Jesus Marked the Path for Us

What Did Jesus Do?

Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ,
does not have God.
2 John 9

At the risk of stating the obvious, what is the best way to keep from getting lost? To stay on course, to follow the marked path. The trouble with most of us is, we either ignore the marks that would keep us on track, or we intentionally go bushwhacking believing we can always find our way back. Folks, when someone has gone to the trouble to mark out the path, to blaze a safe trail, we should stay on it! Through life there is but one trail guaranteed to get us safely home, and it is a narrow one. As narrow as it is, it is not hard to find, and it is clear enough to follow, because Jesus marked the path for us.

We’ve already talked about the proper “footwear” for our sojourn through this life (see WDJD for 2/7/12). Unless we walk in truth and in love it is impossible to follow Jesus, that’s the message of 2 John 4-6. But, even with such reliable gear for our walk as disciples, there is a very real danger we must be aware of, and that is the danger of being led off the path, of following someone who claims to know Jesus while in fact denying him. John called such people deceivers and antichrists (2 John 7).

If we are not careful to stay on the marked path of the Gospel by walking in truth and in love, but instead follow those who deny Christ, which is heresy, we may lose what John, the other apostles, and the Church worked for (2 John 8), which is the reward that comes from knowing the Father and the Son and having a personal relationship with them, namely salvation and eternal life. The deceivers, who sought to advance, to go on ahead, by way of promulgating error, of those who held to orthodox teaching, neither had God nor made it possible for those who received their false teaching to abide in the teaching of Christ, which is summed up in the command to walk in truth and love.

In short, John told the elect lady and her children, to whom this letter was written, to “Watch out! Pay attention to where you put you feet. Look carefully where you step, so that you may not become lost.” John’s words are, if anything, more timely and urgent today then when he first wrote them to the Church, for antichrists, and many appealing, but ultimately dead-end, paths, are leading many otherwise faithful followers of Jesus astray. And, without a secure knowledge of the truth and love of Christ, many tragically wander far off the path Jesus marked before they realize how lost they have become.

Here is where our fellowship in Christ is so important, for we have a tremendous responsibility to one another to keep each other on the path Jesus has marked for all of his disciples to follow. Each of us need to be a voice speaking into the ears of brothers and sisters whenever they turn to the right or to the left from the path Jesus has marked, “This is the way, walk in it.” (Isaiah 30:21)

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4