I am approaching the 30th anniversary of my salvation.
On September 8, 1996, I gave my life to Christ. I was saved by the amazing grace of God, through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. There is a much longer story there, and I intend to tell it.
Thirty years later, though, I have felt a steady stirring in my soul.
America needs to repent.
I increasingly believe we are at a revival-or-bust moment. Not revival as a political strategy. Not Christianity dressed up as a campaign slogan. I mean repentance, confession, changed hearts, changed lives, restored families, strengthened churches, and people actually submitting themselves to Jesus Christ as Lord.
I have spent thirty years searching, seeking, knocking, and asking. Lately I have wondered whether I have sometimes been asking the wrong questions.
The algorithm, which apparently knows more about my viewing habits than any respectable institution should, has been feeding me sermons from Josh Howerton, Joby Martin, and Phillip Anthony Mitchell. Mitchell pastors 2819 Church, a name drawn from Matthew 28:19.
Jesus tells His followers to go and make disciples, baptize them, and then comes the part I cannot get away from: teach those disciples to obey everything He commanded. Matthew 28:19-20 is not merely an evangelism slogan. Making disciples includes teaching people how to live in obedience to Christ.
That landed harder than I expected.
In thirty years, have I made a disciple?
Have I intentionally taught someone to follow Jesus?
Have I obeyed His commands?
My answers are uncomfortable: no, no, and sometimes.
I am not saying that to wallow in shame. Shame is a lousy discipleship program. Grace saved me thirty years ago, and grace sustains me today. I cannot earn salvation by checking enough boxes on Jesus’ commandment list.
But grace is not permission to ignore the King who saved me.
Jesus said that if we love Him, we will obey His commandments. So perhaps before I spend too much time demanding that America repent, I ought to make certain I remember what Jesus commanded me to do.
So what are those commands?
There are many individual instructions throughout the Gospels, and Christians have organized them in different ways. This is not meant to be an exhaustive spreadsheet of every imperative Jesus ever spoke. It is a starting point, a collection of the major commands that describe what life under the lordship of Christ is supposed to look like.
1. Repent and believe the Good News
Jesus began His public ministry with this:
Repent. Believe.
“Repent of your sins and believe the Good News!” (Mark 1:15, NLT)
Repentance is not merely feeling bad. It means turning. Changing direction. Agreeing with God about sin and surrendering our right to keep managing life on our own terms.
Thirty years after salvation, I still need repentance.
So does the Church.
So does America.
But national repentance is pretty easy to preach when the sins under discussion belong to somebody else.
Christian repentance begins closer to home.
2. Follow Jesus and deny yourself
Jesus did not say, “Admire me.”
He said, follow me.
“If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me.” (Luke 9:23, NLT)
Daily is the inconvenient word.
I would prefer an anniversary plan. Every September 8, take up the cross, remember 1996, shed a tear, eat cake, and call it discipleship.
Jesus said daily.
Following Christ means surrendering my preferences, ambitions, appetites, reputation, comfort, politics, money, time, and pride to Him.
3. Love God completely
When Jesus was asked which commandment mattered most, He did not hesitate.
Love God with all your heart, soul, and mind. (Matthew 22:37-38)
Not Sunday morning God.
Not emergency-room God.
Not election-year God.
All of me belongs to Him. Jesus called this the first and greatest commandment.
4. Love your neighbor as yourself
Jesus immediately attached another command:
“Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:39, NLT)
Then He said the entire law and prophets hang on those two commandments.
Neighbor love is not sentimental niceness. Sometimes love comforts. Sometimes love feeds. Sometimes love protects. Sometimes love tells the truth somebody does not particularly want to hear.
And yes, this has public consequences.
Our neighbors live under laws, send children to schools, pay taxes, raise families, work jobs, suffer injustice, need protection, and depend upon functioning communities. Loving our neighbors cannot mean being indifferent to the public conditions affecting their lives.
But politics must remain downstream from the command.
Love the neighbor first. Then ask what faithfulness requires.
5. Love your enemies
This one ruins several perfectly enjoyable political strategies.
“Love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you!” (Matthew 5:44)
Jesus does not command us to pretend enemies are right. He does not forbid opposing evil, confronting lies, or resisting injustice.
He commands us not to become what we oppose.
The Christian cannot surrender truth for civility. Neither can we surrender love for victory.
That is a difficult combination.
Jesus apparently knew that.
6. Pray
Jesus did not say, “If you happen to be the praying type.”
He taught His disciples, “Pray like this,” and gave us a pattern centered on God’s holiness, God’s kingdom, God’s will, daily dependence, forgiveness, and protection from temptation and evil. (Matthew 6:9-13)
Notice the order.
His name.
His kingdom.
His will.
Then our needs.
That alone could straighten out a remarkable amount of American Christianity.
7. Seek God’s Kingdom first
Jesus commanded us to “seek the Kingdom of God above all else” and live righteously. (Matthew 6:33, NLT)
Above all else includes politics.
I care deeply about America. I believe Christians should participate vigorously in public life. We should vote, serve, speak, lead, organize, challenge bad government, defend what is good, and refuse the convenient fiction that Jesus has nothing to say about Monday through Saturday.
But America is not the Kingdom of God.
Republicans are not the Kingdom of God. Conservatism is not the Kingdom of God. The Constitution is not the Kingdom of God.
Good things become idols when we ask them to occupy Christ’s throne.
8. Forgive
Jesus repeatedly commands His followers to forgive. See Matthew 6:14-15 and Matthew 18:21-35.
That does not mean pretending evil never happened. Forgiveness does not automatically remove earthly consequences, restore trust, or eliminate the need for justice.
But Christians are forbidden from nursing vengeance as a hobby.
We have been forgiven an unpayable debt. That changes how we deal with those who owe us.
9. Make things right with people
Jesus taught reconciliation, not merely religious performance.
In Matthew 5:23-24, He tells the worshiper who remembers that someone has something against him to go and be reconciled.
That one is uncomfortable too.
Apparently following Jesus occasionally requires something more difficult than posting a Bible verse.
It may require saying, “I was wrong.”
10. Serve instead of chasing status
Jesus told His disciples that worldly rulers love exercising authority over others, but “among you it will be different.” Whoever wants to lead should serve. (Matthew 20:25-28)
That command ought to haunt every Christian who enters public leadership.
Authority is real. Leadership matters. Government has legitimate responsibilities.
But Christian leadership cannot simply copy the world’s obsession with power, prestige, control, and being the most important person in the room.
King Jesus washed feet.
There is our leadership model.
11. Let your life point people toward God
Jesus called His followers salt and light and commanded us to let our good deeds be visible in such a way that people glorify our Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:13-16)
The point is not spiritual showmanship.
The point is visible faithfulness.
If Christianity never affects how I work, spend, speak, vote, forgive, lead, serve, parent, treat people, handle disagreement, or respond to injustice, I am entitled to ask exactly what kind of Christianity I have constructed.
12. Remain in Christ
Before we attempt all of this through sheer determination, Jesus gives us an essential command.
“Remain in me.” (John 15:4)
A branch separated from the vine produces nothing. Jesus makes the point painfully clear: “apart from me you can do nothing.”
This may be the command I most need to remember.
Christian obedience is not self-improvement with Bible verses.
We remain in Christ. We pray. We read His Word. We depend upon the Spirit. We obey. Fruit grows because the branch remains connected to the vine.
13. Make disciples and teach them to obey Jesus
And now we are back where this started.
Go.
Make disciples.
Baptize them.
Teach them to obey Jesus.
For thirty years, I have thought a lot about whether I was following Jesus.
That matters.
But Jesus commanded His followers to help others follow Him too.
Christianity was never intended to terminate with me.
Someone told me about Jesus. Her name is NOW Julie James.
Someone taught me Scripture. (A list too long to even attempt.)
Someone discipled the people who eventually discipled me.
The faith crossed countries, centuries, persecutions, cultures, families, churches, pulpits, kitchen tables, Bible studies, friendships, and countless ordinary conversations before the Gospel reached a 1996 version of Scott K. James.
And now I have to ask what I have done with it.
That question stings.
Good. It should.
I keep saying America needs revival. I believe that more strongly than ever.
But revival does not begin when Washington changes.
It does not begin when the right candidate wins.
It does not begin when the Supreme Court gets something right, Congress suddenly discovers wisdom, or our cultural institutions stop behaving like they have been eating paint chips.
Revival begins with repentance.
And repentance begins with people.
With churches. With families. With fathers and mothers. With pastors and congregations. With Christian citizens.
With me.
Maybe after thirty years I have been asking God to fix too many things around me while giving insufficient attention to the things Jesus plainly commanded within me.
So as September 8 approaches, I am grateful beyond words for thirty years of grace.
But I do not want merely to celebrate the day Jesus saved me.
I want to obey the Lord who saved me. I want to follow Him. I want to know His Word. I want to remain in Him. I want to love God and neighbor. I want to forgive. I want to serve. I want to pray for His Kingdom before promoting my own agenda.
And before the Lord calls me home, I want to be able to answer one question differently than I can today:
Did I make disciples?
Thirty years later, perhaps that is the knock I need to keep knocking.
Not, “Lord, why haven’t You fixed America?”
But:
“Lord, what would You have me obey today?”
America may indeed need revival.
But I am beginning to understand where revival has to start – the man in the mirror.
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