"Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine, and acts upon them, may be compared to a wise man, who built his house upon the rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded upon the rock. And everyone who hears theses words of Mine, and does not act upon them, will be like a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against that house; and it fell, and great was its fall."
Matthew 7:24-27 NASB
We often look at this illustration in a general way. To build upon the rock means to "trust Jesus"; to be saved, etc. We would agree that a wise man would obey Jesus, and anyone who did not would be considered foolish, and is building upon sand. However, we sometimes tend to be abstract with vital scriptural truths.
Remember, Jesus has been teaching the crowd. We might say He has been preaching a sermon. He has made many points, some of them shocking, even unsettling, and now He is wrapping up His message with the application.
When He speaks of "hearing these words of mine, and acting upon them," He is referring back to what He has just spoken to this crowd. It is true that Jesus taught many things on other occasions as well, and discipleship demands we obey His words, but lets just look at a few things that Jesus taught in this portion of scripture.
Look at what we refer to as the beatitudes in Matthew 5:1-10. He speaks of humility and poverty of spirit, gentleness, purity and righteousness. We are to be merciful, and are called to be peacemakers. Persecution is the lot of the faithful follower of Christ, and will come as we let our lights shine in this world.
But what do we believe about these things? Do we agree with Jesus really, or does our pride betray us? So many act as if these words meant nothing. Where is the mercy, where are the peacemakers, where are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness? Is purity still important to those who name the name of Christ, or has it been set aside lest we offend someone with this high standard?
One does not have to deliberately seek persecution. You only need to publicly live in such a way that lifts Jesus up for the world to see. Open up your mouth to witness for Him, declare your allegiance to Him, and break with the sins that those around you walk in, and persecution will come naturally. Yet we see so much compromise, and so little conviction, and so much fear of man in much of what we call Christianity today.
If we go on we come to Jesus teaching on hatred and murder, making things right with an offended brother, adultery, divorce and remarriage, and honesty (Matt 5:21-37). Notice how Jesus condemns the sin in the heart. You may not have committed the outward act of murder or adultery, but cherishing anger in our hearts, looking with lust (even if we do not touch), is still sin. Yet so many believe that what we think to ourselves does not matter if we do not actually do the deed. Jesus tells us to get ruthless with sin, to go to great lengths to avoid it and get it out of our lives. He does not intend for us to justify our actions, and presume upon His grace, while our lives are still filled with immorality. How many people will offer an apology to someone they have offended? We so often let our pride get in the way, excusing our anger and actions, instead of seeking reconciliation.
Jesus goes on to speak on love and non resistance. Love your enemies, turn the other cheek, do not demand your rights to property, go the extra mile, etc (Matt 5:38-43). Many professed Christians today follow an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. We demand our rights, we fight for our things, we hate our enemies, we refuse to forgive. Jesus makes it clear, but we so often cloud His words because we believe that this can never work in our society. God never meant for us to follow this teaching did He?
Laying up treasures, living for our basic needs, and serving two masters, are where you will find large numbers of so called disciples. Many like to quote Jesus words about seeking first the Kingdom of God, but are not willing to actually put it into practice. There are pastors and teachers who promote wealth and possessions as a sign of God's blessing. "Name it and claim it," they say. Their theology only caters to our selfish nature. This goes against what Jesus teaches about wealth, and what we are to do with our material things (Matt 6:19-34).
Jesus tells us that there is a broad way leading to destruction, filled with multitudes. There is also a narrow way, with only a few on it. This however, is the way to life (Matt 7:13-14). We must be discerning. We must be careful to heed these words of our Lord and Savior. Many, many people who call themselves Christians are living in opposition to these basic teachings of the one they claim to follow. A wise builder will listen and obey, no matter how unrealistic it may seem. Humility, and self denial go against the grain of this world. We have been programmed so to speak, to demand our rights, to enjoy pleasure and possessions, to lay up treasures in this life time, to hate our enemies, and so on. Yet to disregard these things is to build on sand, and fall into spiritual ruin.
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