Loving the World While Loving Christ
At least once a week I have to mow my lawn. The routine features a boring sameness each time. I put on icky clothes and icky shoes. I put in my ear plugs to block the noise, pull the machinery out of the shed, manicure the edge of the sidewalk, trim all the borders with the weed-whacker, and finally run the mower over the main body of the lawn.
Something went wrong, however, with last Saturday’s boring routine. When I started the engine for the sidewalk edger, the sound was not nearly as muffled as it should have been. Something was very wrong. The foam earplugs usually block almost all external sound, but they were not doing so this day.
Proper Plug Usage
With a properly inserted ear plug, the plug completely blocks the opening to the user’s ear. When the plug is used as designed, the user experiences almost total deafness. That’s not what happened last Saturday.
Though the earplugs were in place, I was hearing an abundance of sound. Upon investigating, I discovered that I had properly inserted the plugs, but failed to remove my hearing aids prior to doing so. The foam expanded right around the sound tube that injects sound into my ears. The hearing aids had done an end-run around my foam plugs.
The 90% Believer
For the ear plugs to work my ear canal had to be fully dedicated to their placement. There could be room in the canal for nothing else. As it was, I had competing interests where sound blockage was concerned. One interest was blocking all sound from the ear. The competing interest was in supplying all sound to the ear.
No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.
– Matthew 6:24, ESV
The statement of Jesus above was made in the context of serving money, but the truth of what he said goes well beyond that. We simply cannot serve two masters. We cannot drive north and south at the same time.
When I was less than a year old as a Christ-follower, a friend who knew of the dramatic change in my life remarked to me, “I think I’m about ninety-percent Christian.” Even being as young as I was in my new faith I knew what this meant. I looked directly at him and said, “Then, Rick, you’re not a Christian.” That was not the answer he expected to hear.
Consider what Jesus says here.
Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. In the same way, any one of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.
– Luke 14:28-33, NIV-1983
Understand, that in saying such a person “cannot” be his disciple, Jesus is not laying down a prohibition, but rather making a statement regarding that person’s abilities. Jesus is not saying he forbids this person being his disciple. The literal reading of his statement says that they do not have the “power” to be his follower. They do not possess the tools necessary to complete the task, one of which is the giving up of everything, including (especially) one’s self.
My 90% friend was not “all-in.” He was holding a 10% reserve. Yet, Jesus says, “He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters.”1 The apostle Paul emphasized this to the church in Corinth, saying, we cannot partake of the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. We cannot participate in the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Choose your team and be entirely devoted to one or the other.2
Jesus describes this approach to one’s faith as a kingdom divided against itself.
Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall.
– Luke 11:17b, NASB
Do not discount the impact of what Jesus is saying here. Any faith built atop a divided loyalty will fail. It is not just that such a person has diverse interests. The faith is “divided against itself.” It is almost like a split-personality and the personalities are destructive to one another.
It’s a Matter of Love
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. – 1 John 2:15-16, ESV
Again, do not miss the blunt statement, “love for the Father is not in them.” It is not that love for the Father is less potent, or present alongside other loves. It is not there. The husband who steps out on his marriage and yet affirms his “love” for his wife is lying! If he loved her, he would never have done what he did.
So it is with God. I am fully devoted to him or I am a spiritual adulterer. Jesus said to Satan, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and serve Him only.'”3 We do not put our hand to the plow of godly service, and then look lovingly and longingly backward at the bondage from which we have been set free. “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you,” James says. “Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”4
The World System
The world system is a humanistic system that stands in opposition to God. Love of this system is hatred toward God.4 Jesus called us out of that world system.
If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
– John 5:19, ESV
A good barometer of the extent of our alignment with the world system and values is the extent to which the world despises us. The world system applauds sin and presses upon us to self-indulge. Advertisers feed on this tendency, building dissatisfaction with our lives so we will self-indulge even further to resolve our inner void through an appeal to the lust of the eye, lust of the flesh, and pride of life.5
My foam ear plugs used in combination with my hearing aids would never have worked. Loving the world system with its treasures, ideologies, and values system while trying to love Christ will never work.
Let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. – Isaiah 55:7, ESV
1. Matthew 12:30, NASB
2. 1 Corinthians 10:21
3. Matthew 4:10b, NASB
4. Luke 16:31
5. 1 John 2:16
