Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount concludes with choice. The choice lies between two similies. You can either be like a wise man or like a foolish man. Two outcomes, two examples, two conditions.
“Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain fell, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and pounded that house. Yet it didn’t collapse, because its foundation was on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and doesn’t act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, the rivers rose, the winds blew and pounded that house, and it collapsed. It collapsed with a great crash.” (Matthew 7:24–27, CSB)
Jesus pulls on the familiar threads of wise and foolish. Most of His audience that day would have known the wise prescriptions from the book of Proverbs. And in Proverbs, the pull is always between the wise and the foolish.
In Jesus’ example, the wise man built his house on the rock while the foolish man built it on the sand. Storms came, winds blew, waves crashed, and the house built on the rock stood. The house on the sand fell with a great crash. I remember well the Sunday School song inspired by these verses.
Sometimes though, the crashing of the waves drowns out the conditions Christ was underlining. There are two of them. The first is to “hear these words of mine.” As Paul said, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:15) Hearing doesn’t mean just perceiving noise but internalizing the thoughts, words, intentions, and attitude of Christ. The second condition is to act on those words. It’s easy to hear and nod along in agreement. It’s much harder to put these truths into action.
If we internalize and implement Christ’s words, we are building on the solid rock. This doesn’t mean that we won’t face difficulty. The same storm that the wise man’s house withstood flattened the foolish man’s abode. The testing of our faith isn’t the lack of storms but how we weather the storms that come our way.
Which are you? Which would you like to be? What does your foundation look like? Is your faith and practice consistent? Or is it more like covering a base or hedging your bets? Jesus laid a choice before us. Which result do you choose? Standing firm is only possible by following The Jesus Way.
Thanks for joining us on this journey of exploring The Jesus Way. All the previous articles are on our website (https://lambchow.com/category/series/the-jesus-way/), and I plan to compile them into a downloadable book.
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