He left it all behind
Matthew Evangelist. The text also says - Abraham and David (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) MATTHEW. 9:9–13 After years of counting out coins, writing out customs receipts, and collecting Roman taxes from his Jewish countrymen, Matthew finally heard an offer he could not refuse. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, and “he left all, rose up, and followed Him” ( Luke 5:28). Matthew left everything. The taxes. The extorted excess. The receipts. He left it all—except, praise God, his gift of accurate record-keeping! Before his conversion, his name had been Levi , the son of Alphaeus (Mark 2:14). But after he came to Christ , he received a new name, Matthew (“Gift of the Lord”). When Luke and Mark refer to Matthew, they call him Levi. But in Matthew 10:3 , he refers to himself as “Matthew the tax collector”—a pointed reminder of a past he had given up. What “old life” did you leave behind in order to fully follow the Son of God ? Author: Stanley, C. F. (2005). The Charles F. Stanley life prin...