They Think It Strange |
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Elder
Mark
Green |
1 Peter 4:4 Wherein they think it strange that ye run not
with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you.
“They” are the world. They are our former companions, or
“running buddies” when we were walking after the course of
this world. When we walked according to the devil’s
promptings, we fit right in with them. No matter how
despicable our behavior may have been in those days, they
did not think it was strange, because it was the same kind
of conduct that they were exhibiting. Brother Paul tells us
that we – all of us – before we were born of the Spirit
walked according to the course of this world. Our path was
their path, and it was the path of death. We “were dead in
trespasses and sins.” We did not have spiritual life. There
was nothing in us that enabled us to do that which is
pleasing to God Almighty.
One day, however, something changed in us. At God’s own
time, He quickened us by his Spirit, translated us out of
the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of
his dear Son. We then had the ability to please God and we
had within us certain new and wonderful promptings that had
not been there before. We felt that “we should live soberly,
righteously, and godly in this present world.” When we
finally began to consider these things seriously, we
concluded that a change in our conduct was necessary, and we
began to leave off some of the things we had done before. We
started pulling away from our former acquaintances, at least
in some of their pursuits. We concluded that some of their
behavior was at fault, and we did not wish to be found in
that way any more. We felt to be ashamed of what we had been
doing and did not wish to be identified with it any longer.
When we began to walk in a different way, our former
companions were puzzled, for they had no way of
understanding the spiritual motivation that prompted that
change. They questioned us, but could not comprehend our
answers. Finally, they became angry and used abusive
language toward us and cast us aside as not worthy of their
consideration. This was not pleasant to us, because we had
had a natural affection for them in times past, but we felt
like the reasons for our change were sufficient to cause us
to bear those slights and continue in our new direction.
Natural men cannot understand
grace. They cannot feel what grace causes a man to feel
within him, and so they know nothing of the conflict that
Paul describes in the seventh chapter of Romans. They never
cry out, “O wretched man that I am!” They are strangers to
the warfare that exists within the child of God, and so they
think it strange that God’s children have feelings of guilt
concerning a profligate lifestyle. We ought not to run with
the world. We ought to come out from among them and be
separate.
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