Three Truths for Following Jesus

The tension between following culture and following Jesus has never been more real. We live in a world that constantly beckons us toward compromise, comfort, and conformity. Yet the call of Christ remains clear: wholehearted devotion, complete surrender, no divided loyalties.

Joshua 23 presents us with a powerful farewell address that speaks directly into this struggle. After years of leading God's people through battles, victories, and the distribution of the Promised Land, Joshua gathers the leaders of Israel for one final charge. His days are numbered, and he knows it. What he shares in these closing moments isn't just good advice; it's a matter of spiritual life and death.

Remember the Wonders

Joshua begins by calling the people to remember. "You have seen for yourselves everything the Lord your God did to all these nations on your account, because it was the Lord your God who was fighting for you."

The Hebrew word used here is nipalot, the wonders, the amazing things God has done. Joshua is essentially saying, "Don't forget the miracles you've witnessed."

What are your nipalot? What are the wonders God has performed in your life?

Perhaps it's the child doctors said would never walk who now runs freely. Maybe it's two years of sobriety after years of addiction. For some, it's a marriage rescued from the brink of divorce, papers ready to sign but ultimately torn up at an altar of repentance and recommitment. For others, it's a medical diagnosis caught early enough to save a life, or a family member who seemed beyond reach, finally humbled and brought to Christ.

These aren't just nice memories, they're spiritual anchors. When culture pulls at us, when doubt creeps in, when following Jesus feels costly, we need to remember the nipalot. We need to recount God's faithfulness around our Thanksgiving tables, in our small groups, with our children and grandchildren.

The Israelites had witnessed the parting of the Red Sea, manna from heaven, water from rocks, and walls falling at Jericho. Joshua knew that remembering these wonders would fortify them for the battles ahead.

The Warning: Culture's Seductive Power

But Joshua doesn't stop with encouragement. He issues a stark warning about the dangers of compromise with the surrounding culture.

The Canaanites remained in pockets throughout the land. Their religious practices were sensual and appealing. They worshiped fertility gods, promising abundant crops through rituals that included temple prostitution. For an agricultural society dependent on the land's productivity, this was a powerful temptation.

Joshua warns against association, intermarriage, and ultimately apostasy. He uses vivid imagery: these foreign influences would become "a snare and a trap for you, a sharp stick in your side and a thorn in your eyes."

Why such strong language? Because Joshua understood the progression of compromise. It starts with casual association, moves to a deeper relationship, leads to shared values, and ends in shared worship. Once you marry someone who serves other gods, you're expected to honor those gods too. Your children grow up in a household with divided loyalties. Within a generation, the distinctiveness of God's people is diluted beyond recognition.

This isn't about cultural superiority or xenophobia. It's about spiritual fidelity. The same principle applies today when believers are warned against being "unequally yoked" with unbelievers. When darkness and light try to share the same space, one will inevitably overcome the other.

Three Truths for Staying Faithful

How do we resist culture's pull and remain all-in for Jesus? Joshua gives us three essential practices:

1. We Must Be in the Word Daily

"Be very strong and continue obeying all that is written in the book of the law of Moses so that you do not turn from it to the right or to the left."

This echoes God's original charge to Joshua: meditate on the law day and night, don't turn from it right or left. Now Joshua passes this same instruction to the next generation of leaders.

The image is of a path. God's Word keeps us on the straight and narrow. When we neglect Scripture, we drift, sometimes gradually, sometimes suddenly, off the path and into the ditch.

Being in God's Word daily isn't legalism; it's survival. It's how we know truth from lies, wisdom from foolishness, God's voice from the world's noise. In a culture that constantly redefines values and morality, Scripture is our fixed point, our true north.

2. We Must Cling to Jesus Completely

"Instead, be loyal to the Lord your God as you have been to this day."

The Hebrew word translated "be loyal" is dabaq to cling, to hold fast, to be joined together like two pieces soldered into one. It's the word used to describe the intimate union of husband and wife, the desperate embrace of Ruth clinging to Naomi.

Dabaq means nothing comes between you and God. No sin is allowed to linger. No doubt goes unaddressed. No fear stands unmet. When thunder crashes, we run to Him. When storms rage, we hold tight. When culture offers its glittering alternatives, we cling to Christ.

This requires quick repentance. We don't let sin accumulate like grime on a cooking pot. We confess, we're cleansed, and we're ready to be used again.

It also means Jesus gets first place in our decision-making. Before we call anyone else, we go to Him. Before we pursue any solution, we seek His face. Before we accept culture's answers, we consult His Word.

3. We Must Love Jesus More Than the World

"So diligently watch yourselves. Love the Lord your God."

Joshua calls for a love that prioritizes God above everything else. But our culture has scrambled the price tags. We assign enormous value to performance, appearance, celebrity, and success. We pursue what glitters while neglecting what truly matters.

What does loving Jesus actually look like? John 21 gives us a powerful picture. Three times Jesus asks Peter, "Do you love me?" Three times Peter affirms his love. And three times Jesus responds with a command: "Feed my lambs... Shepherd my sheep... Feed my sheep."

Then Jesus tells Peter how his love will ultimately be proven, through a death similar to Christ's own. And His final words? "Follow me."

When Peter immediately gets distracted, asking about another disciple's fate, Jesus redirects him: "What is that to you? As for you, follow me."

Love for Jesus isn't an add-on to our lives. He doesn't want to be antivirus software running quietly in the background. He wants to be the operating system, the foundation, the center of everything.

The Legacy Question

C.S. Lewis once said he hoped to live in such a way that when he died, hell would rejoice because a faithful soldier had been removed from the field. But the rejoicing should be short-lived, because others have been raised up to carry the torch.

Joshua's farewell speech reminds us that faithfulness isn't just about our own walk with God. It's about raising up the next generation, about making disciples who make disciples, about planting churches that plant churches.

The churches mentioned in Revelation, Ephesus, Thessalonica, and Colossae are now ruins. But the Church continues because each generation has raised up the next.

Will you be in God's Word daily? Will you cling to Jesus completely? Will you love Him more than the world?

These aren't just nice ideals. In Joshua's day, they were survival instructions. In ours, they remain exactly that, the way to fight culture's pull and follow Jesus with everything we have.