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And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

Look at the progression…it is the same for both Simon/Andrew (mentioned in verse 18) and James/John.

1. Jesus calls.
2. They follow.
3. Done.

Excellent stuff that no one wants to confront. I’ve felt this way for awhile as well. 99% of TV viewing is pure trash, that does nothing more than deprive us of time with God.

Romans 1:5: through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations,

Romans 6:16: Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?

Romans 16:19: For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil.

Peter:

1 Peter 1:2: according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood:May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

Acts 5:29: But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.

John:

John 3:36: Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

1 John 5:2: By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.

Maybe Paul :)

Hebrews 5:9: And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him,

I own both, if you ever would like to borrow them, let me know.

Also, if people are being classified as “believers” and they are still doing a “genuine search for truth,” isn’t that an oxymoron?

John 14:6: Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

I am not saying I, or anyone else, know’s everything about the Bible, and obviously, no one knows everything about God.

But if someone is claiming to be a Christian and still is searching for truth, it implies they haven’t found it. If they found it, why are they still searching? The simple fact is that truth can only be found through God revealed to us in His word. There are some things in scripture that are difficult to understand, I grant you that. The Genesis 1 creation story, however, is quite clear.

Also, advertising love has nothing to do with accepting and tolerating every point of view. If scripture is plainly clear on something, is it loving to not call out a false belief? Quite the contrary. Rather, advertising love has much more to do with commands God has given us, such as: Love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself. How do we do this? Well, if we are firmly committed to Christ, and by extension, to His word (the Bible!), we express our love by preaching the truth. When we encounter a false belief, such as theistic evolution, we call it out like it is and reinforce what the inerrant word of God says.

All of our Christian love is tied directly to the love of Christ. And loving Christ is to worship Him and be like Him, as He is our perfect model which we follow. Ask yourself this my friend: Was Christ ever accepting of differing viewpoints when they were false? If you think He was, I suggest you read 4 books commonly called Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

So, if defending God’s Word, because we find something offensive to what God has plainly stated is viewed as hostility, viciousness, or having no love, then so be it. To accept other false beliefs as legitimate is nothing more than a denial of what God has told us. It’s unbelief. To actually believe these things (such as evolution) and call yourself “Christian” is also nothing more than a form of unbelief. Are we supposed to pick and choose the parts of scripture we like and conform the rest of it to line up with human standards, philosophies, and sciences? Or rather, are we supposed to believe it, all of it, because it is directly from God, and therefore submit our lives to it, even if it has some tough messages? Who’s approval are we looking for? Man’s or God’s?

The easy and quick answer is: Salvation IS completely free in one sense, that there is nothing at all we can do to earn it, work for it, or deserve it.

But on the other hand, it costs everything. We are to put to death our old self.

Romans 6:6: We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

Galatians 2:20: I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.