Good
Monday morning (8-23-10),
If you’re like most people, looking back in time at
old photos or videos is fascinating. After you read this letter, here’s a link to a 7 minute video I
recently found of San Francisco a few days before the great earthquake and fire
which leveled this city in 1906.
As I watched the daily bustle of San Francisco in
1906, I was mesmerized while trying to imagine what was going on in the heads
of those people who lived over a hundred years ago, as they hurried around,
doing the same kinds of daily business we all do every day, trying to make ends
meet. What kinds of temptations and struggles did those earlier Christians face
in that society?
When I read the New Testament, I also try and
imagine what kind of trials and temptations those early Christians must have faced
in their daily lives. I know that persecution (make that giving their lives) was
widespread. But also, when I read scriptures such as Revelation, chapters 2 and
3, I see where Jesus addressed certain churches about rampant immorality which
was being allowed and encouraged by false prophets and teachers of the day.
I often wonder how pervasive those teaching were and
what exactly was being taught. Those scriptures provide scanty details,
referring to doctrines such as those of the Nicolaitanes
and the immoralities of false prophets such as one Jezebel. This I know for
sure, it is a fact that those early Christians were negatively influenced by
society and its false teachers, and Jesus warned those churches to be on guard
and oppose such things.
Christians are in the world, but Christians are not
to be of (like) the world.
Since Adam, God has dealt with every generation
about right and wrong; there are still rights and wrongs, even this side of the
cross. Jesus makes this point as He strongly rebuked the Church of Pergamos. Almost 2000 years ago, some in that city’s Christian
community taught and held to doctrines which allowed that a Christian could
both live as the world does and still be pleasing in God’s sight. The
Revelation of Jesus Christ, Chapter 2:14
That term, “Living like the world,” is quickly losing
its meaning, apparently meaning almost nothing to so many of today’s contemporary
people. Back in the day, the term “Living like the world,” was understood to point
to 1st John 2:15-16, “Love not the world, neither the things that
are in the world. If any man love the world, the love
of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the
flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father,
but is of the world.”
According to John, being worldly means to love what
excites the flesh, the eyes, and that which inflates the sinful ego of fallen
man, his pride.
Every congregation, from every age, has had to
establish among themselves what was or was not worldly, or in other words, what
was allowable or unallowable behavior. This is also called morality, which is
defined as a system of morals and principles of conduct.
Apparently, the Church of Corinth was establishing a
system of morality which could give allowance for the likes of a certain young
man who was fornicating with his dad’s wife, and at the same time, remain a
member of good standing within the church. That church had turned a blind eye away
from his sin. That is until the Apostle Paul rebuked them, commanding immediate
action to be taken, that sin was to be immediately removed from their midst.
Their tolerance for that young man’s actions was completely out of line with
God’s order for His Church.
I’ve thought a lot about what threshold must have
been crossed in order for Paul to demand such immediate and harsh action to be
taken. Surely others in that church dealt with sexual impurities; their minds were
surely under constant assault in that promiscuous society.
Yet, though they all sinned, Paul understood that certain
sins could not be flaunted, otherwise the very fabric of His Church would be
compromised. As Jesus put it, the Church would, “Loose its saltiness, and be good
for nothing but to be thrown out and trodden under the feet of men.” Jesus too identified
with this truth as He so resolutely rebuked the worldliness found within some
of His seven churches found in Asia Minor.
Christianity still wrestles, and always will
wrestle, with how to be in the world as a witness but not of the world as a
hypocrite.
As I watched those people who were then alive in
1906, I wondered, “What would go through those Christians’ minds if somehow
they could watch a video of modern America.”
Just as I gawked at their extraordinary modesty of
dress, no doubt they would blush in astonishment as their Christian cousins gave
no thought in liberally displaying their new-found modern freedoms of
expression. I guarantee the learned among them would feel assured they were seeing
a vision of the last days, remembering Paul’s predictions in 1st
Timothy 4:1.
Times are changing, and they always will change.
However, the Christian, modern in understanding, must not be modern in
promiscuity, allowing themselves to be drawn away from
the ancient commandments of God to be in the world, but not of it.
Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and
forever.
Time is concluding. Jesus will soon return. We are
all well advised to recall the inspired words of Apostle Peter, who a long time
ago instructed us to beware of modern false teachers who will arise, who follow
the ways of Balaam. They speak beautifully, and brilliantly inspire Christians to
be confident as they live just like the world does, telling them that God is actually
always pleased with them, no matter how they live. They promise liberty, but
they are actually servants of sin, entangled and overcome, whose latter end is worse
with them than the beginning.
For it had been better for them to have not known
the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy
commandment delivered to them. But it is happened to them according to the true
proverb, “The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed
to her wallowing in the mire.” 1st Peter 2
Wayne
Witcher.