Not of This World
This world is not my home, I’m just a passing through. – Quote from a hymn written by Mary Reeves Davis
I love the idea behind this hymn and I was reminded by a friend from camp the other night of the importance of this phrase. Our conversations during our time together prompted me to think more about hope, truth, and faith versus religion, and heaven. These are all important as I think about my relationship with Jesus. They all relate to eternity.
My friend and I (we’ll call him Ashton – not his real name) hung out at a coffee shop and talked about truth and the ideas we had both heard recently. Ashton and I talked about how our Christian faith is a relationship and I’d agree with him, though there are positive religious elements within our Christian faith like small groups, church, and regular prayer but these elements are not part of our salvation.
Later we joined another friend (we’ll call him Liam – again not his real name) and talked about hope and truth. When we started talking about the world and our faith. Ashton and I kept our points focused on the truth of the Bible and realized Liam had his doubts about the
Liam also mentioned that he wanted to help those around him find hope in this life, when Ashton questioned him about whether that was hope in Christ for eternity or not Liam said that was only part of it and that concerned Ashton and I. Ashton told Liam that Christ is our only hope and that Paul the apostle among many others did not have a glamorous life while here on Earth by any means. Paul knew a perfect eternity was in store for him so he put all his hope in Jesus. By the end of our time together Ashton and I realized Liam has good intentions but our hearts hurt for the fact that not all his hope was in Christ, because good intentions don’t provide salvation, or hope for that matter.
It’s a very necessary reminder as I think about my hope of success in this world and why it all needs to be for God’s glory. Now I already knew this, but the fact that the world is only temporary pairs well with this idea. You see, our hope can only be found in our eternal hope in Christ, success in this life for the glory of God is a good goal but it’s not promised to us and that’s a good thing. I’ll add to that that our first goal as Christians should be
The world is not my permanent home but it is the only place where I can invite people to come with me to heaven. With that in
John 18:36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.”
