You hear this comment made a lot among athletes – “Leave it all on the field/court.” If you’ve never played organized sports the phrase may confuse you. But really it’s just a way of encouraging a player or team to not hold anything back. Play your heart out and, win or lose, have no regrets about the way you played the game.
However, selling ourselves out for a cause doesn’t limit itself to sports. We can sell ourselves out in our jobs, in our marriages, in our parenting, in our friendships, in our hobbies, in our civic duties, etc. And we should. There is no more favorable compliment that can be paid to a person than to say that they were totally committed to everything they did. That they left it all on the field.
That’s the approach we have to bring to our Christianity. If we’re going to be servants of God we need to be totally sold out. We need to give all of our energy, all of our effort, all of our heart. We need to be willing to give ourselves totally and completely, nothing lacking. Christianity cannot just be a pastime or a hobby. We can’t afford to make Christianity just a weekend affair. Why?
Our service to Jesus must pattern after Jesus’ service to us. After all, when He came to earth He “made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant…” (Philippians 2:7). And to what degree did He serve mankind? To the extent of humbling Himself and becoming “obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (vs. 8). As a servant Jesus left it all on the cross. He invested Himself even to the point of death. He sold out for us.
Why then do we believe we can get away with any less? Jesus gave His life but all we have to give is an hour or two every Sunday? No, even in the midst of all His grace and mercy God expects a lot more out of us than that. In the same way that Jesus died for us, we must die to ourselves. That was the idea behind Paul’s words in Ephesians 4:20-24:
“But ye have not so learned Christ; if so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”
That’s what it takes to be a Christian. Total commitment. Unrelenting submission. You’ve got to be sold out. Sold out for the Savior.
-Andy Brewer