What Does God Mean by Not Loving This World? I Love Art
Information technology'due south tempting to get sucked into all the good things this world seems to offering, from the people we love to the splendor before our optics and recollect the world itself is skilful.
But be warned: The world is temporary, and those who hunt later on its finite pleasures and treasures can too easily fall prey to its illusion and turn from what actually matters: God and His holy kingdom.
While many of us agree to his teachings, we often get confused about the Apostle Paul'due south call for united states to reject the earth. In his alphabetic character to the early church building in Rome, Paul writes,
Do not suit to the blueprint of this world, simply exist transformed by the renewing of your mind. So you lot will exist able to exam and approve what God's will is — his good, pleasing and perfect volition (Romans 12:2).
Merely what does that really hateful? And why is "the earth" and then bad?
Here, nosotros explore why God calls the states to cling to the transformative renewal constitute only in Him, and why Romans 12:2 is such a powerful poesy to tuck shut in our hearts.
What Is 'The World'?
"The earth" is a wide term that we can translate to hateful annihilation from creation to the people and pleasures found inside it. But reading the full context of Paul'southward words here indicates he's referring to things not of the Lord — the philosophies and perspectives that run counter to the Kingdom of God.
God's Kingdom calls u.s. to put God first, to put others before ourselves, and to walk in honour, respect, and obedience to Him and His ways. But the globe calls the states to something dissimilar. Information technology tells us to play the game of life, where nosotros accrue as many riches as we can and bask every bit many pleasures of the body and listen as we can.
Why Is it Wrong to Love the World?
While some things in the earth are practiced — our spouse and children, our church building and its people, the country and the innocent creatures in information technology — Scripture tells u.s. repeatedly to turn away from the earth and gear up our eyes on Jesus. As the Apostle John writes, "Do non love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the globe, honey for the Father is non in them" (1 John 2:15).
That means setting aside non only selfish cravings but even strong family unit ties to put God in a higher place all.
Anything non of God is of the earth. The world is a human being-made construct. Loving what is of God that happens to exist in the world is dissimilar from loving the world itself.
Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:33 to "seek first His kingdom and His righteousness" and not to worry about the concerns of the trunk, from what we volition swallow or drink to the dress we wear. For, He says, if we set up our sights on God's Kingdom, the rest volition be provided in turn.
Jesus also says we should non store upwardly for ourselves temporary "treasures on globe, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal," only rather store up treasures in heaven (Matthew 6:19-20). What He's proverb is to push button aside the cares, passions, and concerns of this earthly and woefully express life and focus on our eternal life in heaven with the Male parent.
We cannot focus on both. Jesus warns: "No one tin can serve ii masters. Either y'all volition detest the i and dear the other, or y'all will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money" (Matthew six:24).
What Does it Mean to 'Accommodate' to the World?
The word "adapt" comes from the Greek suschématizó, which ways to mode, blueprint, or style after. Merriam-Webster Lexicon defines it every bit "to be similar or identical, to be in understanding or harmony with," and to "act in accord with."
When we conform to the world, nosotros mimic it, hold with it, walk in its ways. We align our perspective with worldly things, such as fallible riches and bodies that eventually wither and die. In upshot, we put the earth above God in our one thousand hierarchy of importance.
That, in essence, is idolatry.
God calls the states to love Him with the entirety of our hearts, souls, and minds as His greatest commandment (Matthew 22:37-38). He as well puts that outset on the Ten Commandments that He gave to His people, Israel, in the wilderness (Exodus xx:3).
In his alphabetic character to the early church in Corinth, the Apostle Paul urges united states to "flee from idolatry" (1 Corinthians x:14), for it is the path to destruction. Echoing Jesus' alert that we cannot serve ii masters, Paul elaborates, "Y'all cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a function in both the Lord'south table and the tabular array of demons" (1 Corinthians ten:21).
That means not only participating in heathen festivals but as well putting the globe'southward morals, people, or desires above or on the same level as God. It means staying as far away from these things or ideals as possible and so nosotros are not tempted to fall into their trap.
God tells us He is a jealous God (Exodus 20:5). Loving the globe, befitting to the earth, is idolatry and volition incite His wrath.
Is it Important to Be Transformed in Jesus?
However, along with the "don't" in Romans 12:2, Paul offers a "do." Don't conform to the world, don't align yourself with the world, don't mimic its styles and perspectives, and wanton ways, Paul says, just exercise be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Transformed comes from the Greek metamorphousthe, from the root words meta and morpho. Just like the scientific process of metamorphosis, metamorphousthe ways to alter form, to become something new.
Instead of befitting ourselves to the world, then, we are to go from the caterpillar to the butterfly — that is, we are to become a new creation in Christ. We are to renew our minds, design ourselves after Christ and our eternal home in heaven with God, our Father.
Every bit Paul writes to the church building in Corinth, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!" (2 Corinthians 5:17).
What Are Some Examples in the Bible?
What is sometimes troubling for Christians is the example nosotros are offered in Matthew 12 most Jesus' mother and brothers.
In the passage, Jesus is teaching a big crowd, including some of the Pharisees and teachers of the police, when He is informed His mother and brothers were exterior, wanting to speak to Him. His words in response might seem harsh to some: "Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?" Pointing to His disciples, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers" (Matthew 12:48-49).
But His larger bespeak, what He says next in verse 50, is the crux: "For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sis and mother."
The world tells us the bonds of blood and human relationship between family members reigns supreme. But God transcends family ties and the blood bonds of mere DNA. Equally Christians, our true family members are our Christian brothers and sisters, with God as our heavenly and eternal parent.
These might as well turn out to be our earthly descendants and relatives, but that is a worldly concern — entirely secondary. Our real priority, our chief business organisation, should be our family in the Lord. That's what Jesus appears to have been proverb.
Another example is in Jesus' selection to die on the cross to absolve for the sins of the world. His disciples and others did not announced to understand His choice at start, for they were viewing His sacrifice through the lens of the world.
Even as Jesus carried His cross to the site of the crucifixion, He was taunted by the primary priests, teachers, elders, and others who watched: Salve yourself if you really are the Christ. Let God rescue you lot if you are truly His son.
But Jesus set His eyes on heaven and chose for eternal good, not a temporary feel-good measure.
In John 12, He predicts His death, telling His followers His hour "has come up" (John 12:23).
"Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains but a unmarried seed. Just if it dies, information technology produces many seeds. Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this globe will go on it for eternal life" (John 12:24-25).
We are to reject this worldly life, Jesus was proverb, and instead, cling to what is to come.
"What shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, information technology was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!" (John 12:27-28).
His words are clear: Let the will of God in heaven be done — not the will of humanity.
We Are Citizens of Heaven
Finally, if we still are not convinced and still believe we can love the earth and God simultaneously, Jesus makes another betoken: Keep in mind even if you dearest the earth, the world does non love you lot, as He says in John 15:18-19,
"If the world hates yous, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the earth, it would dear you as its own. Every bit it is, you lot practice not belong to the earth, but I have chosen you lot out of the globe. That is why the world hates you."
We are non orphans but rather citizens of another Kingdom: Heaven. And when the fourth dimension is ripe, Paul writes, our Savior "will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious torso" (Philippians 3:20-21).
That is worth focusing on.
Photo Credit: ©Unsplash/benwhitephotography
Source: https://www.christianity.com/wiki/bible/why-should-we-not-be-conformed-to-this-world.html
0 Response to "What Does God Mean by Not Loving This World? I Love Art"
Post a Comment