“Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her” (Ruth 1:14)

Both daughters-in-law had an affection for Naomi, and started out with her when she decided to return to her people in Israel, but then, she told them an easier way. Naomi unselfishly explained the trouble they would likely suffer if they stayed with her, and said, if they preferred a more comfortable life, they should return to their heathen land.

Orpah abandoned Naomi, but Ruth said, “wherever you go, I will go; And wherever you lodge, I will lodge; Your people shall be my people, And your God, my God” (Ruth 1:16).

Orpah went back to her idolatrous friends, while Ruth, with all her heart gave herself up to the God of her mother-in-law. It’s one thing to love the ways of the Lord when all is fair, and quite another to continue in them when times get tough. Making a “decision for Christ” when your friends are all doing it, is easy, but when “cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the Word, and it becomes unfruitful”, you have reason to question your salvation (Mark 4:19).

Is your heart fixed upon Christ? Did you count the cost? Did your faith make you willing to suffer all worldly loss for the Master’s sake? Christ warned, “Whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” (Mark 8:35-36).

The best evidence you’re saved is you can renounce the world when trials come, but false converts return to the flesh like “a dog returns to his own vomit, and, a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire” (2 Peter 2:22).

The question this morning is, are you cleaving to Christ with your whole heart?