And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” MAR 1:17
19 And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him. MAT 4:19-20
John Gill
Immediately they left their nets—That is, as soon as he had called them, they left their worldly employment, and followed him; they gave up themselves to his service, and became his disciples; they not only left their “nets,” but their fishing boats, and fishing trade, and all that belonged to it, even all their substance; and also their relations, friends, and acquaintance, see (Mat 19:27) which shows what a mighty power went along with the words and call of Christ; and what a ready, cheerful, and voluntary subjection this produces, wherever it takes place.
I hasten and do not delay
to keep your commandments. PSA 119:60
Tractate Derekh Eretz Zuta 2:7
Keep aloof from anything which may bring you to sin. Recoil from even a minor sin that it may not lead you to a major sin. Hasten to perform a light precept and flee from even a trivial transgression lest it will lead you to commit a grave transgression.
These five steps will get you off to the right START, as you follow Christ.
Stop trusting in yourself and your own good works and start trusting in Christ alone for salvation.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. MAR 16:16
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, MAT 28:19
Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. JOH 5:24
9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. EPH 2:8-9
Turn away from everything the Bible calls sin.
But God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.” 2TI 2:19
And he said to man,
“Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom,
and to turn away from evil is understanding.” JOB 28:28
Rashi
Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom—One requires the other, and wisdom is unseemly without the fear of the Lord.
Shabbat 31b:3
The Gemara remarks: Conclude that Rabbi Elazar is the one who said that he is praiseworthy because he is a man who fears sin, as elsewhere he also spoke in praise of fear. As Rabbi Yohanan said in the name of Rabbi Elazar: The Holy One, Blessed be He, has in His world only fear of heaven alone, as it is stated: “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God” (Deu 10:12). And it is written: “And he said to man, ‘Behold [hen], the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding” (Job 28:28), as in the Greek language they call one hen. Apparently, fear of God is of primary importance. The Gemara concludes: Indeed, conclude that Rabbi Elazar is the one who said so.
23 And then will I declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.”
25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. MAT 7:23, 25
14 They are planted in the house of the Lord;
they flourish in the courts of our God.
Rashi
Planted—The righteous will be planted in the house of the Lord.
15 They still bear fruit in old age;
they are ever full of sap and green,
16 to declare that the Lord is upright;
he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him. PSA 92:14-16
Attend a small group for personal discipleship and weekly worship services.
24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. COL 3:16
The number of them along with their brothers, who were trained in singing to the Lord, all who were skillful, was 288. 1CH 25:7
Rashi
All who were skillful—Heb. הַמֵּבִין. In regard to singing, the expression is appropriate, for it is written: (below verse 8): “expert (מֵבִין) and pupil alike.” Also (15:22): “Chenaniah, leader of the Levites in music, should direct the music, for he understood it (מֵבִין).”
25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. HEB 10:24-25
Read and obey your Bible everyday.
This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. JOS 1:8
18 You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.
Rashi
You shall therefore lay up these words of mine—Even after you have been banished make yourselves distinctive by means of my commands: lay tefillin, make mezuzoth, so that these shall not be novelties to you when you return. Similarly does it state (Jer 31:20), “Set up road markers for yourself” (Sifrei Devarim 43:34).
19 You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. DEU 11:18-19
Bava Batra 21a:2
What was this ordinance? As Rav Yehuda says that Rav says: Truly, that man is remembered for the good, and his name is Yehoshua ben Gamla. If not for him the law would have been forgotten from the Jewish people. Initially, whoever had a father would have his father teach him the law, and whoever did not have a father would not learn the law at all. The Gemara explains: What verse did they interpret homiletically that allowed them to conduct themselves in this manner? They interpreted the verse that states: “You shall teach them [otam] to your children” (Deu 11:19), to mean: You yourselves [atem] shall teach, i.e., you fathers shall teach your sons.
Kiddushin 29b:8
The baraita teaches that a father is obligated to teach his son the law. The Gemara asks: From where do we derivethis requirement? As it is written: “You shall teach them [velimadtem] to your children” (Deu 11:19). And in a case where his father did not teach him he is obligated to teach himself, as it is written, i.e., the verse can be read with a different vocalization: You shall study [ulmadtem].
Rashi
You shall teach them to your children, talking of them—From the moment when your son knows how to speak, teach him (Deu 33:4) “Moses commanded us a law”—so that this should be the means of teaching him to speak (Sukkah 42a). From this they (the Rabbis) derived their teaching: When the babe begins to speak, his father should speak with him in the holy tongue, and should instruct him in the law. If he does not do this, it is as though he buries him, as it is said here, “You shall teach them to your children, talking of them . . .” that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied.
21 Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
John Gill
Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord”—Not every one that calls Christ his Lord and Master, professes subjection to him, or that calls upon his name, or is called by his name; or makes use of it in his public ministrations. There are many who desire to be called, and accounted Christians, and who make mention of the name of Christ in their sermons, only to take away their reproach, to cover themselves, and gain credit with, and get into the affections and goodwill of the people; but have no hearty love to Christ, nor true faith in him: nor is it their concern to preach his gospel, advance his glory, and promote his kingdom and interest; their chief view is to please men, aggrandize themselves, and set up the power of human nature in opposition to the grace of God, and the righteousness of Christ. Now not everyone of these, no, not any of them,
Will enter the kingdom of heaven—This is to be understood not of the outward dispensation of the gospel, or the gospel church state, or the visible church of Christ on earth, in which sense this phrase is sometimes used; because such persons may, and often do, enter here; but of eternal glory, into which none shall enter,
But the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven—This, as it may regard private Christians, intends not merely outward obedience to the will of God, declared in his law, nor barely subjection to the ordinances of the gospel; but more especially faith in Christ for life and salvation; which is the source of all true evangelical obedience, and without which nothing is acceptable to God. He that looks after the Son, looks to him, ventures on him, commits himself to him, trusts in him, relies on him, and believes on him for righteousness, salvation, and eternal life, he it is that does the will of the Father, and he only; and such an one, as he is desirous of doing the will of God in all acts of cheerful obedience to it, without dependence thereon; so he shall certainly enter the kingdom of heaven, and have everlasting life; see Joh 6:40 but as these words chiefly respect preachers, the sense of them is this, that only such who are faithful dispensers of the word shall enter into the joy of their Lord. Such do the will of Christ’s Father, and so his own, which are the same, who fully and faithfully preach the gospel of the grace of God; who declare the whole counsel of God, and keep back nothing that is profitable to the souls of men; who are neither ashamed of the testimony of Christ, nor afraid of the faces of men; but as they are put in trust with the gospel, so they speak it boldly, with all sincerity, not as pleasing men, but God, and commend themselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God: such as these shall have an abundant entrance into the kingdom and glory of God. The Vulgate Latin adds this clause, “he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven,” and so does Munster’s Hebrew edition of the gospel according to Matthew.
1 Hear this, O house of Jacob,
who are called by the name of Israel,
and who came from the waters of Judah,
who swear by the name of the Lord
and confess the God of Israel,
but not in truth or right.
Rashi
Hear this—The two tribes destined to go in exile to Babylon.
O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel—That is the tribe of Benjamin, who are not called by the tribe of Judah, but by the general name of the tribes of Israel.
And who came from the waters of Judah—And the tribe of Judah who emanated and ran from the waters of Judah’s pail, as Scripture states (Num 24:7): “Water shall run out of his pails.”
But not in truth—As Jeremiah said, (5:2) “Though they say, ‘As the Lord lives,’ surely they swear falsely,” i.e., you were unworthy of being redeemed, but since they were called as being from the holy city, and that caused them not to be exiled with the ten tribes in the time of Sennacherib, to Halah and Habor, for they have no redemption.
2 For they call themselves after the holy city,
and stay themselves on the God of Israel;
the Lord of hosts is his name. ISA 48:1-2
Rashi
And stay themselves on the God of Israel in the days of Hezekiah, about whom it is written (2Ki 18:5): “He trusted in the Lord God of Israel.” That caused them not to be exiled except in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, who exiled them to Babylon, and they had a redemption through Cyrus.
24 Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. MAT 7:21, 24
And he said to man,
“Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom,
and to turn away from evil is understanding.” JOB 28:28
Rashi
Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom—One requires the other, and wisdom is unseemly without the fear of the Lord.
Shabbat 31b:3
The Gemara remarks: Conclude that Rabbi Elazar is the one who said that he is praiseworthy because he is a man who fears sin, as elsewhere he also spoke in praise of fear. As Rabbi Yohanan said in the name of Rabbi Elazar: The Holy One, Blessed be He, has in His world only fear of Heaven alone, as it is stated: “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God” (Deu 10:12). And it is written: “And he said to man, ‘Behold [hen], the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding” (Job 28:28), as in the Greek language they call one hen. Apparently, fear of God is of primary importance. The Gemara concludes: Indeed, conclude that Rabbi Elazar is the one who said so.
Tell others about your new relationship with Christ.
19 And he did not permit him but said to him, “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.”
Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ? JOH 4:29
20 And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled. MAR 5:19-20