“They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.”
John 17:16
Once a slave trader, then an Anglican cleric and slavery abolitionist, John Newton understood the phrase, “Now we see differently.” He wrote of it this way:
“As believers, we are strangers and pilgrims upon earth. Heaven is our country, and the Lord is our King. … We must not conform to the maxims of the world. The world in various instances calls evil good, and good evil. But we are to have recourse to the law, and to judge … by the unerring word of God. … We are to obey God rather than man, though upon this account we may expect to be despised or reviled, to be made a gazing-stock or a laughing-stock. … We must bear our testimony to the truth as it is in Jesus … and walk in the practice of universal obedience, patiently endure reproaches, and labor to overcome evil with good.
“Thus we shall show that we are not ashamed of Him. And there is an hour coming when He will not be ashamed of us, who have followed Him and borne His cross in the midst of a perverse generation, but will own our worthless names before the assembled world.”
“As believers, we are strangers and pilgrims upon earth. Heaven is our country, and the Lord is our King. … We must not conform to the maxims of the world. The world in various instances calls evil good, and good evil. But we are to have recourse to the law, and to judge … by the unerring word of God. … We are to obey God rather than man, though upon this account we may expect to be despised or reviled, to be made a gazing-stock or a laughing-stock. … We must bear our testimony to the truth as it is in Jesus … and walk in the practice of universal obedience, patiently endure reproaches, and labor to overcome evil with good.
“Thus we shall show that we are not ashamed of Him. And there is an hour coming when He will not be ashamed of us, who have followed Him and borne His cross in the midst of a perverse generation, but will own our worthless names before the assembled world.”
Scripture Focus
Romans 12:1-2
Insight
“Fading is the worldling’s pleasure,/ All his boasted pomp and show;/ Solid joys and lasting treasure,/ None but Zion’s children know.” (John Newton, 1779)
Bible In A Year
- Isaiah 16-17
- Psalm 79
- John 20
