For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. -- John 3:17
Some of us spend a lot of time talking about how corrupt the
world is. We are called out of the world
as Israel was called out of Egypt. Yet
Egypt remained. It was judged and
chastised but not destroyed. When
threatened by the wrath of Herod, Mary and Joseph carried Jesus into hiding in
Egypt. Whatever the world does, God
still loves it. The Lord died in agony
and humiliation that the world might be delivered.
I tend to think that people with extensive tattoos, piercings, bizarre
hair colors, and some of the more grotesque body modifications are revealing the damage in
their souls. The world does not know it
is loved. The more sensitive and thoughtful of the worldlings recognize their
lost state but do not know the cure.
They have no hope, and the deterioration and decadence that has become
so blatant the last few decades reflects that hopelessness.
The average Christian and the average Christian church offer
the world little apart from out-of-context platitudes, rituals, and
restraints. In the context of Christ,
those things not only make sense but are transformative. It is rather like the atheists who don’t
believe in a god no one else believes in.
Unless we can show people Jesus, they will never understand our
hope.
Though we are not of the world, we are in the world and abandoning
the world is not an option that is open to us.
The Promised Land always lies
between Egypt and Babel. Abraham was
never allowed to go back to Mesopotamia but he did go down to Egypt. Israel was carried away captive into Babylon,
but Jesus fled to safety in Egypt. There
is something that is an abomination to God, but it is not the world. The Lord hates the demonic nature of a
corrupted and compromised religion. He
will not tolerate those who would climb up to heaven on their piles of filth. This, we, too, reject outright.
The world is not our home; it is our field.
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