When Jesus, as a shepherd, calls us to Himself, He never calls us so He May stand behind us and push us forward by force or threat.
To tell you the truth, that was the mentality I had of a shepherd. I guess that was what I saw shepherds do back in Ethiopia. Shepherds are always behind their animals, leading the animals wherever the shepherds want them to go. The animals go forward, not that they know or choose where to go, but because the shepherds whipped them from the back with a flog. So, they mindlessly go where the shepherds want them to go.
Jesus came to us as a Shepherd, but not like a kind of shepherd I just explained.
Listen how Jesus expressed His role as a shepherd:-
““Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.”” John 10:1-5
The key verse I want you to pay attention to here is verse four:
“When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.” John 10:4
The Shepherd here goes before His sheep and His sheep follow Him because they hear and know their Shepherd’s voice, they identify His voice from the voice of other shepherds because they use their mind.
There is no whipping, there is no threat that the Shepherd has to do. All He does is He goes before them and they follow Him.
Praise God!
When we choose not to follow Jesus Christ, we join any “herd” and we will be led like “beasts.” We don’t think but others think for us. We don’t choose but others choose for us. We don’t know the way but others lead us in the way they choose for us.
All we need is to be alive in order to be led by others like animals.
It is a very easy thing for the devil to lead people who don’t use their minds. To lead them into any sort of sinful lifestyles.
Look how a young man gets into an adulterous relationship, loses his mind and ends up living like an animal:
“For at the window of my house
I looked out through my lattice,
And I saw among the naive,
And discerned among the youths
A young man lacking sense,” Proverbs 7:6-7 NASB
Wow! A young man lacking sense!
Do you know what that means? It means, a young man who lost all his common sense. He cannot think or analyze. He does not question or evaluate what he is doing. He is just led by his feelings and emotions, or according to his sexual urges.
Please read Proverbs 7, the whole chapter, when you find time. But for now, notice how this young man became an easy prey for the devil.
“With her many persuasions she [an adulterous woman] entices him;
With her flattering lips she seduces him.
Suddenly he follows her
As an ox goes to the slaughter,
Or as one in fetters to the discipline of a fool,
Until an arrow pierces through his liver;
As a bird hastens to the snare,
So he does not know that it will cost him his life.” Proverbs 7:21-23
The young man “lacking sense” ended up acting like an animal. He totally stopped using his mind, and like animals who live by their instincts, the young man started living, being led by his sexual urges.
Very sad reality!
But Jesus calls us to Himself so we follow Him, using our minds. And the one thing the Spirit of God does with us so we follow Christ is by renewing our minds with the word of God. As we read/study the word of God, when we apply the word of God into our lives, we follow Christ, choosing and loving Him with conviction.
When we choose not to follow Christ, we will be led by anything and everything, including by our own sinful desires and urges. We may go to church, even get involved in a ministry to minister to others, but we live in sin, being attracted to messages like, “God will make you rich, famous, healthy and wealthy.”
Why?
We “lack sense” – we’re mindlessly led by our sinful and fleshly desires and we want to forget what is really going on in our lives.
When we join a group, we care less what the group stands for as long as we find a group to belong to, a group we can identify with, a group of people who mindlessly go forward but don’t know their ends.
“As an ox goes to the slaughter,
Or as one in fetters to the discipline of a fool,
Until an arrow pierces through his liver;
As a bird hastens to the snare,
So he does not know that it will cost him his life.” Part of Proverbs 7:22-23
Very sad!
We Christians, followers of Jesus Christ, are naturally vulnerable to find ourselves at any point in life like this young man. So, I think it is always good for us to ask ourselves these questions:
Am I following Christ or do I live like everyone else but Christ?
Am I benefiting others or hurting them?
Am I growing in loving others or hating them?
Am I involved in helping others or hurting them?
In short, am I looking more like Jesus every day or am I going in the opposite direction?
When we follow Christ, we learn primarily to love others, including our enemies because “God is love.” We work for the better life of others, not for their destruction. That means we choose life in all occasions and we do not associate with anyone who does not love and choose life. ///