Flirting with the World
0 comments | Posted by Steven Layson on 29 Aug 2009 in From Steve's Study ::
“Cohabitation they call it. Living together. No, they’re not married. As a matter of fact she is engaged so someone else – and is rather smugly vain about the fact.
Hard to understand, isn’t it? You’d think she’d be more discreet. I mean it looks bad. I don’t know what she sees in him (her boyfriend, not her fiancé) and I’m certain he doesn’t respect her. He merely tolerates and uses her.
They say her fiancé is not only hurt by enraged. He writes letters to her – pleading and furious letters – though it seems he still plans to go ahead with the wedding. I wouldn’t have blamed him if he’d dropped her.”
John White, in his 1980’s book “Flirting with the World”, starts his introduction this way as a allegory of the way the church today treats God. Though we are “engaged” to him, we so easily allow the world to tempt us and lead us astray. His book is a challenging read, but in the end it is no less so than our passages for today.
In both 1 Thess 4:1-12 & Eph 4:17-5:21 (Snap), Paul challenges his readers to turn their backs on the world. When we became Christians, we repented of our sin and turned to follow Jesus. Yet, on the way we are continually tempted to return to our old way of life.
There are, of course attitudes and behaviours we are to do away with, but there are, just as significantly many positive qualities that we should seek to build up in our lives. How are you going living with “holiness”, “brotherly love”, and “living lives worthy of respect” (1 Thess 4); or “truthfulness”, “encouragement”, “kindness”, “compassion” & “forgiveness” (Eph 4,5)?
As Christians, we must stop “flirting with the world” and start living to please our Saviour and Lord.
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