Traveling Light
Today's Three-minute Bible Study
Print, Study and Apply
Title: Traveling Light---------------------------------------- Date: 6/05/2000
Keywords:
"alienation"
"world"
Welcome
to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand strong in the face of sexual
temptation.
Passage: John 17:15-16*
15. "My prayer is not that you take [my disciples] out of the
world but that you protect them from the evil one.
16. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it."
Questions
1. How does Jesus want his disciples to view themselves in relation
to the world?
2. How can we apply this concept to pornography?
Practical help
"For long periods of my life, living in places where I did not
belong, I have been a perfect stranger," says travel writer Paul Theroux in
"Fresh Air Fiend." "I asked myself whether my sense of otherness was the
human condition. It certainly was my condition."
Believers understand Theroux's point. We are outsiders, not just
because we are human beings, but also because our citizenship lies in the heavenlies, a
double alienation. Like travelers abroad, Christians can never feel entirely at home --
fumbling with the language, tripping over the values, puzzling over the differences
between here and home.
In the passage from John, Jesus calls these feelings normal; we are
"not of the world." One of the surest signs that we have grasped his meaning
comes from our response to the world, including pornography. When we learn to see porn as
it is -- a twisted version of the goodness of sexuality -- we will truly enjoy our
heavenly citizenship.
As our sense of alienation grows stronger, so will our resolve.
Pornography will fade from its colorful vibrancy to an unenticing photo negative. We'll be
in the world, but not of it.
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*Scriptures are from The Holy Bible: New International Version © Copyright 1973,
1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. All rights reserved.