I was walking into the kitchen to get a drink from the fridge tonight and I heard one of those infomercials. I don’t know what they were selling, but if I acted now I would get two for the price of one, plus free shipping and some other extra thing. It’s all a ploy to get you to buy the first product, which probably cannot stand on its own.
Can you imagine if that’s how we tried to attract people to Jesus? “Join us now, and if you do it now, we throw in a lifetime of happiness, guaranteed health, all with no commitment!!”
Sadly though, many churches fall into that trap. We take the simple message of Hope through a resurrected Christ, and add on to it. Messages of health and riches are preached. We shy away from the Truth because they may not like the “product”. And we can’t possibly ask for a commitment, we may offend or upset somebody.
Jesus promises neither health, nor wealth. In fact, He said you must take up your cross. Eternal life is the reward, not earthly health. He set forth the Truth, in love, but never shied away from telling them how it was. And He not only told us it was a commitment, He commanded us to go out and baptize and make disciples!
It’s easy to allow tradition, out of context scripture, and our own ideas, to cloud the Truth Jesus delivered. Sometimes it’s for selfish reasons, or personal gain, other times, it’s how people were raised and continue to overlay a misbelief as The beliefs.
Jesus didn’t have to sell hope, because those He delivered that message to those who were already seeking it. Roman times were not pleasant; His message was appealing. It was eternal though, not temporal. It was not buy one, get one. There is no free shipping. And it’s a lifetime commitment for an eternal reward.
In the end, those that bought it for the bag of extra goodies, will soon find disappointment. Those that accept the Blood of Christ, will find they need nothing else.