WHEN THE WORLD GOES MAD
A lot of people are saying out loud that this must be the end, Jesus must return. Whether or not it is true, Christians are called to live in readiness. We must be sober minded. Times like this means that so many elements of our lives seem to be threatened. Our health is threatened by a plague called COVID-19. Our wealth is threatened by a declining economy. Our lifestyles are threatened by isolation. Our politics is threatened, our safety is threatened by crime, our confidence is threatened by saber rattling from other countries. There is no reliability found in these elements of our world.
What do we do? We focus on that which never changes and which is brimming with wonderful promise. We focus on Jesus. This is what it means to be sober minded and what it means to live in readiness. This should be the lifestyle of the Christian. Our threat is ultimately a spiritual one. We have become more concerned about those elements in the previous paragraph than pleasing God. We are more concerned about what the world thinks and we compromise the Gospel to make it more palatable and easy to swallow. We effectively make the Gospel meaningless. A lost person can go to a rock concert and a psychologist and get the same results.
It’s time for us to refocus on the biblical Gospel. We are all sinners who are offensive to God the penalty of our sin must be paid. We cannot earn our salvation, the poison of sin cannot be cured by our efforts. God himself amazingly still loves us. God became a man and died as our substitute and paid the price of our sin. Jesus rose from the dead guaranteeing that death does not have the last say. So now those who place their trust in Christ are saved, transformed into being a child of God, and given an unbreakable promise of ever lasting life.
Our current crisis should serve as a call to the church. There is nothing wrong with praying for health or for earning enough to feed our families. But all that we do must first pass through our commitment to Christ or it all risks becoming an idol. Justice, peace, forgiveness, joy, and satisfaction of life comes through Christ. Jesus reconciled us to God and to each other. Christ strengthens us to resist sin. Following Christ relieves us of envy and pride.
It’s time for God’s people to refocus on Jesus and be the Church in our very dark world.
