Then took they Him, and led Him, and brought Him into the high priest’s house. And Peter followed afar off. Luke 22:54
Following afar off is a common practice among the believers these days. We can appreciate godly saints who follow close to their Lord, but they are becoming scarce. Most of us live our lives as though we firmly believe that as long as we are following, it doesn’t matter if we are afar off or near. With the spirit of Laodicea upon us, we have little interest in being more than afar off followers.
We read our Bibles and pray (a little bit, anyway), and we get to most of the meetings, and we have for some of our closest friends the believers in our Assembly. We watch our language that we don’t slip into the gutter talk of the world around us, even though we don’t reproach the profane for their filthy talk. How can that be following afar off? How can it be following closely?!!
Think of Peter. By following, he went to the high priest’s house. But by following afar off, he was unable to participate in any of the discussion that took place that directly related to his Lord. He did get into discussions, but they actually led to his infamous denial of his Lord. He was not close enough to challenge the lies that were being told about Jesus. He was not close enough to defend the Saviour from the buffeting and spittle. He was not close enough to stand with Jesus and share the humiliation and abuse.
Following the Lord Jesus closely means taking some abuse and ridicule, some reproach. It means putting His priorities higher than ours, in fact totally tossing our priorities out the window and accepting His. It means being on the front line of volunteer service for Him. It means being available whatever the cost or inconvenience to ourselves. It means many things, but it does not mean simply fitting a few meetings and a few minutes of devotion into our own busy schedules.
Is following Jesus part of your life? Or is following Jesus your entire life? -Jim MacIntosh