“Why Call You Me Lord, Lord?”

In Luke 6:46 Jesus said, “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?” Verse 20 of the same chapter shows us that Jesus asked that question of His disciples. Jesus’ point here is that it is inconsistent to call Jesus “Lord” but not do the things that He tells us to do. Sadly, there are many who seem to be double-minded in this way. They will acknowledge Jesus as Lord and “accept Him as their personal Savior”, but at the same time they will not spend time studying God’s word so that they will know what they must do, and they spend even less time doing the things that God commands. They try to straddle the fence and spend time on God’s side and the world’s side. In Matthew 6:24 Jesus says that straddling the fence is impossible; we have to choose which side we will be on. As Jesus said in Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” Trying to serve two masters can have serious consequences for our own souls, but it is especially dangerous due to the effect it can have on others. In Revelation 3:15 & 16 Jesus told the church of the Laodiceans, “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.” Jesus says that being in the middle, but not cold and not hot, is worse than being cold. Being in the middle can lead other people astray when we claim to be Christians but we are not obedient. Paul warns us about our influence on others in 1 Corinthians chapter 8. It is also necessary that we grow spiritually. In Colossians 1:9-10 Paul said, “For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” In Joshua 24:15 Joshua gave the Israelites a choice. “And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” God offers the same choice to us. We must remember that if we are going to call Jesus “Lord”, we must also do what He says.