The Things of the World

“Do your best to come to me soon, for Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica; Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful in my ministry. I have sent Tychicus to Ephesus. When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments.” (2 Timothy 4:9-13)

Look at the contrast here. Demas is in love with the present world and so he has left the ministry. However, in the next breath Paul requests physical possessions — cloak, books, and parchments. Having things is not wrong and there are things that help us. But being selfish with those things is.

Look at the story of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15. The younger son demands his inheritance. The Jews of Jesus’  time usually granted the oldest son twice a much as the younger sons received. Often this was in the form of land so that family properties were preserved. Younger sons were more likely to receive money or other portable goods. The son had the legal right to demand his inheritance of money before his father died, but it was generally considered rude. Jesus goes on to say that “The son used it in a far country, where he wasted it all in reckless living.” (Note that “far country” is often a metaphor for death.)

Now – when the younger son came back home and the father accepted him back, did he give him a starvation room? No! He threw him a huge party. Jesus’ point was NOT that spending money and seeking pleasure was the sin. The sin was that of selfishness, of abandoning everyone and everything in your life to do your own thing.

F.B. Meyer writes of this story, “We need not travel far to reach the far country–the thought of sin, the wings of passionate evil desire, the lightning flash of a look, may land us as far from God as the east is from the west. The essence of the far country is selfishness… It is not wrong to make use of and enjoy all the good and perfect gifts with which God strews our life, so long as they are held in thankful recognition of and fellowship with Him. But when we depart from God, there is waste, for we lack the one object which gathers up all our activities for a worthy focus; riot, because in the absence of God there is no sufficient corrective or antidote for strong and masterful passion; want, because the soul was made for God, and can never be satisfied till it rests in Him.”

What then is our attitude to things? To pleasures? I believe that it is good to enjoy the beautiful and good things of this world. God created the world and sustains it, and there is still an awful lot to enjoy in it. The trick – or rather the lesson – is to not be selfish with the lovely things of this world.

Here’s a great quote from a British pastor: “Well, do you want it, this fuller and richer life?  To be able to give way, we need to able to believe that God is bigger than we are and better at caring for us than we are.  God loves you with a love which never ends; with a love which casts out fear.  Only by living life out there, stops us from being consumed by fear and self-concern. That means risking.  It means daring to take God at His word to be with us always.”

Application

•    Are there areas of your life where you struggle with selfishness?
•    Are there areas of your life that you are maybe too unselfish – i.e., martyring yourself when God hasn’t asked you to?
•    What is God telling you to do?