Not of the World
"Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth." Colossians 3:2
There has one object been disclosed on earth
That might commend the place; but not 'tis gone --
Jesus is with the Father.
(pp. 109-112, Footprints for Pilgrims)
The world ... to us is nothing now but the empty tomb of Jesus.
What a difference ... between giving up the world and the world giving us up ! We may do the one with comparative ease, but when we feel the world despise us as Christ was despised, we shall discover, unless He fills and satisfies the heart, that we had a value for its esteem that we were not aware of.
Whoever is keeping on terms with the world is not walking with God; for God is not walking with you there.
You ... listen to Satan every day of your lives that you seek a very little bit of the world.
When the world creeps in ... we show that a rejected Christ has little power in our eyes.
If the film of this world has been drawn over our spiritual vision, hiding Christ from us, He alone can remove it.
(Luke 6:20-26) "Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you," etc. If you can make yourselves happy and comfortable in this world which has rejected Jesus, count not on His blessing.
When there is a deep sense of what is to be lost and saved, the world is a light matter, but when the pressure on the conscience is removed too often nature resumes a sort of place, and then Christ is not all and everything to the saint.
It is not a question of whether a thing be right or wrong, but what savour have the things of Christ in it ? It may be a very small thing. If we find the reading of a book makes the manifestation of Christ to become less precious to us, we have got away from God, and we cannot tell where the next step may take us. Satan often cheats us in this way ... If anything comes in and takes the freshness of Christ from your soul, take heed !
(Luke 12:45) Christendom apostatises by putting off in heart the Lord's coming. The great stay of heavenly-mindedness is lost thereby, and our peculiar calling and hope. To expect the Lord detaches from the world.
Nature would say of Moses, Why not stay in Pharoah's court, that the people may be converted, instead of leaving it ? Flesh cannot understand what faith leads to.
"Take heed, and beware of coveteousness." If love of the world or coveteousness ... slips into the heart it checks the power of Christ over the soul and conscience, and eats out the practical life of the Christian, and his soul is withered, withered, withered, ... This coveteous care about earthly things is so subtle that while there is nothing on which to lay the hand, the practical power of Christian life in the soul is gone.
Worldly religion, and religious worldliness, is the pest of this day, and ... will never stand in the day which shall try all things.
--- J.N.D.
