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Mt. Baker Beacon Archives 2022-2023
Vol. 01, No. 03 Oct 30, 2022
Your word is a lamp to my feet Mount Volume 01, Number 03 Published by Location: Sunday: Web site:
| In this issue: Bible Basics: Causes For Worldliness Worldliness is not a popular subject, but it is a Bible subject nonetheless and must be discussed (1 John 2: f 5-17). Churches are going to the devil because they are either filled or are filling with worldliness. This problem renders helpless and powerless either a Christian or a congregation. It is something that must be fought by every God-fearing person with all the panoply of God. If one is interested in going to heaven, he is interested in the subject. Worldliness might be said to be the arranging of one's life without regard to God. Improper values are reasons for worldliness with some. Outward appearance is the meaningful thing with too many. The seeking of a certain place in life's circle, an academic degree, a particular social standing, etc., have all too often stood between a Christian and Almighty God. Jesus 1 told many, "Ye are they which justify yourselves before men" (Lk. 16:15). The enemies of Paul were asked, "Do ye look on the things after the outward appearance?" (2 Cor. 10:7). Having men approve me does not make Christ accept me (2 Cor. 10:18). Seeking the approval of men might well be the very basis of leaving the Lord and becoming worldly (Gal. 1:10). The Jews of Jesus' day loved the praises of men more than the praises of God (John 9:18-23; 12:42, 43). They wanted to stay in the synagogue! To face the task of telling the truth and being right with God was not of as great value to them as remaining in the right circle of Jews. Some are worldly because they are indifferent. Some in the church in Laodicea really had this problem (Rev. 3:15, 16). "Indifference" is to regard something as of little or no consequence. People like this concerning spiritual and moral issues became such ignorantly or they are just insensitive to what the Bible says. The word of God impresses upon us the need to care about things of this nature - care with urgency. One cannot be godly without knowing that God requires a positive response to duties imposed by the truth. Others are worldly because they are unwilling to pay the price for godly living. Godly living requires subjection and the investment of one's whole life. They want to be popular without consideration for the right standard of conduct (James 4:4). The dividends outweigh the investment (Rom. 8:18). 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 and Marriage "Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness?" (2 Cor. 6:14, NASB) In the margin of the NASB there is a note concerning the words "bound together" which states, "Lit., unequally yoked," and this is how the phrase is translated in the King James Version. This verse does not mean that a person married to an unbeliever is sinning by being married to him. This is clear from what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 7:12-13: "But to the rest I say, not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, let him not send her away. And a woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he consents to live with her, let her not send her husband away." Paul's instructions to the one unequally yoked to an unbeliever are: "Therefore, 'come out from their midst and be separate,' says the Lord" (2 Cor. 7:17) If one is unequally yoked to an unbeliever, one must come out from that yoke and be separate; however a believer yoked to an unbeliever in marriage is to remain in that marriage if the unbeliever is content to allow the marriage to continue. Therefore, being married to an unbeliever is not, in itself the unequal yoke Paul writes about in 2 Corinthians 7:14. However, marriage to an unbeliever can become an unequal yoke. This is what Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 7:15: "Yet if the unbelieving one leaves, let him leave; the brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us to peace." Under certain circumstances a Christian married to an unbeliever must choose not to continue in that marriage. This happens when the marriage is an unequal yoke. I know a young woman who is planning to marry a man who opposes the church of the Lord and has told her that he will not allow her to go to church after they are married. If she marries him she will have entered into a yoke which will require her to do evil in order to stay married. If she marries the man under these circumstances she will be rebelling against God. If after she marries she repents of her sin, and the man will not change his opposition to the Lord, she will have to insist on going to church even if it means he leaves her. Following Christ is more important than keeping a marriage together! In Columbus, Ohio I called on a member of the church who had not attended services in the years she had lived in that city. She explained that she was married to a Roman Catholic. He insisted that the children be reared as Catholics and did not want her to go to church. She explained to me that since it was important for her to obey her husband she was sending the children to a Catholic school and not going to church herself. That woman was doing evil in order to obey her husband even though the apostles said, "We must obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29) What she should have done was to choose to obey God. If her husband would not then allow her to live with him, she should have "let him leave; the brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us to peace" (I Cor. 7:15). Therefore 2 Corinthians 6:14 applies to marriage just as it does to any other relationship. When a Christian is forced to do evil in order to keep any relationship from breaking up that Christian is unequally yoked, and if a Christian is unequally yoked he or she must come out of that relation-ship. If you have to lie in order to keep your job, you must refuse to lie and must let your boss fire you. If your parents command you to do wrong, you must refuse even if they disown you. If your husband demands that you not follow Christ, you must follow Christ even if he divorces you. I knew a woman in Columbus, Ohio who was fired when she refused to give to the Community Chest. I know a young man in South Africa who refused to lie for his boss over the telephone and was fired on the spot. I know a number of young people who have had to leave home because their parents will not let them stay at home unless they worship ancestors. A young girl had to leave her mother because her mother insisted that the girl commit fornication with a certain man. These Christians obeyed God rather than man and came out from unequal yokes. Working for a boss is not an unequal yoke unless it causes you to do wrong in order to keep the job. Having parents does not cause an unequal yoke unless the parents insist that the child does evil. Marriage is not an unequal yoke unless one partner insists that the other disobey God. But when any relationship becomes an unequal yoke, the believer must obey God rather than man even if obeying God destroys a precious relationship. Paul wrote, "the brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us to peace" (1 Cor. 7:15) The woman who obeyed her Roman Catholic husband by sending her children to Catholic schools and staying home from church misunderstood the nature of her bondage to her husband. We are not under bondage to anyone that we should sin. We have never been under such bondage. Even in marriage we are not under bondage to keep the marriage together at the price of sinning against God. But don't read more into what Paul wrote in I Corinthians 7:15 than what he actually wrote. The verse does not say that the believer is free to remarry if the unbeliever departs. The only thing Paul says is that the believer must not feel guilty if, by following the Lord, he or she causes the unbeliever to leave. Paul already told the Corinthians what the divorced person must do. "But to the married I give instructions, not I, but the Lord, that the wife should not leave her husband (but if she does leave, let her remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband should not send his wife away" (1 Cor. 7:10-71). The only time a divorced person has the right to remarry is when the person divorces his or her mate for the cause of fornication (Matt. 19:9). All other divorced persons do not have the right to remarry and must "remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband." How careful we should be, therefore, when we plan to get married. We must understand thoroughly that no matter what happens we must obey God. If this leads to trouble in the marriage, we have no choice. God must come first. Therefore we should be as careful as we can be to marry one who will assist us in obeying God, not to hinder us. It is sinful foolishness to think that love will overcome all obstacles. If you marry an obstinate unbeliever, you are either going to disobey God or be left by the unbeliever. Be as sure as you can. Don't enter into the yoke of marriage if there is the likelihood that it will become an unequal yoke. Contentment is one of the greatest possessions one may have. It is within itself a goal toward which one needs to strive. A truly contented person possesses a balance; the daily pressures and setbacks do not disconcert. One is able to go with the flow of daily activities realizing a Great Hand is directing; therefore, all is well! One can learn contentment! God even commanded His people too be content. ". . . Be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me" (Heb. 13:5-6). An evidence of repentance, John the Baptist taught, was "...be content with your wages" (Lk. 3:14). Paul instructed, "Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy..." (I Tim. 6:17). Trust God, He will never forsake! Fulton J. Sheen, in his book, Way To Happiness, states four basic causes of discontentment. The principle cause is egotism or selfishness, which sets the self up as the primary plant around which everyone else must resolve. The second cause is envy, which makes us regard the possessions and talents of others as if they were stolen from us. The third cause is covetousness, or an inordinate desire to have more, in order to compensate for the emptiness of our heart. The fourth cause of discontentment is jealousy and hatred of those who have what we wish for ourselves. One of the greatest mistakes is to think that contentment comes from something outside us rather than from a quality of the soul. Jesus, in the greatest of all sermons, the Sermon on the Mount, taught that happiness comes from character, and not from things! Anyone can learn that contentment is a human circumstance of life, if the heart is centered in God. Trying to make a discontented person happy is like trying to fill a sieve with water. However much you pour into it,. it runs out too rapidly for you to catch up. Trust in the Lord! Created by Chuck Sibbing, last updated. 11/13/2022 The Mount Baker Beacon is a weekly publication of the Mt. Baker church of Christ, Bellingham, WA. |
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