I once heard a friend, Mrs. Beka Horton of Pensacola Christian College say, humorously, in her teaching, “Young Samuel’s weaning time must have been the longest in the Bible.”
And so it might be said of many of us, God’s children. It takes a lifetime for this to be accomplished in some of our lives, if even then. If you’re familiar with the scripture you are aware this is God’s plan for us, from the very inception of our Christian lives; that is, TO WEAN US FROM THE WORLD!
The word “World,” like many other words in the Bible can have various meanings. Allow me to cite just a few: it can mean the material earth, the trees, rivers, mountains, and so on; or mankind, that is its people, humanity; and it can also mean its belief system, the philosophy and standards it lives by, etc.
In this article I speak mainly of the latter, being weaned from its ideological system of thinking and reasoning. David tells us in his first Psalm a man is blessed who does not adhere to the world’s ways! Some of these include its political, religious, and moral views; and a host of other inclusionary opinions and beliefs. Its so-called, values in general!
Paul warns of the danger of feeding on this world’s system of beliefs and practices, to the church at Colosse he wrote, “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments [principles] of the world, and not after Christ.”
Jesus spoke of another world we are to conform to; it is in contrast to this present evil world.” A.W. Tozer in his writings, as did Oswald Chambers, wrote often about being, “Other-world minded.”
Our Lord, in His high priestly prayer tells us He chose us out of the world, while leaving us in it. Like an ice tray, when the cubes are freed from the tray they’re still in the tray. Thus, we are not of the world [system] but still in the world [the material part].
We can enjoy the world God made [material], while living in it; and at the same time rejecting the doctrinal [concepts] of the god of this world!
“Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.”~ Isa. 28:9
by an Aged Disciple of Jesus Christ