Do You Want To Go Away?

Jesus had been speaking to what was obviously a “religious” crowd; however, it could not have been said that this was a godly crowd. To be sure, the people had gathered in the synagogue, but they had no desire to hear the voice of the Lord calling them to obedience. It is obvious that the people who heard Jesus speak at that time were totally focused on their own desires; they demonstrate no willingness to seek what would be pleasing to the Lord God of Heaven and earth. Free food, not fidelity to God, was the primary thought that was expressed by those present at that time.

Isn’t that reminiscent of what is seen among many religious societies today? I hesitate to speak of many of the contemporary religious entities as churches, since they are more focused on soothing themselves than they are focused on serving the Risen Lord of Glory. In some ways, religious people are a greater danger to the work of God than are the irreligious who are openly identified with this world. Often, the irreligious will ignore the godly, seeing them as an anachronism, while the godly are seen as an immediate threat to the religious. The godless are not immediately threatened by godly people; but mere pretenders are under immediate threat of being exposed as fraudulent. Therefore, religious people often strike out at the godly or at those who seek after the Lord, because they are afraid of being exposed in their falsity.

Focusing once again on the text, wouldn’t you imagine it is important to take note of the fact that we are told that “many of His disciples” were involved in this desertion? Surely, it is significant that the Word wants us to know that His disciples—disciples, not opponents, not antagonists, but disciples—are exposed as those who were turning back and no longer walking with Him. For many of us, that is a problem! We wonder, “Can disciples simply decide to quit walking with the Saviour?” We know that we couldn’t easily turn away from walking with the Saviour.

Perhaps you are prepared to say that these were faux disciples, that they never knew the Lord. While I suppose that argument could be made, that is not what we are told in the divine text. We are told that “many of His disciples turned back and no longer walked with Him.” And that should give us pause.

Note the words with which John alerts us to a serious problem that then arose. “Many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward. Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son” [2 JOHN 7-9].

“Watch yourselves,” indeed. Don’t we see something like this whenever we find ourselves drawn to consider again the manner in which we once lived? We’ve all known of people who came into the fellowship with statements of commitment. They were eager to follow Christ, saying that they were ready to accept the responsibility to serve as the Lord dictated. But somehow, the demands of the Faith grew to be oppressive in their estimate, and they began to be inconsistent in their attendance at the worship, their responsibilities that were accepted so eagerly began to be neglected, and eventually they were no longer seen to be walking with the people of God.