MARK 1:17-20 – And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets. And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.

THEME OF THE DAY. THE DANGER OF DELAYED OBEDIENCE. In today’s scripture, Jesus gives a direct and simple command to His soon to be disciples, “Follow me and I will make you become fishers of men.” What is striking is the response of these men – “And immediately they left their nets and followed Him.” Don’t miss what is involved here. They didn’t drop a hobby. This was not a fishing excursion easily dismissed. No, they gave up their livelihood. They gave up everything in their lives and immediately followed Jesus. All relationships. All material things. Everything surrendered immediately. And the lesson for us is both immediate and profound.

When God calls us to any exercise of obedience it is never to be pondered. It is to be obeyed without question or delay. He deserves such loyalty and submission. And what must be grasped in a life of immediate obedience is our Lord expects this of us. Jesus gives us an uncomfortable illustration in the lives of some “would be disciples.” They were ready to follow Jesus, but not immediately and according to their time tables. Jesus responds with “No. You cannot set conditions on My call to follow Me. Nor will I allow any excuses, even ones that seem to be legitimate.” Let’s read this in Jesus’ own words . . .

“As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:57-62).

The danger of delaying obedience to any of God’s commands are two-fold. First, we will grow spiritually indifferent. Neglect doing what we know the Lord commands of us, and a cooling of the heart occurs. The things of God become routine and our desires for prayer, the Word, church, and spiritual service are quenched. We may go through the motions of being a Christian, but we will lack the spiritual life of being a Christian. And we will absent ourselves from the things of God to include faithful attendance to church and fellowship with His people.

The second thing which will happen if we delay obeying known commands of God is we grow to accept disobedience. It is the worst of conditions to be a backslidden Christian, know it, and do nothing about it. I have heard Christians say, “I know I am not where I should be spiritually” and then see them make no effort to change. Friends, this is a mocking of God and will only be remedied by painful repentance.

Our God is so wonderful and glorious that He deserves immediate obedience to all His commands. May He reveal Himself to us through His Word and prayer that makes our obedience acts of immediate actions of delight because we are tasting that the Lord is good, worthy of such obedience from us.

PRAYER: “Lord, help me to respond to Your testing of my faith so that I might grow in the faith.”

QUOTE: “We need trials. Without them, we will not grow in our faith and in our likeness to Jesus.”