Repent (Matt. 4:17): The entire message of Scripture can be summed up in this one verb: repent. From Moses to the prophets who followed, this was the message of God to man sick with the disease of sin. Jesus’ message follows the same trajectory and calls the spiritually sick to repentance (Luke 5:31-32). This is also the message Jesus called His apostles to preach.[1] To the very end, this is our Lord’s message to the churches, that they ready themselves for His imminent coming (2 Pet. 3:9).[2] All who are saved, therefore, pursue a lifestyle of repentance, ever growing in the knowledge of the will of God and His holy character, ever confessing our sins and receiving the grace of God in the forgiveness found in Jesus’ blood alone, and ever being sanctified by the renewal of the mind (Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:23-24). We pursue repentance.

Follow (Matt. 4:19): Jesus calls all to follow Him.[3] But what does it mean to follow Christ? It certainly means keeping His word, but it also means walking in His footsteps,[4] to “walk in the same manner as He walked” (1 John 2:6). As pupils become like their teacher, so also are we to become like our Lord (Luke 6:40). Likewise, we who follow the Light of the world not only avoid walking in darkness, but we also come to possess the Light (John 8:12) and we shine like Him.[5] As He is, so also are we, His followers, in this world (1 John 4:17).

[1] This was the message of Moses and the prophets (Jer. 7:23-26), of John and Jesus (Matt. 3:2 and 4:17 are verbatim), and of the apostles (Luke 24:47; Acts 2:38; 17:30; 26:20). This is simply the flipside of saving faith.

[2] 2 Pet. 3:9 is a call for believers to be ready for Christ, even as the book of Revelation is (Rev. 2:5, 16; 3:3, 19).

[3] Cf. Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23. The cross is the way of life for all believers (cf. Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20; 5:24).

[4] Cf. 1 Pet. 2:21. This is pointedly seen in Jesus’ call to the cross. Even as He took up His cross to carry out the will of the Father, so His disciples were also to take up their cross and follow Him (Matt. 16:24). As Jesus sought the interests of the Father (Matt. 16:23; John 8:29), so we also seek His will (Eph. 5:10, 17).

[5] As Christ is “the Light of the world” so also are we (Matt. 5:14-16; Acts 13:47).