Not of This World

Being different is usually uncomfortable. We usually try to avoid getting ourselves into uncomfortable situations, right? We don’t want to go against the flow or stand out from what culture tells us to do because it usually means doing some hard and uncomfortable things.

But that is exactly what God wants us to do. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us exactly how we, as Christians, should live and it’s pretty different than what’s going on around us. This week, Pastor Ken continued his series “The Greatest Sermon Ever,” by talking about three of the contrasts in the Sermon on the Mount: oaths, revenge, and loving your enemies. For each of these topics, there is a way the world goes about them and a way God has called us as Christians to go about them. For example, Matthew 5:43-48 talks about loving your neighbor. However, Jesus goes on to say we must love our enemies. We can’t only love the people who love us. That’s easy--everybody does that. We must stand out by loving and praying for the people that give us a hard time. It’s hard and uncomfortable. But that is living like Jesus and that will set us apart.

God has sent us to be different from the world. Take some time to think about that this week. Are you different from the world? Or do you need to change your way of living to match how Jesus has called us?