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“Leave it All Behind”
Categories: Minister's Corner“Leave it all behind” came across my mind as I studied from Luke chapter 5 about Levi the tax collector (AKA - Matthew, disciple, gospel writer, and Christian martyr) who was invited by our Lord to faithfully follow Him. In Luke 5:28 it simply states, “So he left all, rose up, and followed Him.”
Luke would later share a parable (5:36-39) that I reflects Levi and his commitment to “leave it all behind” and follow Jesus. The parable is quite simple in that it states that you don’t take the “new” and put it in with the “old” (cloth and wine) because it will not work and will eventually fall apart.
That is exactly what Levi did with his life. He left the “old” life of power, cheating, and taking advantage and embraced the “new” way of truth, life, and covenant of Christ. He lived this life of hope, love, and faith with diligence even to the end of his life. Tradition has it that Levi was killed for his faith in Christ in Ethiopia. It would have been so easy for him to deny his faith in Christ and live and go back to the “old” but when it was all said and done for Levi, the benefits were out of this world.
The lesson for you and me is this: embrace the new and don’t try to do patchwork with your life by trying to put the new life in Christ back into your old way of sinful living. Embrace the “New Covenant” and don’t go back to the “Old Testament” because under the “New Testament” what we have enjoy is so much better! So LEAVE IT ALL BEHIND even if it kills you! “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” - THE APOSTLE PAUL (2 Corinthians 5:17)
