If We Were of the World

“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. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.” (John 15:18-21 ESV)

From my experience, it hasn’t been so much the people out in the world who have treated me badly, and who have persecuted me, but it has been the worldly “church,” i.e. those professing faith in Jesus Christ but who are not living for the Lord but who are living like the world and who are compromising the truth of the gospel and moral purity, and/or who are liars and deceivers and those of the flesh who want to hear only pleasant things, and not the truth that Jesus taught and that his NT apostles taught.

But some of them are just ordinary people who have been brought up a certain way to believe things a certain way and they just don’t want to hear anything that contradicts those traditional and cultural beliefs and practices, and that includes in areas beyond just what is taught in the Scriptures but goes to areas pertaining to what they were taught in multiple areas of life. And so they just don’t like it if you share something that goes against their cultural and traditional things that they believe and/or practice.

But the real big thing that we are up against today, who are serving the Lord Jesus with our lives, and who are teaching the truth of the gospel, is that so many people today are teaching and/or are believing in a half-truth (lie) gospel message that is all about making everything positive, and nothing negative, and all about making people feel good and not be offended. And so they have oversimplified the gospel message, i.e. they have diluted it to make it more appealing and acceptable to the ungodly.

And so they turn what is evil into something that is good and to be accepted and valued, while they turn what is godly into something that is evil and is to be rejected and countered. Lies are good in that view, and telling the truth is bad, by the same perspective. For it is all about making people feel good and about not offending anyone with the truth. So if you talk about the things Jesus and his NT apostles talked about, such as sin, repentance, obedience, and holy living, and promises, and conditions for promises, and the consequences of habitual sin, then you are tagged as not good.

So, the reason that some of us face persecution, even from others professing faith in Jesus Christ, is that so much of the church has gone the way of the world and has become so much like the world that they reject us who are not like the world, because Jesus has taken us out of the world, not physically, but from the aspect of where our beliefs and values and practices are founded. We don’t adopt the world’s thinking and values and practices as our own, but we are determined to follow Jesus Christ and His Word.

So, if we are people who are following our Lord in obedience and in holy living, and the Scriptures, in context, are what we go by, and not the teachings of humans, then in today’s Christian culture here in America we are going to stand out like a sore thumb if we do not join in with them. And if the Lord calls us to “come out of Babylon,” then we may face a lot of criticism from those who are still in “Babylon” who think we should be, too. But coming out of the world means out of the worldly “church,” too.

So, all of us who profess faith in Jesus Christ are to be followers of Christ, and not followers of human beings, and who follow the teachings of the Scriptures (in context) and not the teachings (philosophies) of human thinking and reasoning. We should be students of the Scriptures and not be those who make the teachings of humans our Bible. But we should be those who test everyone and everything we hear or read or think we see against the Scriptures, in their context, to make sure what we are hearing is truth.

Now, this is not saying that we should not read or listen to other people’s teachings or devotions, for as the body of Christ we are to be teaching and encouraging and urging and exhorting one another. But we should make certain that what we are reading or hearing is biblical truth. But we have to read the Scriptures in full context if we are going to get the real truth of what they are saying, for many lies come from Scriptures taught out of context and twisted to say what they don’t say in context.

And then we need to walk in the truth of the Scriptures, especially the teachings of Jesus Christ and of His NT apostles who teach us what it means to be saved from our sins, and what it means to believe in Jesus Christ, and what a walk of faith in Christ should look like, in practice. For Jesus died that we might be crucified with him in death to sin and raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, no longer as slaves to sin, but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness (see Romans 6:1-23; Luke 9:23-26; 1 Peter 2:24).

[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15] 

Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer 

Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897

Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897

Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,

This is my constant longing and prayer;

Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,

Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,

Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,

Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,

Seeking the wandering sinner to find.

O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,

Holy and harmless, patient and brave;

Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,

Willing to suffer others to save.

O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,

Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;

Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,

Fit me for life and Heaven above.

Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,

Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;

Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;

Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrYhiK2nQBg 

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