Does abundant life equal the good life?
This is a question I wonder about from time to time. Does following Jesus mean I will live the ‘good life’? Some media preachers preach this. Their message seems to say that if you follow Jesus you will prosper with the things of life, riches, money, things, stuff.
I am uncomfortable with that kind of ‘abundance’ preaching and verses like 16:1-4 are part of my reason for discomfort when I hear preaching promise the good life as defined by the world.
All this I have told you so that you will not fall away. They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God. They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you…
These words of Jesus come from a long teaching section. My red-letter edition Bible shows me that John 14-17 is basically a monologue from Jesus. In the sentences above, Jesus warns His disciples of hard times ahead precisely because they are following Him. His disciples will be excluded by their family, friends and faith and even killed. And what’s worse is that those who kill them will believe they are honoring God with their killing! This is anything but a good life!
The text doesn’t say that everyone who follows Jesus will endure these things, but we shouldn’t be surprised if they come to us or Christ-Followers we know.
In our world the truth of this word from Jesus is playing out on a scale like never before. According to David Barrett’s published research1 70 million people have been martyred for Christ since 33AD, 45+million in the 20th century alone. The rate is growing. In the 21st century about 400 people are martyred a day, that is 146,000 per year!
I may not feel the gravity of Jesus’ Words in today’s text, but many in the world are and this is driving me both to gratitude for my life right now and prayer for sisters and brothers worldwide who are spilling their blood rather than deny Jesus.
Lord, should I ever be put to this test, I pray that the warning of Jesus in John 16, the example of the disciples in the NT and brothers and sisters throughout the ages, bolster my faith so that I, too, accept death rather than deny Jesus my Lord, Savior and God. In His name I live and pray. Amen.
1World Christian trends, AD 30-AD 2200: interpreting the annual Christian megacensus / David B. Barrett, Todd M. Johnson. On the web at http://www.gordonconwell.edu/resources/documents/wct_martyrs_extract.pdf
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