Do you ever look at the state of the world around us with the gracious gift of “eyes to see”, and find yourself bewildered?
It’s not difficult with Spirit-led discernment to notice the finest strands of a number of dangerous developments slowly brewing in the world around us.
Two such dangers are becoming increasingly clear, and together they should make us sit up and pay attention.
First, anyone with a serious commitment to teaching or group study of the pure Word would surely have noticed that many Christians these days seem almost indifferent to any serious commitment to their professed faith. The look on some faces when they have the exclusivity of the truths in the Word of God applied to their lives is something that can be quite indescribable. Over the past few generations, almost imperceptibly, the church has fallen asleep. Christians for the most part are at minimum lax and lazy, shallow, anti-intellectual and uncommitted and at worst, licentious, pluralistic and worldly. There is a serious level of disconnect from the Word of God and the expending of any real effort on serious study in it and thinking on it as a key aspect of a conformed life. Most approach the Word of God as if raking leaves, instead of digging for diamonds!
Second, the growing hostility towards biblical Christianity and what it stands for is palpable! Anyone who dares to question or challenge anyone’s right to do whatever they please within the framework of the ever loosening bounds of the law, faces a level of indignation which seems to multiply with each passing year. In years gone by as an example, Christian groups did not have too much difficulty in lobbying for or against issues in society, but in recent years the back-lash to lobbying efforts to uphold traditional values has been increasingly fast and furious.
The combination of a church that is largely indiscernible from the world and a world which increasingly fosters an attitude of overt hostility to the truth is as likely a breeding ground for the conditions which will prevail at “the end of the age” as any. The days when we can worship in safety are surely numbered. There are precious few who are truly passionate and committed to our calling, and we need to be the catalysts for God’s people urgently drawing nearer to Him and to each other in light of these dangers.
In the myriad of things we could turn our eyes to in Scripture as a starting point, Jesus’ words in Matthew 26:41 to the disciples at Gethsemane are as pertinent to us now as they were to the disciplies then. In context, Jesus words were aimed at preparing the disciples for the trials and persecution which would come on them as a result of the crucifixion of Christ, and preparing the early church for the unprecedented persecution of all believers. There can be no doubt though, that Jesus’ words are for us today. As we see the strands of these emerging dangers developing and intertwining, we too need to “watch and pray that we may not enter into temptation.”
We do need to watch the world. In Mark 13:33 , we are told: “Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come.” Being aware of the culture and the trends in the world which will culminate in the “birth pangs” is important. We are never to be fixated on these things, but we are called to be alert, sensitive and discerning about these things. However what is of ultimate importance is that we watch our lives and our doctrine (1 Tim 4:16).
We need to watch our minds. The church has a post-modern love affair with new age spirituality and is forging it’s concepts and ideas into our faith. At times this is quite overt (for example in proponents of the Emergent Church), but in many instances, it is mostly sub-conscious and manifests in a subtle despising of any emphasis on the mind and the exercise of it in the Christian life. Yet we know that the mind is a critical channel through which God designed for us to be sanctified (Psa 119:11; Romans 7:25), because “the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions (2 Tim 4:3).
Finally, we need to be watching our lives. This starts with keeping our minds set on things above and not on things below (Phil 2:3). Sanctification is surely a very slow process, and grieving over and struggling against our sin is painful but it is an assurance of true faith and we should wear it like a badge. We are called to engage in sustained, prayer-saturated warfare over the sin in our lives as we strive to bring our practise into line with our position in Christ. There is a certain tension in our sanctification that we have to humbly submit to, because on one hand God’s power is made perfect in our weakness (2 Cor 12:9), but there is an imperative to offer our bodies (our entire selves) as a living sacrifice as our act of worship (Rom 12:1). Phil 2:12-13 shows the tension between our effort and God’s grace. “Continuing in sin that grace may abound” is not an option! (Romans 6:1)
Using Romans 7:14-25 as a kind of template, our attitude (illustrated here as a verbal affirmation) in light of our indwelling sin should be to say that:
· We love the law (v12: So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good; v22: For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being)
· We hate our sin (v15: For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.)
· We acknowledge our weakness (v: 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?)
· We rejoice over and give thanks for His grace (25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.)
So don’t stop fighting, and repenting, and praying. And remember, “in your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.” (Heb 12:4) The victory is ours! There is “now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Who shall separate us from His love?” (Rom 8;35).
