It is always best for the young Christian to make a decided stand for Christ at the outset. Nothing hinders Christian progress and weakens Christian testimony more than a want of decision. The world presents itself in many ways and phases, each adapted to the tastes of different people; and it is, for this very reason, all the more deceptive and seductive. These are not days of outward persecution like the times of the early Christians; on the contrary, the effort of many seems to be to tack on the name of Christian to various things which are quite out of keeping with the place and calling of a true believer as we find it in Scripture.
We all have to meet the world in some way, and to transact our daily business in it, each according to our different position in life. It may be the soldier in the barrack-room, the clerk in his office, the tradesman in his workshop, or amongst our friends and acquaintances. No doubt God has so ordered it that His people should be found in many and various walks of life, so that they might be witnesses for Him wherever He has called them. What should be the attitude of the Christian towards the men and women of the world by whom he is surrounded from day to day? In the first place he is responsible, as belonging to Christ, to make a decided stand for Him. But he should not give false impression of Christianity by being unfriendly, morose, or disagreeable. Nothing can be a more evident testimony to the power of the truth than to show practically to the world that we do not need to turn to its resources to find satisfaction.
What a bright witness it would be for an absent Christ if every young Christian were showing out practically that he had something so infinitely superior to all that the world could offer, that he did not need to turn to its broken cisterns to find joy and satisfaction! But for this we must drink of the perennial stream of true joy which is to be found in learning of Christ from His Word. There must be a going on with God in a sense of our own weakness and need of daily dependence on Him for strength. To depend upon ourselves, or to suppose that we have strength in ourselves, is the sure road to failure.
We see a very plain illustration of this in the case of Peter. He said, “Lord, I am ready to go with Thee, both to prison and to death,” and no doubt he sincerely meant it. But, alas, how little he knew his own heart then! He trusted to his own strength; and the result was, that when the test came, and he found himself in the presence of the enemies of Christ, he denied his Lord three times with oaths. Our need of complete dependence on God for strength to confess the name of a rejected Christ is a lesson we must all learn some day. Though the world, or at least a part of it, has embraced Christianity professedly, yet the heart of man is unchanged, and it is as bitter in its hatred to Christ as when it was said, “Not this man, but Barabbas – “Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him.”
Some are drawn into the world for the sake of position or worldly advantage; and thus they lose their place of distinctive testimony for Christ. Satan, ever active in hindering a decided witness for Christ, offers something which appears plausible and advantageous to nature. Just so it was in the case of Lot; he went gradually down an inclined plain until he found himself in Sodom. He first “beheld” the well-watered plains of Jordan, then he “chose him” all the plains, then he “dwelled” in the cities of the plain, then he “pitched his tent towards Sodom”; and, finally, he “sat in the gate of Sodom.” Drawn aside first by worldly advantage, he went the downward road till he took the place of honor and distinction in that wicked city. What a place for a true saint of God to be found in! And what was the end of it all? While Abraham, the man of faith, who had God for his portion, was communing with God on the mountain top and pleading for the guilty cities of the plain, Lot just escaped with his life, and lost all.
It is one thing to meet the world in our ordinary business or occupation, as we all must do, and it is quite another thing to seek the company of the world and to join with the men and women of the world in their pursuits, their pleasures, and amusements. The Christian never can go in with the world in this way without a loss of spiritual power and testimony. We have an illustration of this in the case of King Jehoshaphat. While he went on humbly with God he had been wonderfully prospered; but after this he “joined affinity with Ahab,” of whom it is said, “There was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up.” What an association for a true saint of God to get into! Then Ahab persuaded him to go up to Ramothgilead with him to battle; and Jehoshaphat yielded, saying, “I am as thou art, and my people as thy people; and we will be with thee in the war.” Here was complete identification with the man of the world. And what did his alliance with the world come to in the end? Well, just this – that he would have shared the fate of Ahab, who was slain by the enemy as a judgment from the Lord, had it not been that God, in His mercy, took pity on His poor child, and delivered him from perishing by the sword of the Syrians.
The apostle says to the Galatians that Christ “gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world.” The very same gospel which proclaims salvation from our sins through the death of Christ, proclaims also the fact of deliverance from this present evil world; both are bound together and we cannot separate them the one from the other.
We have another very distinct testimony of the inspired Word, in the address to the “young men” in 1 John 2:1515Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. (1 John 2:15), “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” It is just when the Christian has advanced beyond the stage of “little children”‘ in the faith, and reached that of “young men”; in other words, when he has been some little time on the road as a Christian, that there is the greatest danger from the world. When the first joy of finding peace and the freshness of “first love” may have somewhat declined, then it is especially that there is the danger that the old motives which governed him as a natural man will begin to act. But the true preservative is, “The Word of God abideth in you.” It is only as the young Christian meditates upon the Word of God, and seeks to learn from it in His presence, that he can be kept. And here the exhortation comes in most fittingly, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” The “world” is in direct antagonism to the Father; and all that it can offer, in its very best and most attractive form, is but passing, dying, and fading.
May the blessed Spirit of God so fill the heart of every young believer with the knowledge of Christ from the Word, that he may find in Him that source of inward joy and satisfaction which renders him independent of the resources of the world, and which produces a clear and true testimony for an absent Christ till He comes!