Jesus Adjusted Our Attitude Towards the World

What Did Jesus Do?

We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.
1 John 5:19

It is a shame that so much of the Church has ignored most of what Jesus said and did, while embracing his rebuke of Peter at Caesarea Philippi (Matthew 16:23). Too many Christians, both individually and corporately in many congregations, are so determined to be heavenly minded that they are of no earthly good to anyone. Forgetting that Jesus came to save, and not to condemn, the world, a lot of folks who claim to follow Jesus imagine they do so by hating and shunning the world. But how can condemning, hating, and shunning ever be the way to follow a Savior who came to love and to redeem? They can’t. The truth is, we cannot follow Christ if our attitude towards the world is 180 degrees opposite of his. Remember, the Father sent the Son because of his great love for the world (John 3:16). So Jesus adjusted our attitude towards the world, in order that we may indeed follow him.

Our problem is, without Jesus, without being born again, we are not of God. And, if we are not of God, we can only be one thing, in the power of the evil one. Yet, John could say to his little children in the First Century, and to the Church in the Twenty-first Century, “We know that we are OF God.” How can we know? When we have a new attitude toward the world.

When we are not of God our attitude toward the world is love of the world, and the things of the world. Apart from God, the way of the world is selfish, slavish, short-sighted—in sum, rebellious and sinful. The way of the world is to pursue pleasure and self-satisfaction; to strive, to seize, to do whatever it takes to have more of the world for ourselves, though, no matter how much of the world we ever experience or own, it is never enough. This is the trap Satan has set for all of us. The more we have of the world, the more we want of the world, even as more of the world ultimately leaves us more and more enslaved to the world, which, apart from Christ, is under the devil’s power.

But when Jesus adjusts our attitude toward the world, our love of the world becomes love for the world. Love for others supplants love of self. Giving to takes the place of taking from. Love for sacrifices, where love of once seized. Love for goes into the world as the Lord commands (Matthew 28:19), it does not turn sanctuaries into safe houses from which to watch the world and the lost as they perish without Jesus.

Knowing that he was from God, Jesus manifested the Father’s love for the world. Knowing that we are from God, we are, in and through the Son who adjusts our attitude toward the world, to also manifest our heavenly Father’s love for the world, by being salt and light in the world and for the world.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4