In my bible, the term is defined as the "offering of a life (noun)," or "to offer a life (verb)." Honestly, this definition caught me off guard. That is certainly not how it is most commonly used when someone says they had to "sacrifice this or that."
Wikipedia states that "sacrifice is commonly known as the practice of offering food, objects (typically valuables), or the lives of animals or people to the gods as an act of propitiation or worship... Recently, it has also come into use as meaning doing without something or giving something up."
Doing without something or giving something up. This is how I typically hear the term sacrifice used. For example, "I sacrificed my cable tv for months to save money..." or "I sacrificed my entire afternoon to spend time with you..." or "I sacrificed my nice, fancy car in order to get out of debt..."
But are any of those things really sacrifices? Is it really that big of a deal to give up cable tv? Or a fancy smart phone, or a new car, or any other number of silly, frivolous things? Consider this: There are more Christians in prison or in detention in China than in any other country in the world. Churches have to meet in secret, and risk breaking the law just to preach the gospel. In India, persecution of Christians has spread throughout the entire country, as radical Hindus seek to purify India of all religions except Hinduism. On April 5, Pastor Yadal was attacked in the village of Vadarpalaya, Karnataka. Police officers stopped and beat Pastor Yadal while he was on his way to preach at the House of Salvation church. In North Korea, being a Christian carries a more severe punishment than espionage. In addition, one out of four Christian prisoners are sent to political prison camps where prisoners almost never leave.
How do you think Christians in these (and so many other) countries would define sacrifice? All over the world, Christians are willing to go to jail, or prison camps, get beaten, or even killed, for the sake of the gospel. And yet we can't "sacrifice" an hour a week for bible study? Or thirty minutes a day for time with God? Or give up our piles of stuff?
Obviously, Christians do not face this kind of persecution here in the U.S. But Christ does call us to count the cost and make sacrifices for His name's sake. So what does that mean for me? For you? What is a sacrifice, really, and what is just me being selfish and not wanting to give up something that I don't really need anyway?
And then I think about the ultimate sacrifice made by Jesus, and really nothing can ever compare. He gave his own life so that I might be forgiven and made right in the eyes of God. There is nothing that I can do or give up that could even come close to what Christ did for me.
So as a follower of Christ, what kind of sacrifice am I expected to make? I don't know. I really don't know the answer to my questions for me personally, or for anyone else, because I am sure God asks different things of different people. I don't know what God will call me and my family to do, or what things I will be asked to surrender to Him. I only know that I do not want to be caught up in the American dream, surrounded by comfort and nice things, only to completely miss what exactly God wants me to be doing. And I know that I do not want to live my life striving after the wrong things, or clinging to the things of this world.
"Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." 1 John 2:15
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