Something to think about.
In The World Part Two
14 I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. John 17:14-15
"You should keep them from the evil, this is an interesting statement or request. Jesus is asking God to protect us. To keep us from being defeated by the devil. You have to ask yourself why He would make such a request? Why do we need to be protected?
He is asking out of experience. He was hated, abused, ridiculed and had experienced the hate we would know. The reason he makes this request is that he knows if we follow him we will suffer. He knows that the world will reject us as they rejected him. So he asked for our protection, not that we will be protected to the point where we are unaffected. He asked that we are protected while we're being hated and ostracized. Jesus was hated because he challenged the status quo. He introduced a new covenant. And he asks us his followers to maintain the same Covenant. By doing so, he became an irritant to the powers-that-be. If we are to follow him and do what he did, we will be hated and opposed as he was.
If you are a Christian, you will be an irritant because you are in opposition to the status quo. We want to be accepted. We want our beliefs and our actions to be received by society without conflict. We want everything that we do to be recognized and welcomed. But we forget how we were before we became Christians. We were anti-Jesus Christ. We had no interest in Christian values, faith, belief or authority. We were self-centered and only interested in our own desires. We believed we were entitled to do whatever we chose.
We would like Christianity to be a very neat conflict-free existence where we could live peaceably, favorably and orderly. The peace, favor, and order we receive comes from God. It is foolish for us to think that we will have peace in this world. We are at odds with this world. We are at odds with sin. Our opposition to sin puts us at odds with society. We must realize that though we are in the world, we don't belong to this world. As such we will always be in opposition to the secular world. That is why Jesus Christ prayed that we would be protected. Because we will always be in conflict with the world.
Though he was rejected, hated abused and humiliated He overcame the world. Through His victory, we will also overcome the world. As joint heirs with Jesus Christ we have the assurance of our resurrection through Him.
Tuesday, January 9, 2018
In The World Part Two
Friday, January 5, 2018
In This World Part One
Something to think about.
In This World Part One
14 I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.
We have heard it said, we Christians should be in the world but not of the world. This is an abbreviated quote of the verses above. They are paraphrasing what Jesus said "they are not of the world," referring to Christians, Jesus is saying we belong to a different realm of existence.
I would like to focus on the lesser know verse 15. Here Jesus is praying, God do not remove them but protect them. We the body of believers have taken the "not of this world" to far. I noticed as I have become heavily involved in my church that I continually hangout and associated with people from the church. Which because of my involvement is a natural byproduct of how I spend my time. In a sense, I am living "not of this world." Which caused me to re-examine this verse and its intention.
As you become more involved in an activity, you tend to associate with others that are also involved in the same activity. If you like alcohol, you tend to associate with others that like alcohol. If you like running, you tend to associate with other runners. How does your, or my involvement in church activities accomplish being in the world but "not of the world?"
Your involvement in the church does not remove you from the responsibility of the "great commission." Good works do not exempt you from "why"you are still here. We are to be in the world. Jesus prayed that we remain here not that we be removed. He prays for our protection, not for our exclusion. What Jesus is saying to us is we are to be in contact with the world because if we are not, how can we share the Gospel. We are to be the mouthpiece of God, not the silent political irritant that we have become. Jesus prays for our protection. Why would he pray for our protection if all we do is associate with other like-minded individuals? The only reason for protection is if you are an irritant to someone. If we only associate with each other, then the evil one would have no reason to disturb us. He would leave us to our own interest. As long as we don't step outside of our boundaries, we would be safe. As long as we remain within the confines of our religious activity do we even need this verse? If all we do is minister to people within the church are we really doing anything?
We must interact with the world. It will be messy. We must shake off the comfort of complacency. We need to be in the world.