It’s Called “The World” For A Reason!

By Joe Slater       This past January 28 marked 45 years that I have been blessed to proclaim the unsearchable riches of Christ full time. If you had told me 45 years ago that in America today we would have not only same-sex “marriage” but public schools being forced to permit biological males to use the girls’ restrooms and locker rooms, I would have thought you were an over-the-top alarmist. I look back now, however, and ask myself, “Why are you surprised?”     I understand the consternation my brethren express as we watch our country sink deeper and deeper into the moral cesspool. But again, why are we surprised? Less than 40 years after the church began Paul warned Timothy that “evil men and imposters will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived”(2 Timothy 3:13). Don’t we know better than to think that applied only in the first century A.D.? John told his readers, “We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one” (1 John 5:19).     It’s called “the world” for a reason! “World” refers not to a ball of rock, water, etc., but to everyone and everything opposed to God. We err when we expect the world to behave like Christians should! God has called us to be genuinely counter culture by living and teaching so as to display a stark contrast to the world’s darkness.     We ought to be alarmed when those wearing the name of Christ adopt the standards of the world. A few years ago, a major university associated with churches of Christ deliberately (though unsuccessfully) attempted to bring two “chaplains” on board from an openly LGBTQ+ church in the DFW area. More recently a church of Christ (?) in Connecticut identified itself as fully LGBTQ+ inclusive.     Here is something you may have seen on social media: “Jesus ate with sinners, not because He wanted to appear inclusive, tolerant, and accepting, but to call them to a changed and fruitful life. Jesus calls for transformation of life, not for affirmation of identity.” Amen and Amen!

- Joe Slater serves as minister of the Church of Christ in Justin, TX. He may be contacted through the congregation's website: http://justinchurchofchrist.com