When Jesus commanded His disciples to “follow me”, what did He actually mean? What does it look like for 21st-century Christians to obey this command in their daily lives? In this video, David Platt briefly explains why he wrote “Follow Me,” offering three key takeaways he hopes readers receive. The primary goal of Platt’s book is to emphasize that a radical life first and foremost involves a relationship with Jesus Christ, seeking to learn from Him and obey His Word. As Christians grow in their relationship with Christ, they will be able to, with the Spirit’s help, discern what ideas, values, and cultural norms are antithetical to the Gospel and should be avoided. According to Platt, following Jesus is not about rules and regulations, but a joyful relationship with Him.
1. Relationship with Christ
2. Avoiding What’s Antithetical to the Gospel
3. No Rules and Regulations, but Joy
So David, most recently you’ve written Follow Me. And you even say that for you that was a more foundational book than Radical, and you hope it is for other people. Can you explain what you mean by that, and maybe just what led you to write Follow Me?
Why David Platt Wrote “Follow Me”
Yeah. So what led me to… That’s an interesting story, that combines a variety of different things, but fundamentally, and it goes back to a variety of things you and I have talked about. People would read Radical and they’d say, okay, well what do I need to do? Do I need to adopt? Do I need to move overseas? Do I need to move into inner city? Do I need to sell this? And I think people are asking these questions with good intentions, but the fundamental, there’s no set of rules, or regulations for what radical life looks like in Christ.
It’s a relationship with Christ. It’s follow Jesus. This is the initial invitation, summons that he gave to four disciples in Matthew Chapter Four. “Follow me.” Those words would transform those guys’ lives and other guys’ lives, other disciples’ lives, and then obviously 2000 years of history have been transformed as a result of those words.
An Encouragement to Follow Christ
So what does it mean? I just want to encourage people to look to Jesus. And so the reason I wanted to write this book is just, it’s in a sense the essence of discipleship. My understanding of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. I try to hit on some things that I think are particularly concerning, that we have a tendency to miss when it comes to the essence, the very core of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus, and then to show how that relates to making disciples of Jesus. And so that’s where… And when I was thinking about, okay, after Radical, okay, that’s really a book about what we need to let go of in this world. Ideas, values, and our culture, sometimes even in the church, that are antithetical to the gospel. What do we need to let go of?
And then, so Follow Me, all right, who do we hold onto? So what does this look like on a day-by-day basis? What does it mean for our minds, our desires, our relationships, our will, our entire purpose for living, to be transformed from the inside out as followers of Jesus? So to hopefully give some biblical, practical handles on what following Jesus looks like, to even to go back to something we’ve talked about earlier, but in the ordinary day-to-day life, what does this look like following Jesus? And just encourage people.
There is much reward to be found. And who knows where Jesus will lead, how Jesus will lead his commands, how they play out in our lives in all kinds of different ways? And I just want to call people to experience the joy of following him and not looking for rules and regulations, but following him and experiencing the cost that’s involved in that and the reward that’s involved in that.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
