Christ's Devotedness

They have His company by the way but His perfect devotedness exposes their selfishness. In verse 51 we find His intense devotedness, "He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem," the place where He was to suffer. His was the entire surrender of self, the giving up of self altogether. The law only told us to love our neighbor as ourselves, but the gospel goes far beyond. It teaches us to do what Christ did; He gave up self altogether for His enemies. We find self exposed in the various traits of selfishness which actuate us in this portion of the chapter (vv. 46-56) and the perfect devotedness of Christ makes this all the more apparent.