Undistracted Devotion: The World System (Part 4 of 5)

 


If you're new to the blog and/or this series, Undistracted Devotion, I recommend you begin with the series introduction by going HERE. This will help frame the context of the material to come and set the foundation for moving forward with the intended background thoughts and scriptures in mind.

For this installment in the series, we're looking at one of the most impactful ways we can easily lose sight of Christ and become distracted and divided in our devotion to Him and that is the "World System". There is a lot that is encompassed by that term, so the purpose of today's writing is to provide food for thought and have us consider some very specific scriptures and their application to our living for Christ in the middle of fallen human civilization. The world system is essentially all that influences us, directs us, governs us, motivates us, and that which has our attention, that has its genesis in and allegiance to man's design. Think about things like politics, nationalism, and globalism. 

Let's begin with some scriptures, and the emphasized portions are to help us not gloss over some very key portions of the text. 

1)   Romans 13:1-7 “Every person is to be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; for it is a servant of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a servant of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. Pay to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; respect to whom respect; honor to whom honor. 

2)   1 Peter 2:13-17 “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. For such is the will of God, that by doing right you silence the ignorance of foolish people. Act as free people, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bond servants of God. Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.” 

1)   Titus 3:1-3 “Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed, to slander no one, not to be contentious, to be gentle, showing every consideration for all people. For we too were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.”

2)   1 Timothy 2:1-2 “First of all, then, I urge that requests, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving be made on behalf of all people, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.”

3)   Philippians 3:18-20A “For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even as weep, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who have their minds on earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven…

Every day, it seems there is more and more national and global upheaval, social conflict, and division between people and authority. This tension is manifested in contentious discourse at best and outright physical harm to others at worst. And the sad picture being seen by many is that a large number of people who claim to have a relationship with Jesus Christ act more like a follower of the great deceiver than they do the one who died and rose again to offer restoration and peace to humanity. It seems that as a Christian culture in general, we've lost sight of our first love (Revelation 2:2-4) and are now just as entrenched and ensnared by worldly things and concerns as we were before our salvation experience with Christ. Salvation is not just the offer of forgiveness of sins and restoration to the Father, it's a declarative statement to the principalities and powers (Ephesians 6:12) that we are severing our allegiance to the things of this world and that now we only serve the kingdom of God. Or at least that's what it's supposed to be. We spend a tremendous amount of time arguing in anger with and working to almost force the unsaved around us to act like we thing they should. We even argue amongst professed believers about why our particular worldly activity is the "right" way of representing Jesus. I fear we've gotten so busy trying to make the world what we think it should be that we've lost sight that what scripture actually calls us to is living together as God's people/kingdom community so that what is seen by those outside of a relationship with Christ is how it looks to be under the reign and rule of God. For the most part, we can't attract people to the Lord because we're too busy trying to force Him on everyone else.  

John Nugent, author and Old Testament Professor, writes in his book Forgotten Gospel: How Fixing the World is Killing the Church the following statements: 

"Paul, John, Peter, and others routinely encourage churches to love one another, take care of one another, forgive one another, be unified with one another, and serve one another. By way of contrast, these authors say very little about how believers ought to treat unbelievers. They clearly expect believers to proclaim the gospel to all people, but they also insist that we remain separate from unbelievers and respectful of worldly powers. Scripture is strikingly silent as to how God’s people ought to help out needy unbelievers, improve living conditions for all people in our towns and cities, and speak prophetically to unbelieving institutions that are abusing their power on loan from God. Though Jesus reminded Pilate that his power came from God, he never gave him tips about how to rule better. Though Paul invoked Roman citizenship to escape illegal and harsh treatment, he never used his status to influence Roman culture or government. He only used it to serve his mission of proclaiming the gospel and strengthening believers in Rome…The early church did not feel responsible for the condition and direction of wider society. But they felt deeply responsible for one another and for fellow believers throughout the world….We must reckon with the fact that Jesus never tells his followers to roll up their sleeves, enter the fray of broken pagan societies, denounce their wrongful ways, and help them get on the right track with the gospel message they received from him. Nor do the apostolic letters ever reprimand the earliest believers for not taking more initiative to clean up Roman streets, protest unjust laws, or launch social programs that ease the financial burden of the poorest members of society. Though it may seem embarrassing, Jesus, Paul, Peter, James, Jude, and John paid little attention to making the wider world a better place….If we’re not careful, we may gain the world and lose the church—and then, ultimately, we’ll lose the world, too. When Christians begin substituting activism for discipleship, it’s not the world that becomes endangered, but the gospel. 

If we want to see Heaven’s reality come to bear in the world, it first must be manifested and lived out in God’s kingdom community which we call the church. It has to be Jesus Christ doing the work through His body, He has to have first place! And as we give him more and more territory in our hearts then He will continue to shape us and fit us together as we are built into a visible expression of Himself. When we think about some of the biggest, most high profile social and worldly cultural issues facing humanity today such as racism, income inequality, sanctity of life, God’s design for marriage, truth, civility, respect, etc. we as believers must remember that we can’t change people’s hearts but the Holy Spirit can. He starts this process in each believer at salvation when the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within in. He continues this process as he builds us together into his body; and it's in this building together that we should see these worldly separations disappear among God's people. As we learn to live in relationship with one another under the headship and authority of Christ, the only identity we will claim will be that as citizens of Heaven. It won't matter what nationality, race, culture, economic class, or heritage we were born and raised in. All that will matter will be who we are as new creations in and through Christ. Right?! The old has gone and the new has come (2. Corinthians 5:17). This means that ALL that was associated with the old self is dead. Dead and gone and no longer who or what we are. We no longer hold allegiances to any to that which held us in its grasp before Jesus set us free and transformed us from citizens of the world into citizens of Heaven. Unfortunately, the fallen world system tries to draw our attention elsewhere. It wants us to be beholden to kingdom of darkness mentalities that create division and strife and far too often this makes its way into God's kingdom community with the end results being that many who profess the name of Christ speak and act like their identity and allegiance still belongs to the world. 

I like how author Frank Viola describes how the kingdom life stands in stark contrast to much of the activity we see in mainstream "Christianity" today and how it conducts itself in worldly dealings. In his book From Eternity to Here, he writes "Appropriately functioning, the church is the foretaste, the initial incarnation, of the kingdom of God in the midst of an evil world. The kingdom doesn't set out to destroy human authority in this age (John 18:36). Instead, it destroys the powers and principalities in the spiritual realm through God's authority. The kingdom doesn't seek to change the political order of things by fleshly effort. It rather makes changes in the spiritual order that affect the lives of men and women at a deeper current. As citizens of the kingdom, our allegiance is not to the political parties of this earth, but to the politics of Jesus. For He alone is our Lord and our King. Therefore, the kingdom works quietly and secretly among men and women (Matt. 4:26-28). It's not a religious, political, or military power that cannot be resisted. It abhors violence, hatred, and injustice." Just let that settle for a bit. 

Questions to consider:

In our zeal for serving Jesus, have we unintentionally pushed Him to the margins of our activities so that what we do comes out of our own desires and not out of the overflow of His life in us?

In our desire to be "right", have we let our pride rise up and thereby lost the Christlike humility we are called to demonstrate daily? 

In trying to create change, have we become distracted from our focused devotion to Christ and ultimately divided our interest so that what we're pursing looks just like what the unsaved are chasing after?

We have one more installment to go in this series. I hope you'll come back and check it out!

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