I love you! See you later. Like when I die?
Who would ever say that?

I love you! See you later, when I die. Who would ever say that? If we love someone, would we really walk away and choose to spend a lifetime without them?

The adjacent images show a woman expressing her love for the man. In the next moment, she’s walking away. Leaving him behind. Not even turning around to face him as she just puts up a hand to wave goodbye.

But she did say she’ll always love him, until the day she dies.

There’s nothing to keep them apart. As I said – who would do that?

But let’s change one thing. One tiny little thing. Well, maybe not so tiny.

Let’s say the man represents Jesus.

Now, the woman is expressing her love for Jesus.

She says she’ll love Him until the day she dies. And she’ll see Him after her death. In the next life. That happens all too often. Someone says, “I love you Jesus”. Then, they go live their own life with the “knowledge” they got their ticket to Heaven with that one statement. “I love you Jesus”.

Now, let’s change one more thing. Sort of.

When you first looked at the image, did you wonder about the bird?

After we changed the man to be a representation of Jesus, did the bird have any meaning for you? Did you consider, or wonder, could that be the Holy Spirit? Do you wonder now, did she leave the Holy Spirit, who she could’ve had in her life all the time, did she leave the Holy Spirit behind? Without the Holy Spirit, will she even remember Jesus later in her life?

Just how many ways will her life change, not only for the rest of her physical life, but eternally in the next life, because she left her “love” behind?

I love you! But …

As I mentioned, if we look at a relationship between two people, where they love each other and where there’s nothing preventing them from being together, one isn’t all that likely to just walk away from the other.

That makes me wonder, why do so many Christians seem to believe it’s OK to claim to love Jesus, claim to be saved by Jesus, and yet not follow what He taught and commanded His followers to do?

In other words, how can so many Christians ignore these two words from Jesus to His disciples: “Follow me”?

Do they really believe we have the right to lay claim to salvation through someone they ignore after making the claim?

It appears that, all too often, this is the case.

To me, that’s just mind blowing!

Someone’s missing something. Is it me? Or is it them? Maybe even you?

I love You, but I will not follow You

In a relationship between two people, at least in a healthy relationship, I expect the two people would walk through life together. Sometimes one of them leads, sometimes the other one leads. Sometimes they walk in lockstep because they have the same goals.

The thing is, that’s not what Jesus tells us. Yes, we can go through life with Jesus. However, Jesus’ desire is that we follow Him. He never said He’d follow our lead.

Follow Me

There are 20 verses in the Gospels in which Jesus said, “Follow Me”. Of course, some of them are the same event recorded in multiple Gospels. Since some events, or similar events, are recorded in more than one Gospel, that leads to ten groupings of occurrences when Jesus said “Follow Me”.

It seems odd then that we can think loving Jesus and walking away are somehow acceptable ways to act.

Does loyalty enter the picture?

The extract below comes from one author discussing just one of the instances where Jesus told someone to “Follow Me”.

LOYALTY
Jesus asked for something unique and rare when he suggested that his disciples be loyal to him.

What receives our loyalty today? Sports teams … as long as they’re winning. Career … as long as we’re advancing. Marriage … as long as one’s spouse remains attractive. Basically, the self alone seems to deserve the loyalty of the self. It’s each person looking out for number one.

In Christian faith, however, Jesus must be number one, and we must give him our loyalty. Stick with him despite the swift current you’re swimming through. Never think that switching loyalties will reckon to your personal advantage. Remain loyal to Jesus and follow him all the way to heaven.  ¹Barton, B. B. (1996). Matthew (p. 332). Tyndale House Publishers.

It’s a rather stinging indictment of us today. Unfortunately, it’s also far too true.

We no longer associate love with loyalty of any kind. These days some are more likely to be loyal to someone they’re afraid of than they are to someone they love. Just look at the political scene and pretty much any Western nation and you’ll see that, but especially here in the U.S.

Conclusion – I love you! See you later, when I die.

I wonder. When someone tells Jesus, “I love you, but I’ll see you later, after I die”, do they really think that’s the way it’s going to work out?

Of course, we think no one’s ever going to say that. But, even if we never mouth the words, our actions tell the true story. And I do know people who fully expect to get into Heaven, even though they never go to church, use God’s name(s) as cuss words, maybe got baptized, maybe not. And yet, they think, for whatever reason, their place in Heaven is waiting.

We really don’t have to read much of the Bible to know that’s not the case. But then, if we don’t read it, don’t learn anything from someone who has read it – but only from people who don’t know what it says – then what can we realistically count on? Yes, we might have an expectation. But we’re also more likely than not to be wrong in our expectations.

It’s not like I don’t already have a whole lot of stuff on my to-do list, but I do hope to write about at least some of those ten instances where Jesus said, “Follow Me”. If you’d like to be notified when something new is published, like these writeups, please subscribe using the link below.

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Images by whatever Microsoft is calling their image creator in whatever they’re calling their AI Chat bot today.

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Footnotes

• 1
  Barton, B. B. (1996). Matthew (p. 332). Tyndale House Publishers.