Walking in
Agreement

Purpose. How intentional do you intend to be in any of your pursuits? Have you given any thought to what you aim to accomplish or what it will take to achieve your goal? Are you willing to do whatever it takes to see you intention through to the end?

‘Once upon a time’ a man was drawing large crowds, had become quite popular, was being followed by way more people than most would expect. Do you think he feed that popularity, rallied the cause, catered to what would appeal to even larger throngs? No, not quite.

Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, “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. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’

Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.
So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. ¹

Certainly not a very effective way to appeal to the masses! Start with a ‘great crowd’ and then ‘offend’ them by challenging their purposefulness, whether they were committed to the purpose, whether they were willing to ‘count the cost’ required by that purpose. Seems rather offensive to some.

In both examples there is a reminder of not being able to follow through to the purpose, being able to continue, maybe even pulling back when the popularity of the movement waned. For those who are well-read, this encounter involved Jesus and the crowds that followed him in the early years of his public appearances. Sure enough, as the accounts are recorded, the crowds diminished just for the reasons he suggested. The cost was too severe.

Jesus was not endeavoring to draw a large following but rather to draw those who would accept his ways as their own. There were multitudes interested in the wonders he performed, the healings, the miracles and even the confrontations with the religious authorities but he knew they were not committed to his way or the ways of Father God. Which brings us to the rest of God’s principle.

“Do two walk together, unless they have agreed to meet?
Does a lion roar in the forest, when he has no prey?
Does a young lion cry out from his den, if he has taken nothing?
Does a bird fall in a snare on the earth, when there is no trap for it?
Does a snare spring up from the ground, when it has taken nothing?” ²

These are a series of parallel queries with the answer being, “Of course not.” There is another series of verses which points to the same principle:

“Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers.
For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness?
Or what fellowship has light with darkness?
What accord has Christ with Belial? 
Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?
What agreement has the temple of God with idols?
For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” ³ 

Jesus was not trying to create exclusivity but rather to be inclusive of those in agreement with the ways of God. He knew the inherent incompatibility of ‘hot’ and ‘cold’, ‘light’ and ‘darkness’ and was simply pointing out to those who felt wishful toward God that a greater compatibility was necessary. Togetherness through the difficult requires more than wish-fullness. Commitment is deep, not shallow, requires all from both. Jesus was exemplary of what God was giving to come into agreement but he also was direct about what was necessary on followers behalf to come into that agreement. Relationship with God was never intended to be casual. Disciple necessitates disciplines in the ways of God, the coming into agreement required in any relationship.

Think for just a moment the undesirability of a friendship, marriage, business ownership or any other relationship of value that does require agreement in all that matters. It is only for your welfare that God has high standards for your relationship with Him which necessitate more than casualness. Would you honestly desire to spend eternity in relationship with Someone you did not agree with when His presence requires compliance, submission and adoration?