Matt 7:24-27

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

These are some among the verses I label “Do what I Say”. There are a lot of them spread out among the Gospel text. I will be covering many of them in future blogs. It seems pretty clear that Jesus is saying if you do not at least try to do what I say then you are a foolish person who has built your salvation on a very weak foundation. All of these words fly in the face of some Christians today who say that Jesus only requires us to say the words that he is Lord and Savior; nothing else. To me this is akin to buying a fire insurance policy that you put on the shelf and pull out only when you need it. I don’t think Jesus is going to redeem those policies on the last day but, of course, I could be wrong. Some say that even saying the words can only happen if God allows it? That is the Calvinist critique. I’ll save that for another day. To sum this up I think that Jesus really does mean for us to do what he says. If that is not the case then much of what he said is wasted.