Friends with the World

 

Romans 14:12 “So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.”

I read how Christians are being targeted today by hate and it reminded of an article by the late Dr. J. Vernon McGee where he stated, Don’t act as if some strange or weird thing has happened to you if the world doesn’t accept you because of your faith. John 15:18-19 reminds us “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.” I posted earlier from a previous article, looking around today, “Have you ever wondered why our society is going downhill in manners, ethics, morals, and honor so fast? A major part of it is that so many lack the fear of God, which sets the standards and boundaries for life. The secular humanist acts as if they will not be held accountable. Another article declares that many people today think that they can get away with all sorts of crime and injustices in this dog-eat-dog society today. But in the big picture, God sees all, and He will one day bring it to light – whether in this life or the next, sin has consequences with God. Sin is always serious and always destructive. That’s who and what they really hate?

James 4:4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.”

McGee goes on to say that “friendship with the world” factor has always been a problem for many in the ministry. I once knew a pastor that that actually said that before you could witness to someone about the gospel of Jesus Christ, you first had to make them your friend. Carnal human relationships (though created by God) has not saved a single soul, and is not what the Lord commissioned His followers to preach or teach because friendship with the world is not what they need; they need a Savior and Lord in Jesus Christ to redeem and save them from their sins and the Word of God to give them direction in life, aligned with God perfect Word, Will and Way. Its not about making people feel good that they are dead in sin and trespasses, its about rescuing them from that in Christ. McGee comments that he wonders if there is not sorrow in heaven, because a church is friends with and popular with the world when Jesus is not? Does anybody really care how many friends they have in hell? Seriously.

John 3:17-19 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.  And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

The child of God needs to recognize that the God-rejecting world system will hate them. There is an offense of the Cross to those who are perishing in their sin. But, in the case of the gospel of Salvation, they need to be offended and here the truth that sin is death and Christ is life, spoken in love, but not candy-coated or watered down. Christ came to seek and save the lost; we are to also. They may love their darkness, evil and sin, rejecting Jesus. We do not stop bringing the light of the world in the Word of God to a lost and dying world. But, let’s make sure that Christ’s rejection and our rejection are for the same reason.

In Christ, Brian