-There are a lot of things about which the world and people will try to convince you. There are a lot of values, priorities, opinions and beliefs which people hold that sound good and even make sense, but they leave no room for the eternal and worse, they leave out Christ. Anything that puts man first and exalts the things of this world over Christ is likely a waste of time, chasing after the wind.
-Remember there are three that oppose: the world, the flesh, and the devil. All three stand in stubborn opposition to the truth and desires of God, and you will often find them doing their level best to lead God’s people astray. The world, the people of the world, most of them have not yet bent the knee to the God Who made them, all too ready to embrace ideas and traditions which do not necessitate any kind of surrender of the will. They are rebels still, desperate to get others to join with them in a futile attempt to assuage their guilty conscience. They love wisdom, particularly when it comes wrapped in pretty, "tolerant" packaging. Some are directly engaged in the spread of false teaching, twisting Scripture - anything that can somehow get others to join with them and make them feel better about themselves. Others are merely devoted to causes which will perish, which have no ultimate bearing on eternity, but they try to get others to join in because they have convinced themselves that their cause is of utmost importance. Some of these causes are legitimately important, to be sure, but none of them are ultimate apart from Christ. Paul warns his readers to be vigilant, constantly on the lookout against anyone who might be emphasizing anything which would detract from the supremacy of Christ and from full-on white-hot devotion to Him.
-My own flesh is similarly predisposed to resist what God wants and is more than ready to be led down some primrose path, towards something the world values, towards something I’d rather do than what God wants me to do, something temporal and ultimately empty and which literally does next-to-nothing to populate heaven with ardent Christ-worshippers. I carry that kernel of rebellion in my own body for as long as I live, until that day in heaven when I get a new glorified body. Many times heaven itself seems only like some distant foggy concept, whereas the here-and-now world is so real, so tangible, so insistent, so much more tantalizing, more compelling. Here, right now, do this. Want this. Care about this. Devote yourself to this. This is important - everybody is doing it. This is true - everybody believes it. Or seemingly so. And I thus find myself caring about and believing things which have little or nothing to do with Christ and becoming more like Him. I must be constantly vigilant to take every thought captive to the obedience and devotion of Christ (2Corinthians 10.5).
-And when it comes to matters of deceit, of captive minds and imprisoned souls, of lofty ideas rasied against the knowledge of God and of outright rebellion against Him, the devil is peerless, without equal. A liar from the beginning, the original rebel, challenging the supremacy of God and trying desperately to take His place, he was cast down from heaven to rule the world (albeit temporarily) and is now literally hell-bent on holding prisoner as many people as possible, complicit in his rebellion against the primacy and purposes and plans of God (2Timothy 2.26). Whether in the form of outright opposition against what God wants, against the things of God and His people, or in the guise of things which are morally neutral but which have the appearance of something good and important, the devil and his host of fallen angels are relentless in their scheming to lead people astray from pure and simple devotion to Christ (cf Luke 4.13, Ephesians 6.11, 1Peter 5.8, 2Corinthians 11.3). We neglect (or deny) his efforts and very existence to the detriment of our souls and to that of the Church itself. Watch out! Christ first, Christ better, better than anything or anyone, first in my heart - led no one or no thing lead you astray from that!
No comments:
Post a Comment