Imperative

Our yellow Labrador retriever, Bailey, loves other dogs.  She does not understand that other dogs don’t necessarily love her.  When she sees a dog, any size dog, she wants to run to them, touch noses, sniff around them (you know what I mean), and maybe romp and have some fun.  When a dog comes down our street with its owner, Bailey wants to be there.  She can ignore cars and bikes and any dog-less person who goes past.  She knows that she is not allowed to go into the street; that rule is strict because we don’t want her to get hit by a car, cause an accident, or even get involved in a dogfight.  When we see a dog approaching, we begin to call her.

The pull of a dog’s presence is so strong for her that she totally ignores our voices and bounds into the street.  She knows she’s in trouble, but she throws all caution to the wind for the siren call of doggie fellowship.  Our call to her is not an invitation; our call to her is a command—one that she apparently feels free to ignore at will.  She seems to see it as an invitation, an invitation that she RSVPs in the negative.

Mark 1:16-18 tells us about this event:  “As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. ‘Come, follow me,’ Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.’  At once they left their nets and followed him.”

In other places Jesus says, “Come and see.”  “Follow me.”  Are those invitations or imperatives? I’d say they’re imperative; they command us.

What about my Bailey analogy?  There’s a glaring error in it.  In my analogy, my husband and I are fallen, broken, sinful creatures, issuing a command to a fallen, broken, sinful creature.  As my husband and I have said to each other, “With the Fall, all creation fell.”  So when we command Bailey to come, she might or might not; if there’s another dog involved, it’s most certainly “not.”

The difference with our receiving Jesus’ words is that Jesus is none of those things—He is not fallen, He is not broken, He is not sinful, He is not a creature.  He is the sovereign Lord over all.  So when He says to fallen, broken, sinful creatures, “Come and see,” or “Follow me,” we come, we see, we follow.    That’s the core of the doctrine of irresistible grace.  When He calls, when He commands, His people respond and obey.  It makes sense that when the One who is, as my friend Cathy used to say, “The Boss of Me,” speaks, we respond.

That is not to say that after we begin to follow, we always obey or behave any better than Bailey.  But  we do answer that initial call.

So now, as one who is following Him, I want to respond not with foot-dragging and whining but with joyful obedience.  That’s my desire but not always my immediate response.  Bailey!  Come back here!

Questions for you:  When have you had to deal with disobedience?  How did you deal with it?  When you hear a command, what’s your initial reaction?  How do you feel when you realize the command comes from the Lord Jesus?