#DailyDevotion Wear This World Like Loose Clothing
1 Corinthians 7:29–31 29I mean, my fellow Christians, the time has been shortened. While it lasts, if you have a wife, live as if you had none; 30if you weep, as if you weren’t weeping; if you’re happy, as if you weren’t happy; if you buy anything, act as if you didn’t have it. 31While you use the world, don’t try to get out of it all you can, since this world in its present form is passing away.
Paul is addressing worldly affairs that the Corinthians had written him about. In this chapter up to this point he was addressing relationships with husbands, wives, the married and the single. He had been telling us if possible, don’t change your status. This advise comes to this verse, “I mean, my fellow Christians, the time has been shortened.” He is certainly expecting the LORD Jesus Christ to return any minute. You may reply, “But it’s been 2,000 years!” True, but you should live with the same expectation. You just don’t know when the LORD is going to return.
In the last few decades, decades mind you, I’ve seen a lot of people prepping because they think civilization is falling apart. I’ve gotten caught up in that thinking myself at times. Fear of not having enough. They fear the government and they are afraid of their neighbors. Their lives become consumed by survival. It appears that fear and not faith in the LORD Jesus Christ is running their lives. The time of Paul was not much different than our own today. Mind you, there is nothing wrong with preparing for an emergency or even the fall of civilization as we know it. It’s just, are you doing it with faith in the LORD Jesus that you may take care of your family AND your neighbor? While we certainly must take care of our own, we need also, as Christians, to have the people we encounter on a daily basis or will have encounters with, with the mind of Christ.
Since the time is short, we need not worry too much about tomorrow. Jesus told us in Matthew, 634“So, don’t worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” I do believe Paul is recalling these words as he writes, “if you have a wife, live as if you had none; 30if you weep, as if you weren’t weeping; if you’re happy, as if you weren’t happy; if you buy anything, act as if you didn’t have it.” What does that even mean? One could say, wear this world like loose clothing. Don’t be overly attached to people places and things even your loved ones, even your feelings. You belong to another kingdom, another age. Don’t live as if this world is all you got. It is a pittance in compared to the inheritance God your Father is going to give you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
So Paul writes, “While you use the world, don’t try to get out of it all you can, since this world in its present form is passing away.” We certain use the world and the things in it. The second phrase can be translated a number of ways. It literally says, “Those who make use of the cosmos as those not abusing it for themselves.” Basically it means to not be consumed by it. Don’t let accumulation and use of the things of the world run your life. Why should we have this attitude? Because this cosmos and everything in it, in its present form, is passing away. Don’t live as if you are not going to live eternally in a New Heavens and New Earth with God who is going to give it to you. Wear the things of the world loosely, not having attachments to it but be attached to our LORD Jesus Christ and his promises.
Heavenly Father, while is world is currently falling apart and changing form, grant us faith to believe your promise of an eternal inheritance. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.