To be a follower of Christ and walk with Jesus is the most rewarding thing you could ever do. It is also the most challenging thing you will ever do as well. If anyone has ever tried to sell you a pie-in-the-sky, heaven-on-earth brand of Christianity, quite simply, they lied to you. Being a Christian is not easy; Jesus never said it would be. In challenging us to be disciples, Jesus told us before we consider becoming his disciples, we must count the cost. If this walk were a bed of roses, there would be no need to count the cost. However, because it’s not, it requires you and me to understand what it takes to be a follower of Jesus. While being a disciple comes with some wonderful eternal rewards, those rewards come later. Before you get there, you must first navigate the realities of this life. Therefore, you must count the cost.
Where Did Jesus Say Count the Cost?
“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?” (Luke 14:28)
What is fascinating about this statement is what Jesus said and when he said it. In Luke 14:25, the Bible tells us that large crowds followed Jesus. For a moment, let’s extrapolate that to the world today. We live in a social media-driven world, where enormous crowds and followings are exactly what people seek. Once you get that crowd, the one thing you want to do is to maintain that crowd, possibly make it larger. However, that was not Jesus’ agenda. In seeing the sizeable crowd, Jesus says something you would probably not say if you wanted to keep your followers. Here is what he said.
“Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them, he said: ‘If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.’” (Luke 14:25-27)
Imagine being in the audience that day. I wonder what your reaction would have been? Jesus was establishing the true price required to be a disciple, and he wanted those following him to count the cost and see if they were willing to pay it. It is easy to follow Jesus when the fish and loaves multiply and miraculous healings occur. However, what happens when they don’t come? What happens when the road gets challenging, people reject you or your prayers don’t seem to go beyond the ceiling? Will you continue to follow? This is all part of the cost.
Why Did Jesus Say You Must Count the Cost?
By instructing people to count the cost, Jesus introduced a weeding-out process. He wanted to set the right expectation of what it means to follow him. Jesus knew that followers who don’t count the cost will eventually fall by the wayside, especially when life gets difficult. He talked about types of followers in the Parable of the Sower, comparing one type to a seed that falls on rocky ground.
“The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.” (Matthew 13:20-21)
In that crowd following Jesus, he knew some loved to see the miracles and enjoyed listening to his teaching. Maybe they even liked the way Jesus often silenced the Pharisees. Jesus may have healed some in that crowd, or maybe they were part of the hungry group of people Jesus fed. Seeing all these things, they could have easily assumed that if I just latched on to Jesus and connected my life to him, then the blessings would flow. Knowing this, Jesus had to set the record straight so they would not make the wrong assumption about what it takes to be his disciple.
3 Questions You Must Consider When You Count the Cost
Let’s return to Luke 14:25-27. Within these verses, Jesus identifies three things you must consider if you will be his disciple.
Will you love Jesus more than anything?
To follow Jesus requires that we love him more than anything. In Luke, he says your love for Jesus should be so strong that it looks like hate compared to how you love others. Jesus is not saying hate your mother, father, children, or family. He is saying, love me more than them. When you consider counting the cost, are you willing to make your love for Jesus the highest priority in your life? Count the cost to understand what that means before you automatically say yes to that question. This leads to the next two questions.
Are you willing to lay down your desires?
This is when the reality of what it means to follow Christ begins to set in. Laying down your desires can mean many things, but one thing is you put away what you want to pursue what he wants. This may mean you must let go of some things and trust that his way and plans are better than yours. Again, this is not easy, but it is necessary if you want to follow Jesus.
Are you willing to carry your cross?
Think about what the cross means: it is a place of death, surrender, sacrifice, obedience, and victory. When Jesus carried the cross, he chose to deny his own will and agenda to follow what the Father wanted. His obedience, surrender, and sacrifice ultimately led to his death but also won us our victory. Carrying your cross may not lead to physical death (though it could), but it means you die to the desires of your flesh, and you surrender your will for his. This may hurt in the short term, but it is the best for you in the long term. That is the required price, so you must count the cost of following Jesus.
Why Must We Tell People to Count the Cost?
The truth of your Christian journey is it will cost you something. That’s why those who only talk about how much God will bless you are setting people up for failure. While many blessings come from following Christ, following Christ is not about a bigger house, car, or bank account. If those things happen, please don’t make that the endgame of following Jesus because it’s not. Following Jesus means you must deny yourself and take up your cross. You won’t always be able to say what you want, do what you want, or even react how you want. You will have to surrender your will and your ways for his will and his ways. You ultimately must give up the wheel and allow him to take control of your life wherever that leads you. This is what we must tell people because this is what it means to count the cost.
Final thought
The choice to follow Jesus or not is not about the temporary but the eternal. When you count the cost, this is what you are weighing it against. Is it worth the surrender, the sacrifice, and carrying your cross today to exchange it for an eternal glory that no one will ever be able to take away from you? In other words, will you live for what is temporary, or will you live for what is eternal? I can’t answer that question for you, but that is what is at stake, and you must decide.
Those who have set their hearts on following Jesus are able to endure because they have set their eyes on the eternal. They recognize that this life will come with trials and may not be easy, but they have factored that into the equation. After considering all the options and counting the cost, they have determined that no matter what happens, it will all be worth it. My prayer today is that you will see it the same way.
“Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though outwardly, we are wasting away, inwardly, we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)
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Clarence L. Haynes Jr. is a speaker, Bible teacher, and co-founder of The Bible Study Club. He is the author of The Pursuit of Purpose which will help you understand how God leads you into his will. His most recent book is The Pursuit of Victory: How To Conquer Your Greatest Challenges and Win In Your Christian Life. This book will teach you how to put the pieces together so you can live a victorious Christian life and finally become the man or woman of God that you truly desire to be. Clarence is also committed to helping 10,000 people learn how to study the Bible and has just released his first Bible study course called Bible Study Basics. To learn more about his ministry please visit clarencehaynes.com.
This article is part of our larger resource library of popular Bible verse phrases and quotes. We want to provide easy to read articles that answer your questions about the meaning, origin, and history of specific verses within Scripture's context. It is our hope that these will help you better understand the meaning and purpose of God's Word in relation to your life today.
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