GPS – Walking Godly in an Ungodly World

by Rick Shrader

Our walk with God is an invisible walk. That is, we cannot see Him because He is spirit, or invisible, though we are physical and visible at least to ourselves. Yet we are to walk with God as if we were like Adam walking with Him in the cool of the day. Our trouble is that we are trying to walk godly in a very ungodly world. That process is called sanctification. The Bible uses various analogies to our physical existence so that we can relate to our spiritual walk.

Our eyes. Proverbs says, “Let your eyes look straight ahead, and your eyelids look right before you” (Prov 4:25). But John says that the world is full of “the lust of the eyes” (1 Jn 2:7). Peter says that the world has “eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin” (2 Pet 2:14). What is a believer to do in an immoral, immodest, and impious world? David said, “My eyes are upon You, O God the Lord; in You I take refuge” (Psa 141:8). We train our eyes to look straight ahead.

Our ears. “The ear tests words as the palate tests food” (Job 34:3). Even Elihu knew that. The ear has wonderful sensory perception. Jesus admonished His disciples to, “let these words sink down into your ears” (Lk 9:44). If we have ears to hear we must take heed to what God says and guard our ears from destructive things such as gossip, lies, slander, cursing, and any performance or speech unworthy of our Lord.

Our tongue. James famously wrote a whole chapter on the tongue. If it can be controlled, it will make a believer wise and even able to teach others. However, “the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity” (3:6); “But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison” (3:8). Our words can hurt if they come too quickly without thought or prayer. Yet comfort often needs to come quickly and we must be prepared ahead to be a wise counselor. “A wholesome tongue is a tree of life” (Prov 15:4). “The tongue of the righteous is choice silver” (Prov 10:20). Of the Proverbs 31 woman, “She opens her mouth with wisdom, and on her tongue is the law of kindness” (Prov 31:26).

Our feet. We have talked a lot about the path we are walking with God. As with all of these analogies, we don’t mean our actual feet but the way our life moves, toward or away from God. “Ponder the path of your feet, let all your ways be established. Do not turn to the right hand or the left” (Prov 4:26-27). “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delights in His way” (Psa 37:23). Our path can go in many directions, even as believers, because the world offers varied choices. Job said, “My foot has held to His steps; I have kept His way and not turned aside” (Job 23:11).

Our hands. Our hands and our feet are busy parts of our bodies. We hardly do anything without the use of our hands. “Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in the power of your hand to do so” (Prov 3:27). We are to be “lifting up holy hands without wrath or doubting” (1 Tim 2:8).

Our minds. We are to love the Lord with all of our heart, soul, strength, and also our mind (Mk 12:30). Our actions, decisions, beliefs and disbeliefs, start with the thinking process. Some have said that culture is the incarnation of religion, or the life we live is the direct result of our thinking process. That is why we must think biblically and not worldly. “I thought about my ways, and turned my feet to your testimonies” (Psa 119:59). Paul simply put it, “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth” (Col 3:2). This is to love the Lord with our whole being.

 

Christian & Faithful in Vanity Fair

We should read Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress often but at least once. The episode of Christian and Faithful passing through Vanity Fair is a reminder of all Christians as pilgrims and strangers in this world. I give a few important excerpts here.

“Then I saw in my dream that when they were got out of the wilderness, they presently saw a town before them, and the name of that town is Vanity; and at the town there is a fair kept called Vanity Fair. It is kept all the year long; it beareth the name of Vanity Fair, because the town where ‘tis kept is lighter than vanity, and also because all that is there sold or that cometh thither is Vanity.

“And as in other fairs of less moment, there are the several rows and streets under their proper names, where such and such wares are vended. So here, likewise, you have the proper places, rows, streets, where the wares of this fair are soonest to be found. Here is the Britain Row, the French Row, the Italian Row, the Spanish Row, the German Row, where several sorts of vanities are to be sold. But as in other fairs, some one commodity is as the chief of all the fair, so in this fair. Only our English nation, with some others, have taken a dislike thereat.

“Now, as I said, the way to the Celestial City lies just through this town, where this lusty fair is kept, and he that will go to the city, and yet not go through this town, must needs ‘go out of the world.’ The Prince of Princes himself, when here, went through this town to his own country and that upon a fair day, too. Yea, and as I think it was Beelzebub, the chief lord of this fair, that invited him to buy of his vanities; yea, would have made him lord of the fair would he but have done him reverence as he went through the town. Yea, because he was such a person of honour, Beelzebub had him from street to street and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a little time that he might, if possible, allure that Blessed One to cheapen and buy some of his vanities. But he had no mind to the merchandise and therefore left the town, without laying out so much as one farthing upon these vanities. This fair therefore is an ancient thing, of long standing, and a very great fair.

“Now thee pilgrims, as I said, must needs go through this fair. Well, so they did, but behold, even as they entered into the fair, all the people in the fair were moved and the town itself as it were in a hubbub about them, and that for several reasons.

“First, the pilgrims were clothed with such kind of raiment as was diverse from the raiment of any that traded in that fair. The people therefore of the fair made a great gazing upon them. Some said they were fools, some they were bedlams, and some they are outlandish men.

“Secondly, and as they wondered at their apparel, so they did likewise at their speech, for few could understand what they said. They naturally spoke the language of Canaan, but they that kept the fair were the men of this world. So that from one end of the fair to the other, they seemed barbarians each to the other.

“Thirdly, but that which did not a little amuse the merchandisers was that these pilgrims set very light by all their wares; they cared not so much as to look upon them, and if they called upon them to buy, they would put their fingers in their ears and cry, ‘Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity,’ and look upwards, signifying that their trade and traffic was in heaven.

“One chanced mockingly, beholding the carriages of the men, to say unto them, ‘what will you buy?’ But they, looking gravely upon him said, ‘we buy the truth.’ At that, there was an occasion taken to despise the men the more; some mocking, some taunting, some speaking reproachfully, and some calling upon others to smite them. . . The men told them that they were pilgrims and strangers in the world and that they were going to their own country, which was the heavenly Jerusalem, and that they had given none occasion to the men of the town, nor yet to the merchandisers, thus to abuse them and to let them in their journey. . . Therefore they took them and beat them and besmeared them with dirt, and then put them into the cage, that they might be made a spectacle to all the men of the fair. There therefore they lay, for some time, and were made the objects of any man’s sport, or malice, or revenge. The great one of the fair laughing still at all that befell them. But the men being patient and not rendering railing for railing, but contrariwise blessing and giving good words for bad and kindness for injuries done.”

Bunyan ends the episode with Faithful being martyred and taken to heaven while Christian escaped and went on his journey.