Jesus delivered many profound and sometimes challenging teachings to understand or accept. They often require deeper reflection and context to comprehend their full meaning.
The sayings in the Gospels explore spiritual truths that may challenge conventional wisdom or societal norms. Some of these teachings emphasize radical self-sacrifice, unconditional love, and devotion to God above all else.
They confront human attachments, materialism, and the norms of the time, calling for a deeper commitment to God and a transformation of the heart.
Jesus’s teachings often went against the expectations of His era, aiming to redefine values and priorities in light of God’s kingdom.
These sayings prompt contemplation, leading individuals to reevaluate their beliefs, priorities, and relationships. They emphasize the depth of spiritual commitment and the radical nature of discipleship, challenging followers to live lives that reflect God’s kingdom values. Here are 15 of my favorite lessons that I like to reflect on regularly.
1. Love and Pray For Your Enemies
Matthew 5:44 NLT
But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you!
2. Forsake Everything Else for God
Matthew 16:24 NLT
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.
3. Material Goods are Not Important
Matthew 19:24 NLT
I’ll say it again—it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!
4. Put God Before Everything and Everyone
Luke 14:26 NLT
If you want to be my disciple, you must, by comparison, hate everyone else—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple.
5. There is No Life Without Participating in Communion
John 6:53 NLT
So Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you.
6. Jesus Came to Correct the Wrongs of the World
Matthew 10:34 NLT
Don’t imagine that I came to bring peace to the earth! I came not to bring peace, but a sword.
7. God is the Reason You Have Everything You Love in Life
Matthew 10:37 NLT
If you love your father or mother more than you love me, you are not worthy of being mine; or if you love your son or daughter more than me, you are not worthy of being mine.
8. Don’t Love the Things of This World More Than God
John 12:25 NLT
Those who love their life in this world will lose it. Those who care nothing for their life in this world will keep it for eternity.
9. The Kingdom of God Come Before All Else
Luke 9:60 NLT
But Jesus told him, “Let the spiritually dead bury their own dead! Your duty is to go and preach about the Kingdom of God.”
10. God Looks at Your Heart, and Knows What’s Inside
Matthew 7:21 NLT
Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter.
11. Stand Firm in Your Faith
Matthew 10:22 NLT
And all nations will hate you because you are my followers. But everyone who endures to the end will be saved.
12. The Word of God is Eternal
Matthew 24:35 NLT
Heaven and earth will disappear, but my words will never disappear.
13. Jesus is the Only Way to the Father
John 14:6 NLT
Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.
14. Vengeance is the Lord’s
Matthew 5:39 NLT
But I say, do not resist an evil person! If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also.
15. Surrender Your Life to Jesus
Luke 17:33 NLT
If you cling to your life, you will lose it, and if you let your life go, you will save it.
