions don't back it up, the words are meaningless. You might as well not say you're a Christian.
If someone asks you if Jesus is your Lord, why do we say yes? Is it because it's the "right answer" to a question we feel we're being graded on? Is it the answer that makes us feel more self-righteous? Is it the fashion in our social circle? Is it because we saw a really moving music video by a Christian band? Or is it because we have recognized him for who he is, and we acknowledge that he is actually our Lord?
A lot of great Christians in history, maybe even all of them, came to a point in their lives where they established a solid foundation in their faith. When they later suffered persecution or had the opportunity to make sacrifices to love others, they did so wilfully, even joyfully, because their service was built on a solid foundation of faith. A lot of us would say that Jesus is our Lord, but from what Jesus is saying here, we would be well-advised to dig in and make that commitment real.
“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and don’t do what I tell you?
“Everyone who comes to me and listens to my words and puts them into practice—I will show you what he is like: He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep, and laid the foundation on bedrock. When a flood came, the river burst against that house but could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the person who hears and does not put my words into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river burst against that house, it collapsed immediately, and was utterly destroyed!”
Jesus is teaching a powerful lesson here about integrity. It's part of a longer conversation about how what is in our heart will affect our behaviour, but in this bit he's talking about obedience and how it's tied to integrity. Integrity is the correlation between what we say and what we do. If I promise you I'm going to help you move a refrigerator, and then I decide on that day to go to a food festival instead, I have no integrity, because my actions and my words didn't line up. If I show up to help move the refrigerator, even if I am lazy about it and show up late, I have integrity because I did what I said I was going to do.
We also see integrity, or its lack, in how we make promises and commitments to each other. If you have a friend who says they'll always be there for you, no matter what, and then they avoid you like the plague when you get diagnosed with cancer, that friend has no integrity. People vow in a wedding ceremony that they'll love each other forever, and then two years later they're divorced and no longer on speaking terms. One guy tells his friend he's got his back no matter what, but then when his friend wants to borrow some money he's all excuses. In Jesus' case, people call him Lord but then don't do what he says to do.
The repetition "Lord Lord" is an emphatic statement. Like in the sense of "seriously," if you were to say "You're my best friend, seriously, like I'd do anything for you." It was common for people in Jesus' day to say things to be polite, so to use the emphatic would be to say that it wasn't just politeness, but that they really meant it. So Jesus isn't talking about people in general, or nominal Christians who have never been to church, but people who make a point of seriously claiming to be Christians and then go and do whatever they want, ignoring what Jesus asks of them.
For a God of truth, it must have been baffling. Why would you say you're going to serve someone and not serve them? Why would you call someone your friend and not treat them like a friend? Why would you profess love, and then not love someone? Why make a vow of submission to someone as your lord and then live in rebellion or indifference against them? It makes no sense, but we do it anyway!
Jesus tells us why we do it. The person who is faithful to him, who does what he is asked, who stands firm to his commitment, is the guy who has built his commitment on a solid foundation. He's dug down, plumbed the depths, removed any doubt, and having been unable to dig any deeper, he built his promise on that solid foundation. It's part of him.
If that guy, who knows himself, and who took the time to make a decision to commit, calls Jesus Lord, he means it. If something else comes up, or if things get hard or stressful, he doesn't budge. That decision to commit is welded to him. A man who digs his foundation to bedrock is a man who knows that floods and storms will come, and wants to make sure, up front, that what he builds will continue to stand. He's an engineer. He's considered the risks and the costs. He's thought it over and then implemented his design.
Contrast that to the kind of person Jesus is exasperated about in these verses: The person who doesn't do what God asks is a person who commits hastily. They don't take time to dig the foundation. They don't consider that something else might come up. They don't mull it over and see if it might come at a cost. Their commitment isn't engineered as much as it is hastily thrown together. It is built on the surface of emotion or a sense of cultural obligation, not on a firm decision.
So when the guy whose commitment is based on his feelings in the moment, or his sense of not rocking the boat culturally, runs into trouble or encounters a better offer, his commitment is going to break. His initial feelings were genuine, but his commitment wasn't built on anything substantial.
And that's the dilemma that Jesus poses. Why do you say that Jesus is your Lord if he is not actually your Lord in your heart? If your actions don't back it up, the words are meaningless. You might as well not say you're a Christian.
If someone asks you if Jesus is your Lord, why do we say yes? Is it because it's the "right answer" to a question we feel we're being graded on? Is it the answer that makes us feel more self-righteous? Is it the fashion in our social circle? Is it because we saw a really moving music video by a Christian band? Or is it because we have recognized him for who he is, and we acknowledge that he is actually our Lord?
A lot of great Christians in history, maybe even all of them, came to a point in their lives where they established a solid foundation in their faith. When they later suffered persecution or had the opportunity to make sacrifices to love others, they did so wilfully, even joyfully, because their service was built on a solid foundation of faith. A lot of us would say that Jesus is our Lord, but from what Jesus is saying here, we would be well-advised to dig in and make that commitment real.
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