Articles
No Entanglement
“No soldier on service entangleth himself in the affairs of this life; that he may please him who enrolled him as a soldier” (2 Tim. 2:4).
Do you stop before you start, or start and then determine when and where to stop? Living in a world (which has been historically true of all generations), that appears to always be on the brink of full-blown chaos, can often captivate an individual’s attention to the point of bewilderment, distraction, and/or entanglement.
Our society is like a neighborhood baseball game, i.e., it starts with two captains who begin to select their team from a pool of energetic volunteers. An individual’s induction as a “number one draft pick,” will be determined by the nature of the game, i.e., baseball, football, basketball, or soccer. As the selection process proceeds, an individual’s “worth” becomes strikingly apparent. It is true that not everyone can be the first choice, i.e., the elect group, but it is also true that as the pool of viable candidates decreases, it will be evident that an individual’s likelihood of bench-time increases.
Special interest groups are likewise organized, i.e., “everybody gets to play,” but for how long and in what position is another issue. The captains, and players, of our society are likewise employed. The times and specific “hot items” have changed, but the processes remain the same. The Law of Moses warned the individuals of the nation of Israel, saying, “Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou speak in a cause to turn aside after a multitude to wrest justice: neither shalt thou favor a poor man in his cause” (Exod. 23:2-3). The captains of societal change are not usually interested in “who is in the multitude” as much as they are that there is a multitude.
Media reports (which in and of themselves are iffy) often focus on the events of any given story that will generate an emotional response from the viewers, i.e., rather than following a multitude of peaceful protesters, they will zoom in on tirades of the looters and the “burn our neighborhood down” activist. Therefore, the community organizers, who are focused on making a change, per their agenda, are more interested in gathering a multitude of emotionally charged youth (21-28 yrs. of age) than they are those who show a sense of maturity (28-35 yrs. of age), or heart be still, a demographic compiled of those whose growth of intellectual and reasoning powers are best fit to make rational choices (42-49 yrs. of age).
In some areas of life, each individual falls into the multitude pool: neither good nor bad. Concerning the Lord’s warning to Israel, “Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil” (Ibid.), but then there is the elect: “Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sake, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. Faithful is the saying: For if we died with him, we shall also live with him: if we endure, we shall also reign with him: if we shall deny him, he also will deny us: if we are faithless, he abideth faithful; for he cannot deny himself” (2 Tim. 2:10-13), and the chosen: “But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, for that God chose you from the beginning unto salvation in sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: whereunto he called you through our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (2 Thess. 2:13-14).
The elect, the chosen (“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ: even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before him in love: having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself, according to the good pleasure of his will…” (Eph. 1:3-5). God had predetermined the means of adoption, i.e., “in Christ.” Thus, the foreordained, or chosen, applied to the method, not to the recipient, i.e., God did not pre-determine who would receive the spiritual blessings, but how an individual accesses the spiritual blessings: in Christ, seeing that “For the grace of God hath appeared, bringing salvation to all men” (Titus 2:11). Every one of the elect, the chosen, are equally important: “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ did put on Christ. There can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither bond nor free, there can be no male and female; for ye all are one man in Christ Jesus. And if ye are Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, heirs according to promise” (Gal. 3:27-29).
“Seeing that ye look for these things, give diligence that ye may be found in peace, without spot and blameless in his sight” (2 Pet. 3:14), and let us not, as Paul admonished Timothy, entangle ourselves “in the affairs of this life; that he may please him who enrolled” us: “No man can serve two masters” (Matt. 6:24). ret
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