Hammer on Anvil '

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If you love the world, the love of the Father is not in you. These are the ways of the world: wanting to please our sinful selves, wanting the sinful things we see, and being too proud of what we have. None of these come from the Father, but all of them come from the world (John 2:15,16, NCV). 

This Scripture seems to mess with people's minds sometimes. In fact, when I first got saved, I went to a church whose members thought that if they associated with anyone who was not from THEIR church, they were "loving the world." I didn't stick around there for long.

Apparently this uber-legalistic independent church chose to be entrenched in Scriptures they conveniently removed from context to suit their personal prejudices, while ignoring example after example of how our Lord deliberately SOUGHT OUT messy situations and placed himself smack dab in the middle of them. Remember the Pharisee in Luke 7 who got huffy when Jesus allowed "a sinful woman" to wet His feet with her tears and dry them with her hair? And when He dined at Matthew's house after calling him to be a disciple, the Pharisees got bent out of shape and asked the disciples, "Why does your Master eat with tax collectors and sinners?" (Matthew 9:11). Jesus' response cut like a knife to the core of their problem: "But go
and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." 

Mike Yaconelli, in his book Messy Spirituality, astutely points out that "what drove Jesus' enemies crazy were His criticisms of the 'perfect' religious people and His acceptance of the imperfect nonreligious people." It is still true today. The majority of us prefer the neat and tidy, "act like you've got it all together" spirituality to "messy spirituality." Why? Because, as Yaconelli says, "When you and I stop pretending, we expose the pretending of everyone else. The bubble of the perfect Christian life is burst, and we must all face the reality of our brokenness."

Ouch. How true! It is very hard to be open and real with people who always put on a facade of having it all together. With people who readily admit their brokenness, however, you feel like you can tell them your whole life story and they won't run away in horror.

"Love not the world" is not an excuse to avoid being around sinful, messy people. As the rest of the passage indicates, it is about US and our selfishness and greed. Wanting to please ourselves, lusting after material wealth, and being boastful and prideful about our possessions -- these are the things Jesus warns about. Instead, we are to prefer one another in love (Philippians 2:3) and bear one another's burdens (Galatians 6:2).

I don't know that I ever claimed John 2:15 as an excuse to not be around "messy" people, but I have avoided them nonetheless. I have harshly judged those who didn't seem to have their lives as together as I did. I have avoided homeless people and judged them for their lack of initiative. Not very Christ-like, I know.

If you can fess up to behaving as I have in the past, I challenge you this week to ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart. Are you perhaps missing an opportunity to share Jesus with someone because you don't want to be seen in their "neck of the woods"? A friend of mine is becoming involved in a ministry in which she and other women will be going into strip joints so they can love on the women who work there. What sort of opportunity would she have if she said "Ewww!" to herself and refused to become involved?

If we profess to follow Jesus, we must be willing to roll up our sleeves and get dirty as He did. Let these words of Paul spur you on to more effective ministry:

I have become all things to all people, so that by all possible means I might save some.