THE WAY OF THE WORLD
There is a striking contrast between the way of the world and the way of Christ espoused by his followers. Paul summarizes this in Philippians,
For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ—(Philippians 3:18-20)
First, the world lives as an enemy of the cross of Christ. To be a friend of the cross of Christ, man needs to acknowledge that he is a sinner who has come short of the requirements God places on man. This involves a breaking of one’s pride and coming to recognize that there is no human solution to the question of being saved but that offered by Jesus on the cross. And when man accepts the death of Jesus as a sacrifice for his sins, taking a decision to live a new life of obedience and commitment to God, the cross becomes his greatest friend.
When this is done, he sets himself on a course to eternal life. His destiny no longer is destruction of his soul, but one of looking forward with gladness and confidence of being with God forever. Death comes to one and all. But for the hope that one has from Christ, death is the end of all things and the future of man becomes as bleak as can be.
The way of the world is also one of the ‘stomach being the god’. This refers to the common human existence of living to please one’s desires, the most basic of which is food. There is no dearth of pleasures to satisfy oneself. And the world lives and thrives in being able to continuously manufacture pleasures in our day to day routines. Chasing these pleasures soon dominates one’s life so that man no longer has a choice but to follow the lead provided by the ‘stomach god’, just like everyone around him.
The world we live in today is so far separated from God that not only are does it go against the laws and will of God, it actually takes pride in doing what is shameful. Every day, the society under the guise of being fair and liberal, swings a little more toward normalizing what would be atrocious and heinous in God’s sight, an apt reference to ‘their glory being in their shame’.
As we live through the ever increasingly busy routines of life here on earth, who even has time to think of eternal life? A connected world that brings more opportunities is also a world that shuts out the capacity of man to think of who he is and what his life is meant for. The mind is fixated on earthly things. While such a mind is primed to succeed here on earth and will most likely do so, death will bring everything crashing to an eternal loss.
And what beautiful contrast Paul draws with a person who is fixated on eternal life, a citizen of heaven and who considers himself a temporary alien here on earth as he journeys through life living for Christ and awaiting his return!
