Despising the World (Kingdom Life #2)


Thomas à Kempis was a monk who lived in the late 1300's to early 1400's. He wrote THE IMITATION OF CHRIST, allegedly the best selling book after the Bible. It's quite a masterpiece of writing, instructing Christians on how to live with Christ at the center of all they do and are. It is a book for apprentices of Jesus and it is in some ways a very difficult book.

Thomas repeats often that you and I are to despise the world, hate the world, have little to do with the things of the world. He is writing about the world the same way that John writes when he says that you cannot love God and love the things of the world (1John 2:15). If you are a friend of the world you are an enemy of God, writes James (4:4). Jesus called us “out of the world” (John 15:19) and Paul writes that we are not to be conformed to the world but transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12).

This is all pretty hard stuff for apprentices of Jesus since we live so fully in the world, dependent on its material assets and satisfied by its pleasures.

I have been watching police crime shows, action and adventure all combined as SWAT teams make their way into the lairs of criminals. It's an adrenaline rush to be sure but when it's over I am not all that satisfied and no better a person for it. So I am learning to watch more wholesome shows, not all necessarily PG but shows with a good narrative for life. Is that despising the world? Probably not. But it is despising the violent narratives and ego-satisfying nature of some of my world.

I suspect despising the world is more about self-denial. Thomas à Kempis will write more about mortifying the flesh, which is a good thing (just short of a 'hair shirt'). But I am thinking about Jesus words: that you can't worship two masters. And so I am trying my best, as an apprentice, to spend a lot more time with God than with th world and its influence. I find that I enjoy listening to the Bible on my car CD player (of course I use The Message Paraphrase). Prayer time is becoming more pleasurable and reading books with some kind of spiritual message is a better choice for me.But there are certain ways that I love the satisfactions of this world. I am hopeful to enjoy them with Christ.

So it is a good exercise in faith to think on just how much we love God with ALL our heart, mind, soul and strength and love our neighbor as ourselves.

One final note. I think that despising the world means to abhor or detest its POWER. There is no humility, or self-denial in power, especially the kind we see at work around us these days.

Juska la fin,
George