“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
(John 15:18-19)
IN THE GOSPEL OF JOHN the word “world” can have
different meanings. It can mean the world we live in, the planet we inhabit
that was created by God. He was in the world, and the world was made
through him, yet the world did not know him. (John 1:10)
In John the world
is also the world of humanity, the world of people God loves and sent his Son
to save.
“For
God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him
should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)
But the third and most frequent way John uses “world” speaks of a society, a system, a
philosophy, a religion, and way of life with values, goals and affections that
are apart from God and opposed to God.
It is this world that John warns us about in I John 2: 15-17: 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 of life—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.
The world today accepts a quiet, politically
correct Jesus who espouses humanitarian relief efforts and speaks of nothing
but love and acceptance. But the world
still hates the biblical Jesus for the same reasons it did when they crucified
Him.
They hated Him because He exposed their sin. He exposed the emptiness of the man-centered
religion and empty philosophies. He showed
them who they were and they didn’t like it.
“When Jesus turned the spotlight of His divine holiness on the sins of
the people, they writhed and they rebelled and they twisted and squirmed under
it because He stripped away the darkness and He laid bare what was in their
hearts. And instead of turning to Him in
loving faith and receiving the salvation that He had and accepting the
cleansing for sin, they turned against Him and they hated Him for exposing
their sin.” (J. MacArthur)
And the world still hates those who belong to
Jesus, those who clearly belong to Jesus and live for Him.
Can those who live with us, work with us, play with
us, go to school with us, can they say of us that we belong to Jesus and are
openly living for Him?
The
danger of this world is not that it will suddenly rush in and ambush us and
violently take us captive. The danger of
this world is the subtle way it welcomes and affirms us when we drift away from
Jesus and slowly become conformed to it.
We slowly begin to love what the world loves. We gradually begin to think and make
decisions like the world does. We
casually go along with the world in how it views right and wrong, how it distinguishes
truth from lies.
Are you
consistent in your walk with Christ or drifting with the current of the
world. Are you abiding in his love and
loving him with all your heart, soul mind and strength, or do you find your
affections focused on this world and the things it offers? Are you thinking and making decisions based
on what the world will say and think, or on what Jesus tells us in his
Word?
In Romans
12 we read: I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the
mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and
acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be
transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what
is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:1-2)
Worship,
both private and corporate, is an anchor for our souls that keeps us centered
in Christ. Worship is one of the primary
ways we testify to ourselves and to the world that our affections and pursuits
are centered on Christ and his kingdom, and not on this world. Worship is the primary ways you can say and
prove that my life is not about about me and what I want, but about Jesus and
his claims on my life.
In
corporate worship our songs, prayers and the preaching are all planned for the
sole purpose of declaring the excellencies of Him who called us out of the
darkness of this world into his marvelous light and love (I Peter 2:9) I look
forward to seeing you Sunday as together we declare this truth.
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