by Teaching Elder, Gene Cornett
“Worldliness is whatever makes righteousness look strange and sin look normal.”
I read that in a recent article that went on to say:
“Here’s the reality facing every Christian in the West: the money, power, and prestige of the mainstream media, big time sports, big business, big tech, and almost all the institutions of education and entertainment are invested in making sin look normal. Make no mistake: no matter how good your church, no matter how strong your family, no matter how gospel-centered your Christian school or homeschool, if your children and grandchildren are even remotely engaged with contemporary culture (and they are), they are being taught by a thousand memes and messages every week . . .”
That influence can move you, me, and children in our care away from freedom and into spiritual slavery. The only counter are the words from Jesus: “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32) Jesus was following up with some who had believed in him. For them and us, abiding in all the word of God summarizes how we follow him. Without this soaking in scripture, we may be following an idea, but we are not following a person. In this abiding, we will know the truth. This means seeing the world from God’s perspective. We will grow in our insight into how the world actually works. Without this, we will not be able to make the kind of progress that would result in our being set free.
A mentor of mine was once challenged with these words: “You have just enough of the Christian faith to make you miserable.” That challenge awakened him to the reality that he was playing at the Christian faith and this triggered a turnaround that has led to a life of following Jesus faithfully. Many Christians, otherwise deeply engaged in church life, fail to recognize how much they are being taught by the culture around them and how they are imprisoned in ways of thinking. Only abiding in the word of Jesus can set us free.
We may be tempted to react as some of them did then. “What are you talking about that I need to be set free? We live in a free country and I have the freedom to choose my ice cream, my career, and my TV channels like no one ever before?” But as Don Carson says, “True freedom is not the liberty to do anything we please, but the liberty to do what we ought; and it is genuine liberty because doing what we ought now pleases us.” Carson
We will probe this theme together in Sunday’s message on one of my favorite passages in all of the Bible, John 8:31-59. The title is Pursuing Truth and Freedom.