Holiness - Ryle - VI - Chapter 5

Required reading
Holiness by J C Ryle (available from Amazon or free on the internet, here for example) - Read Chapter 5, 'The cost'.

My summary
Ryle in this chapter encourages us to count the cost of being a Christian.

Firstly, Ryle explains a few of the major costs of becoming a Christian.  It will cost your:
(i) self-righteousness;
(ii) sin;
(iii) love of ease;
(iv) favour of the world.

Next Ryle tells us how important it is to count the cost and gives examples of people who have failed to do so.

Then to finish Ryle gives us some hints on how to count the cost.  Count up and compare:
(i) The profit and loss;
(ii) The praise and the blame;
(iii) The friends and the enemies;
(iv) The life that now is and the life to come;
(v) The pleasures of sin and the happiness of God's service;
(vi) The trouble that true Christianity entails and the troubles that are in store for the wicked;
(vii) The number of those who turn from sin and the world and serve Christ, and the number of those who forsake Christ and return to the world;

What grabbed me
Good point about the need to lose the favour of the world when you become a Christian: '...true Christianity will cost a man the favor of the world. He must be content to be thought ill of by man if he pleases God. He must count it no strange thing to be mocked, ridiculed, slandered, persecuted and even hated. He must not be surprised to find his opinions and practices in religion despised and held up to scorn. He must submit to be thought by many a fool, an enthusiast and a fanatic, to have his words perverted and his actions misrepresented. In fact, he must not marvel if some call him mad. The Master says, "Remember the word that I said unto you, ‘The servant is not greater than his Lord.’ If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept My saying, they will keep yours also" (John 15:20).'

One of my favourite verses is Galatians 1:10: 'If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.'  Once we become a Christian we must stop trying to please men and this is a cost that we often don't want to contemplate.

Next week's reading
Chapter 6, 'Growth'.

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.