Tag: world

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Philippians 2:1b – Comfort

Picture of an airplane pilot holding a checklist (Grok)

[Therefore] … if [you have] any comfort from his love…

Summary: As we continue through Paul’s checklist, we are reminded that being broken before God is a prerequisite for finding comfort in his love. 

In this passage, Paul provides us with a kind of “pre-flight” checklist. 

When I was young, my dad owned a small plane, but it was a very simple one. No electrical system or fancy-dancy navigational equipment. Just magnetos for electrical power and a good, swift pull on the prop for a starter.

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Colossians 2:20a – Signs of Life

Since you died with Christ …

Picture of a man standing in a doorway facing the light.

Summary: With five simple words, Paul opens the door to the mystery of salvation. 

Is Paul writing his letter to dead people? 

Considering the words Paul uses, you are right to wonder. To understand what Paul means by “Since you died with Christ,” we first have to understand life and death. 

When I was a child, I thought “dead” meant you ceased to exist. It was a terrifying thought. I kept trying to measure how alive I was by how much “living” I could do. I discovered that my thirst for being alive was never satisfied by having “things” or doing “things.” 

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Worlds Apart – John 17: 16

They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.

By my count, the word “world” is used fifty-seven times in John’s gospel alone. Fifty-seven! When Jesus uses the term it seems to mean something different than when us earthlings use the term. In today’s verse, Jesus once again refers to the world as something apart from the … world.

What do I mean by the world being apart from the world?

The way Jesus uses the word, the disciples are not part of the world. Yet we know that from a human perspective that until they died they still lived in the world. In yesterday’s verse, Jesus says, “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.” So Jesus uses the word “world” two mean two different things. One world they remain a part of, the other world they are not part of. Or as Jesus puts it, they are “not of the world.”

As usual, Jesus grammar is telling. He sees things differently than the rest of us humans. What does he mean, “…not of the world?”

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Protection – John 17: 15

My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.

If I had been there with Jesus when he prayed this prayer before his disciples, I think I would have had mixed feelings at this point. The idea of being taken “out of the world” sounds rather intriguing. There are days when the idea sounds downright inviting! If you are old enough you might remember the tag line, “Take me away, Calgon!” from the 1970s. The bath powder was so delightful that it would take you away from all your problems. Out of this world, in a manner of speaking.

Staying in the world has its upside, too. Yet it can be tough. Being cast out of your social network, mentally bullied, intimidated, and physically beaten is no fun. All these things happened to the disciples after Jesus left. Yet even though he was gone, he did not leave them unprotected. Jesus prayed that God would “protect them from the evil one.”

What does that mean? What can the “evil one” do that is so bad? Why do we need protection?

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Life Itself – John 17: 14

I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.

Have you ever noticed how someone’s emotions can go from hot to cold in the blink of an eye? Sometimes all it takes is saying one wrong thing and people go from friend to enemy. Couples once happily married find that their feelings have changed. Where laughter once filled their lives now hate rules the day and rules their actions.

From Jesus’ point of view, the world is like a jilted lover. His disciples, once part of the world were embraced by that world. If not embraced, at least tolerated. The disciples have turned their back on the world and given their lives and their hearts to Jesus. The world is not pleased. In fact, the world is downright angry about this. Angry, bitter, and spitting mad. So mad that the world that the prince of this world* will cause those who are under his sway to hunt down Jesus’ followers and kill and imprison them. The world hates those who follow Jesus because Jesus has made it possible for those who believe to escape the grasp of Satan and death.

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The Light of the World

I confess that it is very hard for me to get my head around the idea that Jesus is God. I believe it, but I don’t understand it.

Part of the reason is that being a man, I keep wanting to stuff my image of Jesus into the limitations of what I understand being a man to be all about. But because he is God, he draws on His knowledge of what heaven is like and what his Father is like. When he speaks, he speaks in human metaphors, but he is often talking about things no human has ever seen.

As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

John 9: 4-5
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