Conformed to this world - what are your values ?

In our days people seem to do what is right in their own eyes. How does it manifest? Well, women have abortions because a baby doesn’t fit into their career plans, men don’t want to marry because they would rather live without the responsibility that goes with it, families are shattered because people believe in being right and getting even rather than in love and forgiveness, etc. The book of Judges suggests a reason for the present situation:

Judges 17, 6:
“In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.”

What does it concern us?

Romans 15, 4:
“For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.”

So, let’s see what we can learn from what is written at the beginning of the Bible:

In the book of Joshua, Joshua led the people from one victory to another. The following book in the Bible is the book of Judges. There the people go from one defeat to another. How that happened? A bit earlier in the Bible, God had delivered the people out of slavery in Egypt, He had led them through the wilderness while instructing them through Moses and Joshua on how to live in faith and obedience according to His will and as His subjects, so that it may be well with them. The book of Joshua even ends with the nation of Israel taking a stand for God, ready to experience the blessings of the Promised Land.

After settling in Canaan, however, the Israelites lost their spiritual commitment and motivation. The book of Judges finds the people of Israel without a strong central government. The reason for their rapid decline was sin. The first step away from God was incomplete obedience; the Israelites refused to eliminate the enemy completely from the land. This led to intermarriage and idolatry and everyone doing what was right in their own eyes. It didn’t take long until the Israelites became captives. Eventually they were so desperate that they begged God to rescue them. God being faithful to His promise and out of His loving kindness, raised up a judge to deliver his people, and for a time there would be peace. After some time complacency and disobedience would set in, and the cycle would begin again. Which cycle do you observe in your life?

In the first part of this article I was speaking about people in this world without referring to any specific group. In the second part of this article we saw God’s dealings with His chosen people. How can we connect those two? The apostle Paul gives us a clue to this:

Romans 12: 2:
“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

God’s will for us is to be conformed to the image of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. And because Jesus Christ is our Lord we do have even the King of kings whom we serve, according to His leadership.

Let me ask a bold question: What has influenced the world more, the church or Hollywood?!

God made everything available through His Son Jesus Christ so that we may walk in what God wants us to walk, that we may have all that God wants us to have. We don’t need to bow to the evil world and live according to their standards and values. His sheep hear His voice, Jesus said. God enables us to do His will. Where we fail – and we will – He is faithful to forgive so that we can go on.

Galatians 1: 4:
“Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father”

What is most important in your life? What does God say in His word what should be most important in your life? Which are the values/principles in your life? I encourage you to take pen and paper and write down what you want to be important in your/your family’s life. How much do you value truth or do you tend to compromise for the sake of telling a good story? Do you laugh too when others gossip because you don’t want to feel left out or do you take a stand for God and try to esteem the other one higher than yourself, even if it means to leave the group and end up being the subject of their gossip? Are you willing to be a submissive wife because God says so or only when you agree with the leadership of your husband? Will you take the responsibility for your family as the head or will you let it slip away because you are so busy at work?

I pray that God reveals His will to you personally that you may know which values/principles you are to set and to keep in your life, that you may do what is right in His eyes, to His glory. Amen.

Andrea Kioulachoglou