Yeah, we talked about this today in Sunday school. It is a hard teaching to hear and an even harder one to deliver. The consequence, i.e., that we rarely hear about it, is tragic. But here it is:
Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God - from James 4.4 (NIV)
Earlier in his letter, James tells us that God wants us "to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." (1.27)
Reading verses like this makes the monastic movement easier to understand. And yet I don't believe withdrawing from the world completely is necessarily a good thing either. God so loved the world that he gave his only son, and in John 17 Jesus prays for us, not that God would take us out of the world, but that we would be protected from the evil one (17.14).
I told Sheri (15) about this as we were driving, and she asked me what that meant. What we heard in class is that we need to re-order our loves. Is it OK to enjoy doing a good job? To enjoy having a good job? To enjoy making a good living?
Probably, but these should come after loving what God loves.
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