What's Under Your House?

3/7/25 Bible Thought (Luke 6)

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Anyone who has ever read through the Gospels will know that Jesus wasn’t exactly the ear-tickling kind of teacher that would accumulate a crowd for the wrong reasons. Truly, on a number of occasions Jesus actually shrinks His crowd significantly due to the difficulty of His teaching. With this, we find that Jesus would rather have a handful of guys who were totally sold out to Him than a great crowd that was merely interested.

In Luke 6, we see Jesus choosing the 12 apostles out of a crowd of disciples and then addressing His disciples with the nature of what it looks like to follow Him. While Jesus goes over a variety of different things that were expected of His followers, what is arguably the most important characteristic comes forth at the end of the chapter. Truly, it’s foundational. If it isn’t found, then the rest won’t be there either.

To put it in one word: obedience. Jesus offers probably the harshest address to His followers in Luke 6:46,

“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?”

If you’re going to be a follower of Jesus, He makes it clear that He isn’t looking just for buddies (although Jesus is a friend!) If you’re going to be a follower of Jesus it doesn’t just mean that He’s Savior, although this is certainly true as well. If you’re putting forth a profession of faith, according to Romans 10:9 you call Jesus Lord.

Lord means that He is Boss. He is King. He is the One who calls the shots in our lives. He’s the ultimate authority in our lives. Our personal pleasure, preferences, our… anything, that might tempt us otherwise are no longer our masters. If we’ve become followers of Jesus, we’re no longer following our heart, or our own sinful desires. We follow Jesus and what He commands. I love how R.C. Sproul had famously concluded, “He’s either Lord of all, or He’s not Lord, at all.”

He is a friend of sinners, He is our Savior, He is gentle and kind, He is so many things to us, but we can’t miss that amongst these things He is firstly Lord. He makes it so clear in this passage that we ought not to waste our words, claiming to be His followers, if there’s nothing in our lives that backs up that claim. We can’t logically address Him as Lord if we aren’t living under His lordship and seeking to actually follow His teachings which are written out in His Word! Or as the Apostle James put it, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (Jas. 1:22).

In Luke 6, immediately before this great challenge, He shares some of what this obedience is to look like. The follower of Jesus is to love their enemies, to turn the other cheek, and to not withhold from one asking something of you (Lk. 6:27-30). In conclusion, with the famous “golden rule”, Jesus says, “And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them” (Lk. 6:30). Even those who aren’t good to you, you’re supposed to be good to them! To treat those who mistreat you, as you would want to be treated! This is what distinguishes a follower of Jesus from the average person, for even the sinner loves those who love them (Lk. 6:32). Those who claim that Jesus is Lord, prove it through their lives and live differently.

Now, is this obedience the basis of our salvation? Absolutely not. We’re saved by our faith in Christ and His perfect obedience and righteousness. However, those who have been saved and born-again, being brought out of the domain of darkness, ought to have lives that show it. The apostle John once powerfully stated,

“No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God” (1 Jn. 3:9).

He doesn’t say that those born of God don’t sin. In fact, 1 John 1 makes it clear that the believer won’t be perfect. Nevertheless, there should be a decisive break with sin as an outward proof that one has been born-again and that they truly believe that Jesus is Lord.

Even though we aren’t saved by our own obedience, Jesus still desires it. Will it be perfect? No. But that doesn’t excuse us from trying, and it certainly doesn’t give us warrant to justify our sin (see Rom. 6:1). It’s truly a challenge to us that our Bible study isn’t complete until it changes us. Surely a greater knowledge of Scripture without a greater obedience is indicting. For we know what to do, and if we know what to do then we ought to do it.

Jesus says to the one who hears and does His commands, you build your house on the rock, and then when the floods come, the house will stand fast (Lk. 6:47). To the one who doesn’t hear and do what Jesus commands, they’re building their house without a foundation. Jesus then concludes that when the floods come, “immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great” (Lk. 6:48). The flood is coming, will your house stand?