One of the greatest difficulties that we face as believers is how to stay separate from the world while living in it. God doesn’t desire for us all to be monks and hermits, or for that matter, to live on a Christian commune where the only people we see are fellow believers. Someday, we will worship God and be surrounded by only others doing the same! Yet while on this earth, believers in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, are in the minority. Do the world and the trappings of the world keep us so busy that we don’t take time for God? If we truly love the Lord, would we rather spend time with Him or worshipping an American Idol?
1Blessed is the man
Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor stands in the path of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
2But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
Psalm 1:1-2
The verse above from Psalms covers the bases. It begins with the word “Blessed,” pointing to our salvation. Literally, the word means, “Oh, how happy,” and that is the ongoing feeling that salvation brings. Next, we see places we are not to go as Christians. When a believer walks in the counsel of the ungodly, it is a slow, progressive path. An ungodly man might not be sinning all the time, but he certainly doesn’t ask for God’s advice before acting. Additionally, notice that it is not a one-time meeting, but continuing contact. Next, we see that we are not to stand in the path of sinners. We are all sinners, but this refers to those who are blatantly contradicting the laws of God. In the first example, we were walking, and in this one, we are standing. It sounds to me like we are going to spend even more time with the sinners. Would you stand in the middle of the road with a drunk driver barreling toward you? Without thought, they are going to mow you down!
God is not telling us to avoid non-believers, for that would conflict what He has told us in other places in the Bible. How else would they hear about Jesus if we didn’t share that love with them? Yet, we also know that it takes an enormous amount of strength to refrain from joining in their sin. In the Old Testament, God warned the children of Israel not to marry foreigners, as He knew the Israelites would fall away from worshipping Him and would worship the idols of the foreigners. As the verse in Psalms continues, we are told not to sit in the seat of the scornful. The verse progresses from walking, to standing, to sitting. In the last example, the believer has become comfortable with the sinner, and the sin. The word scornful means someone who mocks God.
Standing on an icy slope facing downhill gives us a picture of the ease of falling into sin. It’s much more difficult to remain stopped then to come to a stop on the way down the hill. While expert skiers may control their downward progress, it is much more difficult to ski uphill to your original destination, as the forces are pushing you downward. That is similar to the force of sin in our lives. God’s solution is to stay away from situations that will make us stumble. He is the only one who can pick us up when we fall! It might seem like there is not a place to hide from the stench of the world, but we have the Lord living inside of us. He cleans us! Turn to Him!
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
1 John 2:15
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