Recently I came across a “news” item that made laugh a bit. It seems a shipwrecked sailor who had spent three years on a deserted island was overjoyed one day to see a ship drop anchor in the bay. A small boat came ashore, and an officer handed the sailor a bunch of newspapers.
“The captain suggests,” he told the sailor, “that you read what is going on in the world and then let us know if you want to be rescued.”
Well, at least I thought it was funny! But it also made me think of something that is not really comical at all. And that is the growing number of professing disciples of Jesus Christ who believe that everything in this sin-sick, wickedly-weary world is valuable and worth holding on to regardless of the spiritual cost. They would never even bother to open the papers given to them, boldly declaring, “Whatever the world is up to, I want in on it!”
And that is more than a shame—it is a sin. God’s Word is full of references stating that this attitude should never exist in a child of God. The Apostle Paul says that, in Christ, “we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God” (1 Corinthians 2:12). And to the churches in Galatia he asked the rhetorical question, “But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?” (Galatians 4:9)
He is not the only apostle to warn God’s people of a wrong relationship to the world. James warns that the world is something to “keep oneself unstained” from, while also being clear that “whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 1:27; 4:4). And John, known as the apostle of love, minces no words in writing, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:15-17).
You may wonder why there is such a strong dictate against being in love with the world and its system or values. Actually, the answer is pretty simple. God has declared that a person who truly belongs to Him, who has genuinely surrendered to His grace, cannot also belong to the world at the same time.
Sadly, Christians are too often like the little boy living in the slums of East London who made his first visit to the country. He lay on the grass in the orchard and made a chain of daisies. The swallows flew across the sky.
“Look up, Jimmy. See the birds flying through the air,” called his mother. He looked up quickly and in a pitying tone, said, “Poor little birds; they haven’t got no cages, have they?”
The large, gray city had dwarfed Jimmy’s vision. So it is with many professing Christians. They become so occupied with the paltry things of earth that they scorn those who place their affections on things above.
But it was Jesus who most plainly declared that a person who truly belongs to God cannot also belong to the world. In the span of just six verses in John 17:6-11, the Savior made some plain comments about this relationship: “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word—I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours—I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one (bold added for emphasis).
It does not require a lot of interpretive tools or skills to see that the Son of God was declaring that those who belonged to Him were “out of the world”, and that He prayed for them in a way that was different from those who still belonged to the world. What a tremendous blessing that is! And on top of that, His words were a prayer that the Father in Heaven would “keep them” by His own power. The question ought to be asked, “Why would anyone want to belong to this world when they can have this kind of love and security?!”
But, there are a great number of those who claim to be followers of Jesus who still insist on wallowing in the mire of this world for their values, wisdom, direction, and so on. IF they are truly believers in Christ, eventually they must own up to what the Word of God teaches and leave this world behind in their affections.
There is a story about a little eagle that fell out of its nest and landed in a turkey farm. The eagle grew up among the turkeys and, although he looked a bit different, he learned to waddle like a turkey, bob his head like a turkey, and act like a turkey.
One day the young eagle looked up into the sky and saw a majestic eagle soaring above. The little eagle in the turkey yard thought, “Oh, I would love to be able to do that!” As the eagle soared overhead, it looked down and saw the young eagle below. Suddenly it swooped down to the ground and asked, “What are you doing here?”
The little eagle replied, “I am just here in the turkey yard where I have always been.”
The great eagle looked and said, “Spread your wings, boy. You do just what I do. Follow me.” Then he flapped his wings and lifted off the ground.
The young eagle tried it, too. “Whoa! This is all right!” he cried.
“See,” the mature eagle said, “you have been living among these turkeys so long that you were beginning to believe you were something you are not! Follow me, and you will find out what you really are.”
So the little eagle began to soar and fly. He loved it. But the turkeys down below called out to him and said, “Hey, little guy, what are you doing up there? You belong down here.”
“No, I don’t,” called the young eagle. “I used to think that I belonged there, but now I know what I was created to be. I do not belong with you anymore.”
Posted on September 1st, 2007 by Pastor Larry
Filed under: From the Pastor’s Pen
