Renouncing All You Have

“So therefore, whoever of you does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple” Luke14:33

I was recently struck by the above Revised Standard Version (RSV) translation of this verse. Did a word jump out at you, too? The word I’m thinking of is “renounce”. 

Most bible versions translate this word (Greek: apotassomai) as “forsake” or “give up”. These are indeed acceptable translations, since the word literally means “to say adieu” to something. But words like “forsake” or “give up” give the idea that we are supposed to literally give all our earthly possessions away (or at least be willing to). 

On the other hand, the word “renounce” is defined in Webster’s dictionary as: “to disown; to disclaim; to reject; to refuse to own or acknowledge as belonging to”; and I believe this is the attitude God wants us to have toward our possessions. 

At first this may seem like a cop-out or twisting of scripture: “Yay, we get to keep the wide screen TV!” But in reality I think the concept of renouncing is even more demanding. You see, the idea of giving things away and living a simpler, even ascetic life is not specific to Christianity, and may even be desirable for some (i.e., some of us might just want to get rid of our junk!). But the idea of renouncing at its heart really means to put everything we have on this earth at the Lord’s disposal.

The next word in the passage I want to look at is “cannot”. Most translations word it this way, but really the Greek literally means “to not be able to”. This may not seem different to you than “cannot”, but listen to it in context: “...whoever of you does not renounce all that he has will not be able to be my disciple”. Notice the difference? To me it means, rather than God making a decision of whether or not we are disciples, the onus, or, responsibility, is on us. 

It is human nature to avoid responsibility. A common question Christians get asked is “why would a loving God send people to hell?” A careful student of the bible will know that scripture does not teach any such thing. Everyone will be held responsible for their own decisions. Anything less is not free will. 

In the same way God calls us into a relationship with Him which the Bible calls being a disciple, or “learner” of Christ. He does not compel anyone to do this, nor does the Holy Spirit “control” anyone, but He lovingly beckons the person, and lets them make their own decision. The only question is whether they will follow.

We may preach about giving or "stewardship" in our churches, but at its root it’s all about discipleship. In reality discipleship supersedes the stewardship issue, because from our scripture we can see that a church full of [Jesus’ definition of] disciples doesn’t need to worry about its finances, because everything has already been laid at the Lord’s disposal! 

God is lovingly calling us to be disciples of Christ. Will we heed the call?