A REASONABLE RESPONSE
“shine as lights in the world”–Phil. 2:15
I was on a roll recently and couldn’t seem to help myself. Every time I clicked on Facebook I saw something that prompted me to hit “like”, “share”, or “comment”. Finally I decided enough is enough and I got off. However, that experience got me to thinking–“What is a reasonable response to what’s going on in the world?
We live in a fallen world and our beloved nation is coming apart at the seams. Everywhere you look there is corruption, conflict and confusion. You can’t get through a day without feeling the need to protest something. We keep checking off places where we shop because they support things we don’t agree with. We refuse to buy certain products, watch certain networks, use certain services, listen to certain people, support certain causes, etc. because of what they promote. It never ends. We could spend our lives reading and commenting about all the bad stuff in the world. Or we could pack our bags and travel from one protest to another, uniting our voices with other disgruntled people. Or we could ———-? What should we do?
I’m not saying we should just ignore all these things and shrug them off like they are unimportant, but I do believe we ought to use some common sense. While we should stand against sin and separate ourselves from the world, we cannot escape being exposed to its corruption. That’s the point Paul was making when he wrote, ” I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.“(1 Cor. 5:9-10)
We trouble ourselves more than we should by expecting, even demanding, godly behavior from ungodly people. We always seem to go to an extreme. Some become like a monk in a monastery isolating themselves from the world. Others just go with the flow or adopt the ways of the world. But,if we are wise we will maintain a proper balance. We should not be indifferent toward sin, but neither should we be obsessed with protesting it. We have something better to do.
The only cure for the ills of the world is Christ. The only hope for the sinner is to be born again. The only message that can bring salvation is the gospel. And the only work deserving our undivided attention and best effort is delivering the gospel to the world. We must not allow ourselves to get distracted from that—regardless of how good the cause that we are promoting or protesting.
If we are to serve God we must not cut ourselves off from people or else we could never reach folks with the gospel. Although we are not of the world we are in it. What we need is contact without conformity. As salt and light we are to affect those around us without being affected by them. Paul said it well in Phil. 2:15-16, “That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.” –HDS
David Stone
Lakeway Baptist Church
5801 FM 1960 E
Humble, TX. 77346
