Can We Respect Jesus While Ignoring His Commands?
Welcome to Day 9 of our journey with Jesus. Today, we consider what Jesus calls us to question in our beliefs or lives. The main truth for today is this: Respecting Jesus as a teacher is not enough if we treat his commands as optional. Let’s begin.
Current details of the journeyView the calendar, Episode and passage
Jesus in Action
Matthew 7:24–29
Step 4 of 5
Examine what Jesus calls us to question in our beliefs or lives.
Many people are willing to call Jesus a great moral teacher. The description sounds generous. It places Him among history’s most admired voices and allows us to quote His words about love, mercy, and peace.
Watch: The Assumption Jesus’ Authority Confronts
Watch the companion video, then continue reading to examine the biblical testimony in its full context.
But Matthew 7 exposes a problem: Jesus does not present Himself as a teacher whose best ideas may be collected while the rest are declined.
The Listener Who Does Nothing.
Jesus describes two people who hear the same words. One obeys; one does not. He does not call the second person open-minded, independent, or selectively inspired. He calls that person foolish.
This is uncomfortable because modern admiration often keeps authority with the admirer. We evaluate Jesus, retain what fits our convictions, and dismiss what challenges them. He becomes a consultant invited into a life governed by someone else.
Jesus reverses that arrangement. His words evaluate us.
The Parts We Prefer.
It is easy to approve Jesus’ command to love when we define love for ourselves. It is harder when He commands love for enemies. We may praise His teaching about forgiveness until it reaches someone we believe deserves permanent condemnation. We may celebrate His concern for the heart while resisting His words about lust, anger, truthfulness, money, and judgment.
Selective admiration allows us to use Jesus without submitting to Him. The Sermon on the Mount does not allow that bargain.
A Teacher Worth Hearing Must Be Obeyed.
If Jesus is genuinely good, His authority cannot be detached from His goodness. A good teacher who speaks truth about God, the heart, judgment, and eternal life must be taken seriously. If His central claims are false, calling Him a great teacher does not solve the problem. If they are true, treating His commands as optional does not solve it either.
The crowd’s astonishment was appropriate. Jesus spoke unlike the scribes because He understood Himself unlike the scribes. He did not merely transmit insights from a tradition. He commanded people to build their lives upon His words.
The Assumption That Must Fall.
Jesus confronts the comfortable assumption that He can remain honored but unauthorized—admired from a safe distance, quoted without being followed, and praised without being obeyed.
The question is not merely whether you like His teaching. The question is whether you recognize the authority of the Teacher.
Respect Must Become Honest.
It may feel humble to place Jesus beside other admired teachers, but humility does not mean assigning Him a smaller identity than His own words permit. Genuine respect listens before categorizing. If Jesus speaks beyond the boundaries of an ordinary teacher, we must either reject those claims with reasons or follow where they lead. We cannot preserve a flattering label by ignoring the very teaching we claim to honor.
Nin jateminɛ.
Which teachings of Jesus do you praise publicly while quietly treating them as optional?
Examine your assumptions
Choose honesty over admiration. Name one area in which your preferences currently carry more authority than Jesus’ words.
What This Means for Your Life.
Jesus does not invite you to treat Him as a helpful voice among many; in Matthew 7:24–29, He speaks as the One whose words decide whether a life stands or falls. The point is not that you must pretend to understand everything at once. It is that hearing Him without responding is not neutrality. It is a choice to leave His authority at the edge of your life.
That can be unsettling, especially if you have preferred the parts of Jesus that feel comforting while setting aside the parts that confront pride, anger, lust, forgiveness, money, or judgment. But His words are not meant to be admired from a distance. They are meant to be trusted, and trust shows up in action.
One way to respond today is to identify one teaching of Jesus you tend to excuse or delay. Read the passage again, and ask what obedience would look like in a concrete setting this week—at home, at work, in a friendship, or in a private habit nobody else sees. This is not about earning God’s favor. It is about taking Jesus seriously because He is worthy of it.
Which teaching of Jesus do you praise more easily than you practice, and what is one honest step toward obeying it?
