Not Surprised

 

 I noticed over the last few years people like to be shocked when worldly people behave worldly. Now don’t misunderstand me, some things happening in our modern world that make me shake my head. We have seen a decline in morality and basic decency in the public forum on a rapid level. A growing disdain for traditional values and established norms. Christians it seems are the only group acceptable to mock.  Yet I wonder if we should be so quick to gasp and decry.

 Since the Bibles say we are not supposed to be so shocked.

1^st John 3:13  “Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you.”

2^nd Timothy 3:12  “Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”

1^st Peter 4:12  “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you;”

1^st  Peter 4:4  “In all this, they are surprised that you do not run with them into the same excesses of dissipation, and they malign you;”

John 15:18  "If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.”

 There has been and always should be a difference between the world and the kingdom (1^st John 2:15, James 4:4). Maybe we are expecting the world to be purer because we are trying to hold onto the things in it a bit too much. The world will be the world. The kingdom must be the kingdom. The twain shall never meet unless one becomes the other. We can’t make the world Godly unless we bring people out of the world into the kingdom. Rather than fuss about how worldly the world is, let's focus on making the kingdom grow.