Against The World

1 Tim. 6:10 "For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows."

We live in a global culture of money. All revolves around money. While we must work to support ourselves and we must make money in order to sustain ourselves, we have gone much too far. We have placed God on the back burner so that we may further careers. We have traded in mediocrity for the pursuit of riches. "Two things I request of you, deprive me not before I die: Remove falsehood and lies far from me; Give me neither poverty nor riches, feed me with the food allotted to me, lest I be full and deny You and say, "who is the Lord?" Or lest I be poor and steal, and profane the name of my God." (Proverbs 30:7-9)

 What happened to this mentality? Now everything is for money. Nobody goes to school to learn, we go to school to make more money. All is money, how foolish is that? Especially for us Christians, our home is not here. Life is not eternity so why do we make ourselves comfortable? Death is a reality and when we leave this world, we leave it forever. Would it not be wise to invest in our salvation as opposed to our retirement? "And be not conformed to this world: but ye be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."

We have conformed to this world, atleast the majority of us. The early church had many defenders of the faith, St. Hippolytus, St. Polycarp, St. Cyprian, St. Athanasius, St. Cyril, St. Basil, St. Gregory, and of course St. John Chrysostom. All of these men had either writings against heresies, many of these heresies threatened the church, but did usually not stem from the church. Almost every one of these had atleast one work entitled "Against..." something. They were outspoken, despite what that might result in. In our current time, we have very few of these people. The majority conformed to the politically correct, "we all worship the same God" garbage. We sold our souls out of fear, for money, for vanity, for comfort, or because we are just plain lazy.

The Christian should be content with mediocrity and should not indulge in this worldly ideology. Indulging in these fantasies only serves as a distraction for the practicing Christian, and will ultimately ruin them. If you who are reading reply, "But I can have money AND God" or "There is nothing wrong with striving for money AND God." To which I will reply with the words of Christ: "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." (Mt 6:24) Either you serve God, or you server money. Either you strive for God, or you strive for money, which do you do?

"Take no thought for your life, what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor yet for your body, what you shall put on. If not the life more than meat, and the body than clothing? Behold the birds of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather food into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you better than them? Which of you by worry can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take you thought for clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like on of these." (Mt. 16:25-28)

I think it is very clear by what Christ said in those verses that our global society is an exact opposite of what He said NOT to be and NOT to do. We take pride in our clothes. We are in constant worry of what we might eat or wear. We feel as if we are in control and because we do not place God above us, we place ourselves in the drivers seat. The human is not capable controlling their own life, of taking all the responsibility upon themselves. If taking control does not break them mentally or physically, it will break them morally and spiritually. Christ commands us not to worry, and thats all we seem to do. Worry about money, worry about food, bills, clothing, etc. We are so quick to point out someone breaking a commandment, and we are blind to our own transgressions. What a shameful bunch we have become. Millions upon millions of our Christian brothers and sisters have died defending the faith, died in defiance of this world. Only for us to conform to it and accept it.

"Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever." (1 John 2:15-17) We must pose this question to ourselves, do we love the world? If you have thus far agreed with what I have said, then it is clear we have a serious problem. Obviously those striving for money love the world, those striving for fame love the world, obviously. When you say you are a Christian, what does that mean? Have we conformed to this world so we can have the best of both worlds? Those who build their paradise in this world, are those who make their bed in hell. There can be no compromise with this world and the next, it is one or the other. Live for this life, or live for the next.

Question your intentions. Question your motives. Question who you serve.