October 1 - Love Not The World - Part 1

        Romans 12:2 - "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing, and perfect will."

        1 John 2:12 - "Do not love the world or anything in the world...."

        The "world" in biblical language is synonymous with "the nations" in the Old Testament. It is analogous of the peoples who were not God's chosen nation. Under the New Covenant, that would be pagans, unbelievers, those who have not been "born again", those who are not in God's family.

        Conforming to a pattern means fitting into the mold, doing exactly as expected. Paul commands us in Romans to no longer slide so easily into that pattern of the world - how they act, think, and react. He then commands us to change. How? By changing the way we think. That change can only come when we start soaking in God's word. That probably means spending less time watching frivolous movies, less time listening to unproductive lyrical music, and less wasted time on the Internet. Do we want to know and walk in God's pleasing and perfect will? Then we need to find out what it is - purposefully. 

       Shortly after becoming a Christian at age 14, I sensed the Holy Spirit calling me to quit listening to the world's music. Two years prior, I had been turned on to current pop music on the radio, because the music sounded really cool. I learned to sing right along with the recorded vocalist, because I was passionate about the songs. When I learned that there were Christians performing music using genres that I liked, and using themes that brought glory to God and his ways, there was no longer any reason to listen to what the world produced. Now, after many years of finding what God's general will for living is, I can pick and choose some of the world's music that sounds good, because those filtered songs have lyrics that are spiritually insightful, have a nugget of truth, and/or are neutral enough, that one could fit them into a biblical worldview. The rest of the world's lyrical music (99%) still gets purposefully ignored.

 

        1 Peter 2:9-11 calls us "a chosen people, a holy nation, a people belonging to God....aliens and strangers in the world, abstain[ing] from sinful desires". As Jesus said, since we are not "of the world, but still in it", we should not act like it. As we grow into that transformation, we will learn how to test what is God's good will for us, a will that is seeking to lead us into beneficial things, not just things that we think will make us feel good. So, let us make every effort to be in a constant state of transformation, seeking to please God.