Romans 12:1, 2, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
I was reminded again this week how we should not treat things that would be abhorrent to God flippantly or humorously. I hope that we are not calloused by the world, but instead our hearts should ache when we see sin. And not just sin around us but we should feel heartache over our own sin as well.
I enjoy a good joke as well as the next person and I have seen and heard a lot of funny things in my life. April fool’s day can be a great occasion for some light-hearted humor. I think we need to laugh and enjoy life and even learn to laugh at ourselves more. Some of my greatest memories in our family are things that we have laughed at together. Nothing earth shattering or important but just being silly together. I have also seen and heard the jokes that poke fun of or make fun of things that God considers to be sin and which should not be a laughing matter. Try and think of the last thing you laughed at, and then try and remember if it was actually appropriate to laugh at. I am not pointing fingers at anyone in my musings this week for far too many times have I laughed at the inappropriate or off colored joke only to feel bad about it later.
We are looking in 1 Corinthians on Sunday evenings at how God and the world view wisdom and folly. What God considers wise the world views as folly. What God considers foolish the world views as wisdom. We move from a holiday poking fun at foolish things into spring and in a couple of weeks a focus on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The cross and the resurrection are considered foolish to the world, but to us they are the wisdom of God and the power of God for salvation.
Another quick warning. If we are going to take God seriously, we also have to be careful to not embrace the world’s traditions when it comes to the birth, or the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. We can get distracted and even come to embrace false thoughts on Scripture because the world puts on a veneer of truth and then through music, movies, and various other things slightly twists the truth in order to proclaim their own messages. One of the best ways to take God seriously is to make sure we know His Word and His truth so that when something seems either flippant or just a little bit off, we can spot the error and not embrace the foolishness of the world.
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