*Affection Towards the World

Is there a clear boundary in your mind about where your beliefs and actions start and stop as compared to “the world”?  Do you feel pressure to go along with the mindset of the group you are with, not wanting to upset them or be called names, or even possibly being ostracized from them? I understand the pressure can be intense.  Especially the internal pressure that no one else may see.  You want to have friends, be loved, accepted, secure in relationships.  So, maybe you should just go along with the thoughts, jokes, life styles around you and not rock the boat, right?

There is a lie that seduces us. It says the world has something to offer us that is greater that what God can offer us.  It is a struggle to not believe that; especially in the short-term view.  We want security and for most of us that is based on a certain amount of money in the bank.  We want status and prestige; what we do professionally or who we know is very important.   We demand the royalties and credit for what we do.  We desire recognition.  We have a greater preoccupation with worldly glitter than our own spiritual need.  We can place more confidence in our own abilities and appearance than in Jesus. We seek the approval of people for our decisions instead of seeking God’s approval and clear guidance that He has already given us.

1 John 2:15-19 “Do not love the world or anything in the world.  If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world — the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does — comes not from the Father but from the world.  The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.

“Finding common ground” is a motto of my work in the business called TOGETHER.  If you are a Christian reading this, my hope is that you think seriously about your alignment with God’s view of our position with Him versus the world.  Find common ground with Him first.  Then think seriously about your fellowship with other believers.  Are we united in Christ?  If not, why not?

As Christians we are taught that we should be “in the world, not of it”.  We are to be aliens.  So, how do we find common ground with those who don’t agree with our beliefs?  I will save that for another blog.  Today it is enough to work on our focus on having common ground with God and as brothers and sisters in the fellowship of Christians.

* This is part of a blog series called, Who We Are In Christ is written for Christians.  Sometimes called “Believers” or  “followers of Jesus Christ”.  An early 1st century expression was “followers of The Way”.  The Way being a radical new mindset and belief system that claimed that prophecy of ancient times had been fulfilled and the Messiah had arrived to deliver people from their state of bondage and misery to a life of freedom and joy.  Jesus and some of His close followers are quoted in a book called the Bible.  I use references from it with my own thoughts in these writings.