Am I Pursuing God?
What do you think of when you hear the word—pursue? You probably think about someone running real fast chasing another person. Maybe you think about a predator animal chasing its prey. You might even think about a football game with defensive back trying to chase down a runner before he scores a touchdown. The obvious common denominator is someone or something running real fast.
The word, pursuit, is in Scripture as well. The Greek word is “dioko.” Most often, the word is translated, “persecute.” That is a picturesque word. I can just imagine a Roman soldier aggressively running after a Christian for the purpose of putting him into prison or even kill him.
The most explicit description of this word is found Paul’s account of his persecution of Christians. “Indeed, I myself thought I must do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. This I also did in Jerusalem and many of the saints I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. And I punished them often in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme and being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities.” (Acts 26:9-11).
What Saul did was to pursue any Christian he could. He did it in Jerusalem and even to other cities. He put people in prison. He punished them in synagogues and he forced them to recant their faith. All of this he did because of his own zealous faith as a Jewish man. Their actions were so opposed to what he believed that he was out of control with his anger.
Now that we have observed the intensity of this word, let us consider that word as it is translated in other ways. In Romans 9:30-31, Paul uses this word to describe the actions of the Gentiles and of the Israel. He said that the Gentiles, “…did not pursue righteousness…” while acknowledging that Israel was “…pursuing the law of righteousness…” In Romans 12:13, Paul told his readers to pursue hospitality. Romans 14:19 admonishes them to pursue the things that will be conducive to peace. And, in I Corinthians 14:1, Paul told those readers to pursue love.
He told the church in Thessalonica to pursue that which is good (I Thessalonians 5:15). He told Timothy to pursue righteousness (I Timothy 6:11; II Timothy 2:22). Hebrews 12:14 says that we should pursue peace as does I Peter 3:11. Paul applied this word to himself as he wrote about his pursuit after becoming a Christian (Philippians 3:12, 14).
So, what am I supposed to learn from this? If we apply the same intensity to our pursuit of God that we see in those who pursued Christians for the purpose of persecution, we will likely think of our Christian lives in a radically different way. Our pursuit of God cannot be haphazard or accidental. It cannot be half-hearted.
This word will not allow such an understanding. If we are pursuing God properly, we will let nothing stand in our way as we are running after our spiritual goals. We will not be deterred by anyone or anything. We will be in hot pursuit! Get out of the way because we are on a mission!
— Mike Johnson
