Mark 1.17 And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.
Come ye after me. The “gospel” or good news demands following Jesus Christ in submission to His teaching, communion and fellowship with His person, and imitation of His example. Come after Me.
We hear a lot about cultivating relationships these days. While scripture indeed speaks of the cultivation of various kinds of relationships. The emphasis in scripture is on one vertical relationship, and that being with Christ; with the overflow of that relationship (singular) bring the source of grace, love and understanding that we need in our horizontal relationships. When the vertical, “come unto Me” is intact, the horizontal will fall into place.
Come unto Me is what our day today should be all about. And lest we forget why we have been redeemed, we learn here that Jesus specifically called these disciples to a new vocation, the work of preaching the gospel to gather people into the kingdom. Come unto Me will always result in a Spirit-led evangelism as well as the practical practice of living out the many “one another’s” in Scripture.
Concentrate on the “come after Me”, beloved. When we make the vertical the priority, the love your neighbor as yourself will “just happen.” Come unto Me. Follow Me. Learn of Me. Abide in Me. Do not complicate the simplicity of loving and following Jesus, friends.
