Cost Ethic or The Principle Of Counting The Cost is one of the few principles of Jesus Christ that are too often trampled under foot than most. In the general church setting the saints are encouraged to make blind choices and go for them without hearing from God and that is called faith. But on the contrary Christ teaches that we should be avid plan makers. Making sure we do things deliberately according to a set principle or plan so that He may give us an ordained end. Understanding that whatever God ordains He fulfills.
Luke 14:12-15 KJV Then said he also to him that bade him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompence be made thee. But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just. And when one of them that sat at meat with him heard these things, he said unto him, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.
In the above set of scripture Jesus do say a thing so astonishing and profound. The words above resonates the allegory of the heart or treasures. For Christ there also says wherever the heart is; there will someone heap their treasures. Here He genuinely advised His host about profiting from His giving. That he should give those who will forever be indebted to Him. Not the rich guy or the minister but to provide alms for those who cannot afford to give him back. So that God may be indebted to Him and so pay Him during Bema Judgement of the resurrection of the just. Which will be an event where the dead righteous and the living righteous will be captured to heaven for a celebration lasting seven years and many awards will be given the saints for their spent tempus here on earth.
Matthew 6:19-21 KJV Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Luke 12:33-34 KJV Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
In all essence, Christ teaches that we should be intentional about things we do not just to the physical even piling treasures that shall pay their dues beyond the rapture and in the Kingdom of the Father. Jesus in the book of Luke 14 mostly teaches about calculating the cost of doing anything from salvation to everyday decisions and even long term decisions that resonate in to our after life. He teaches us that there is a rationale that we should induce in our every day decisions to make the most of what we have and are.
