Matthew 16:24. “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”
One of Satan’s greatest triumphs was persuading people, for reasons unsupported by Scripture and within a system foreign to true Christianity, to establish religious orders devoted to poverty and outward humiliation. Yet in rejecting that error, Protestantism may also have rejected the truth it distorted. Christianity teaches that believers may voluntarily surrender status, wealth, or comfort so that their sincerity, faith, contentment, hope, and love can be clearly displayed. Although this teaching rests on as broad and firm a foundation in Christ’s words as almost any other doctrine, it is now often dismissed as foolishness, if not heresy. Anyone who teaches and practices it must show exceptional wisdom in other matters merely to be tolerated. Few obligations are more sacred for Christians than demonstrating the divine origin of their faith through lives that offer compelling evidence to the world. God loves his people and does not oppose their comfort, but he also loves his truth and seeks to remove obstacles from the paths that lead to Christ. When he says, “Sell all that you have, give to the poor, and follow me,” he does not speak from harshness or indifference. He knows that even amid poverty and lowly circumstances, he can give peace and joy that riches can never provide. “But,” you may ask, “what can one person do? If someone resolves to follow the Lord’s command exactly, will that person’s conduct not seem eccentric and accomplish little? What value can one example have?” Yet the earlier question remains: Must Christ’s words be adjusted to the Church’s unbelief? Are all his demands relaxed simply because Christians everywhere choose to ignore them? (Bowen)
