The Four Woes of Luke 6 - Woe 4: Against Conformity to this World

"'Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.'"

~Luke 6:26 (ESV)

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What is laid out here for us is a conformity to this world--the world recognizing a person as a worldly person and not observed as a Christian. What is evil here is a lack of distinction from the world around us and its ways. It is a woe to us if we are spoken well of by the world due to being of and like the world. It is a woe to us if our lives do not display the fruit of regeneration in Christ.

In days of old, as yet today, false "prophets prophes[ied] falsely" and "priests rule[d] at their discretion" and "people love[d] to have it so" (Jeremiah 5:31).

So are we not the same when our lives please the culture--when compromise blends us in with the world? Do we not then blaspheme the name of Christ? For to be friends with God (saved) is to be enemy of the world (no longer pursuing the things of the flesh and the lies of the world's ways). As such we are to, with rejoicing in the freedom of salvation, live to glorify His name! Let us cast off all that is worthless--media that glorifies sin even to the slightest, fear of man and living for man's approval, and "every weight, and sin that clings so closely." For many eyes are upon us. Let not the eyes of the world be the ones that speak well of us, but the "cloud of witnesses" (Hebrews 12:1).

So may we not give our time and energies to celebrating that which Christ died for, but admiring and exalting His name. All earthly glory will fade, and if we pursue pleasure in the world, it is but a chasing of the wind (Ecclesiastes 2:11). For if we are found sleeping, what will we do when the end comes (Jeremiah 5:31)?

"Father, thank you for revealing to us what is of worth and for warning us against our own proneness to sin and to be conformed to this world. We would not see but that You had chosen to show us. By Your Spirit we now have light to see and discern what is pleasing to You. Father, give us an eternal perspective that causes us to cast off sin and that which is worthless and vain to feed our souls to purity of soul in You. Amen."

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Challenge and Application Questions

• Are there areas of worldliness in your life that glorify that for which Christ died?
• Do you lack an eternal perspective on the here and now and the decisions you make concerning media and other forms of worldliness?
• Do you desire and seek actively for an eternal perspective?
• What areas of grace-motivated change has the Lord done in your life concerning living for Him and not for worldliness?