The story goes that if you put a live frog into boiling water that it will immediately spring out to escape the heat. If, on the other hand, you put a live frog into cooler water where it is comfortable, and then add heat slowly, the frog will not notice the change until it is too late and too tired to jump out of the boiling water. The spiritual lesson we learn from this simple story is that the world and its thinking can creep into our minds so gradually and insidiously that we are not aware of the dangers of its thinking until it has successfully corrupted our minds from the Truth.
Not possible? Compare a sheltered elderly sister to a young brother who has to work in the rough and tumble world of construction. If the elderly sister hears someone swear, she is shocked beyond belief. If the young brother hears someone take the Lord’s name in vain, or some other profanity, he is so used to it that it does not shock him at all, because he hears it every day at work.
It is too easy to become hardened to all the sins that surround us out in the world these days, so that the sins do not seem so exceedingly sinful to us anymore. God’s ways are completely different from man’s ways. The world is surprised that we have a problem with practices such as profanity, or drunkenness, or folks living together before marriage and other lifestyle choices they make. Sadly, the next step after becoming accustomed to the ways of those we rub shoulders with in the world, is to become less judgmental of them. We may even find ourselves, or some of our young people, accepting their standards as normal rather than resisting them.
After all, those in the world are often very “nice” people who are kind, truthful, and hard working. Practices can enter our community, perhaps our families, and we feel less critical, more accepting, of what we previously might have considered unthinkable. Let us pray that when our Lord comes to call us that he may be able to see that, while we have been in the world, we have not become part of the world.
We must never get so used to the sins of the world that they no longer seem so bad. Our situation can be compared to that of Lot who was living in Sodom. Peter tells us that God “delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;) The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:”
Are we vexed every day? Do we stand up for godly standards even when it is unpopular and considered harsh or rigid thinking? Do we impress upon our young people the importance of chastity, separateness from the world, daily Bible readings, attendance at ecclesial functions, and keeping the commandments?
In spite of the fact that Lot was vexed everyday by the terrible conditions that existed in Sodom, sadly his married children did not share his concerns and refused to leave when Lot begged them to flee with him. Had his children become tolerant of their sinning neighbors? Did they think that Lot was a bit fanatic? Certainly his grown children did not take him seriously and refused to leave with him. Growing up they had been part of Abraham’s family and been taught the ways of righteousness, but after leaving Abraham and living in Sodom they had become accustomed to the sins of that awful place and were complacent when the moment of decision arrived. Lot lost most of his family, including some of his children and perhaps grandchildren. We don’t want to lose our family.
We need to be constantly on guard that the sinful way of life of those around us does not change our godly thinking. We are to come out from the world and be separate. Just how separate are we? Paul gives us good advice when he says, “I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people — not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. Do not even eat with such people.”
Our policy should be to not become involved with our worldly neighbors, except by our good example and our attempt to show them the beauties of the Truth. We are in the world, and we can’t help that, but we are not to take part in their worldly activities, and certainly we are not to get so used to their way of life that we are not vexed by the way they live and begin to accept it. Just because “everyone is doing it” does not make it right. We need to keep ourselves pure and strive to help our brothers and sisters to remain faithful to godly standards. We must work to make sure the standards of the world do not become acceptable to those who are striving to be servants of God.
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We are not everyone. We have been given a high and holy calling, and we are thankful for this calling and must never take it for granted. We must never let down our guard to those that surround us, and who are not journeying in the way of life towards the Kingdom. If we want to be the called out ones of the Lord we must seek those things that are above, not those from beneath. We cannot sit in the tepid water of the world and allow it to heat us until it kills us. Let us remove ourselves from its influence. We need to stand out from the world just as Noah did and as did Lot, who never accepted the way of life that his neighbors had. We need to keep ourselves, our families, and fellow believers separate from the world around us.
The Lord Jesus prayed to his Heavenly Father just before he was crucified and said: “I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name — the name you gave me — so that they may be one as we are one.”
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One