We are clearly taught in Scripture not to be a friend to the world. James 4:4 “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.”
At the same time we are required to live in the world. So we are in a tough spot. We are commanded by God not to love this world or to be of this world and yet we have to live in this world. More than that, we are commanded by God to change this world and to serve as ambassadors of Christ so that the people of this world might know Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:20 “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.”
In order to be an ambassador to the world we have to live in this world without being like the world. One way we are encouraged to fulfill our role as ambassador well is by becoming like the world. 1 Corinthians 9:22 “I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.”
How do we do this? How are we both like and unlike or friends and enemies of the world?
I received some insight on this today from a collection of letters by Francois Fenelon to his friends in the book “Meditations on the Hand of God.” He gives two pieces of advice. The first is to recognize the world for what it is and what it is doing. The other is to die to the desires of the world, while living to God in it.
Fenelon’s attitude on the world that I hope to share is this. “Ah blind world, what an unjust tyrant you are! You flatter so you can betray, you amuse and entertain so you can strike a death blow. You laugh and you entice men to laugh... all you want to do is enchant the senses with a vain joy that turns into poison.”
Fenelon’s advice is to live as we truly are in Christ – dead to the world, but alive to God. In response to Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” and Romans 6:4 “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” Fenelon writes, “Indeed all of us Christians, through our baptism, have renounced the world. We are in search of the safe harbor if we turn and flee the raging storm.”
In order to effectively serve the world without becoming like the world, we must “become all things” that is loving people where they are in their sin without joining them in their sin. We must acknowledge what the world wants people to live for and identify it for the evil it is and help others see the light and love of Christ who gives significance, security, and eternal salvation as apposed to what the world gives - a brief good time with lifelong negative consequences.
Let’s look for the eternal hope, love, joy, peace, and satisfaction we want in the only place we can find it – God. Let’s not be classified as of the world as Fenelon describes it. “‘The world’ is nothing other than all people who love themselves, and who love things without regard to God... (for a person) to be classified as ‘the world’ is to love themselves and to try to find in created things that which is only found in God.”
Share any questions or comments with me at jpettus@lhbg.org
At the same time we are required to live in the world. So we are in a tough spot. We are commanded by God not to love this world or to be of this world and yet we have to live in this world. More than that, we are commanded by God to change this world and to serve as ambassadors of Christ so that the people of this world might know Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:20 “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.”
In order to be an ambassador to the world we have to live in this world without being like the world. One way we are encouraged to fulfill our role as ambassador well is by becoming like the world. 1 Corinthians 9:22 “I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.”
How do we do this? How are we both like and unlike or friends and enemies of the world?
I received some insight on this today from a collection of letters by Francois Fenelon to his friends in the book “Meditations on the Hand of God.” He gives two pieces of advice. The first is to recognize the world for what it is and what it is doing. The other is to die to the desires of the world, while living to God in it.
Fenelon’s attitude on the world that I hope to share is this. “Ah blind world, what an unjust tyrant you are! You flatter so you can betray, you amuse and entertain so you can strike a death blow. You laugh and you entice men to laugh... all you want to do is enchant the senses with a vain joy that turns into poison.”
Fenelon’s advice is to live as we truly are in Christ – dead to the world, but alive to God. In response to Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” and Romans 6:4 “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” Fenelon writes, “Indeed all of us Christians, through our baptism, have renounced the world. We are in search of the safe harbor if we turn and flee the raging storm.”
In order to effectively serve the world without becoming like the world, we must “become all things” that is loving people where they are in their sin without joining them in their sin. We must acknowledge what the world wants people to live for and identify it for the evil it is and help others see the light and love of Christ who gives significance, security, and eternal salvation as apposed to what the world gives - a brief good time with lifelong negative consequences.
Let’s look for the eternal hope, love, joy, peace, and satisfaction we want in the only place we can find it – God. Let’s not be classified as of the world as Fenelon describes it. “‘The world’ is nothing other than all people who love themselves, and who love things without regard to God... (for a person) to be classified as ‘the world’ is to love themselves and to try to find in created things that which is only found in God.”
Share any questions or comments with me at jpettus@lhbg.org
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