Have You Counted the Cost?
Categories: Church of Christ Bulletin ArticlesOne of our great songs, often used as an invitation song, has that wording: “Have you counted the cost, if your soul should be lost?” Most serious question, and a hard one to get modern-day man to think on, as so many are concerned with the cares, riches and pleasures of this life” (Luke 8:14). Death approaches, the judgment is sure, and eternity either with God, or away from God, is before us all. Have you counted the cost?
Jesus taught another lesson on counting the cost, and it had to do with rash action toward obeying, in contrast with the obedience that is well thought-out, and characterized by real conviction. The lesson is in Luke 14, and has two points to it, one having to do with the building of a tower (vv. 28-30), and the other concerned the king in warfare (vv. 31-32). The Lord had spoken of man’s obedience, and how the family is affected, and stressed the need to be determined to take up the cross, and follow the Lord.
Then the lessons. A man building a tower, if a wise man, counts the cost, to see that, if beginning it, he can finish it. To the Oriental, and to the Middle Easterner, to have someone laugh at his failure was most distressing, and Jesus pictured that event when the man could not complete that which he started. In the other case, a king with 10,000 men then sees himself opposed by a king with twice that many men, and if wise, he will then seek some basis for a “peace talk” rather than to be wiped out! The need to count the cost!
The Lord’s emphasis goes counter to a late view some have – sneak up on a man, hide subjects from him, remain silent about the church, don’t answer all his questions, and spring other truth on him after he has been “converted (?).” Truth should be given to all who are being taught, and yea, the truth that the way is narrow and the gate is strait (Matthew 7:13-14), that when the man then does obey, he will have counted the cost!
The Southwesterner, July 5, 1989