Worldly Ways and Worldly Thinking (continued)
This is such a vital topic for followers of Jesus in today’s world. The truth of the matter is it’s likely always been something that Christians have had to wrestle with.
Worldly ways and worldly thinking are insidious. They often come to us disguised as “angels of light.” That is, they promise things which in and of themselves aren’t wrong and may even appear as God’s blessings, even God’s will for our lives. But in reality, they are snares that entrap us and, in time, lead us further and further away from God’s plans.
One of the earliest and greatest debates in the church was the status of Gentile believers. The apostle Paul regarded these Gentile followers of Jesus as full members of God’s family, spiritual children of Abraham with the same status, rights, and privileges of Jewish believers. But many Jewish followers of Messiah insisted that these Gentiles needed to become Jewish. That is, they needed to adopt the culture and ways of Jews as outlined in scripture.
Paul himself was accused of being a “people pleaser” for not teaching and demanding what these Jewish Christians believed was God’s Word.
But as we look back on this turbulent time in the early church, we see what I wrote about in my last post as the early Christians “tested” God’s will. Acts 15 describes what has come to be called “The Jerusalem Council.” The leaders of the church met to debate and discern God’s will concerning the status and biblical requirement for Gentiles to be considered full-fledged members of God’s family like their Jewish brothers and sisters. After much debate, it was decided that Gentiles did not need to adopt Jewish culture and practices.
What if the Jerusalem Council affirmed the teaching of those demanding that Gentiles become like Jews? Today’s church would like very different!
Back to what I said about the insidious nature of worldly ways and worldly thinking. Looking back, we see how wrong imposing Jewish culture on Gentiles was. But if we put ourselves in the place of those Jews insisting on this, it’s easy to see that from their perspective as “conservative, Torah-believing (Bible-believing) Christians, they were following God.
Yes, I know. I’ve chosen one of the thorniest of issues to demonstrate how easy it is to be caught up in ways and thinking contrary to God’s kingdom. But that’s my point. God calls us to “test” His will. Testing demands diligence, commitment, and a prayerful and thoughtful life of discipleship.
In many ways, that’s what “Church on the Edge” is all about. It’s so easy to set our Christian lives on cruise control, never stopping to really consider God’s radical calling and kingdom established through the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ.
God’s ways are contrary to the ways of this world, and to stay in step with His calling and kingdom, we must learn to see things from His perspective.
When Jesus calls us to “repent (literally, “change your way of thinking) for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” he is calling us to a lifetime of discipleship that leads to a growing awareness of God and ourselves as his children, his family on earth.
As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:9)
In Christ,
Dan
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