A Personal Rule

Who can satisfy God in the last times, when the noble rules of truth have been changed, save for those who scorn this present world?

  - Columba, Altus Prosator (Irish, 6th century)

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

  - 1 John 2.15

There is a love for the world that is altogether proper. It is the love that God Himself has for His world, love that seeks to redeem, restore, and renew the world and all things in it, so that the world may realize its full potential for bringing glory and honor to God.

This is not what Columba and John were warning about, however. Their concern is with idolatry, with loving the world in place of or above love for God. We love the world wrongly when all our best attention, strength, and time are invested in indulging or serving the world, rather than knowing and serving the Lord.

We love the world wrongly when anything in or of this world is our primary source of delight. It is very easy for us to regard too highly our temporal comforts, material possessions, even our freedoms and privileges in this life. These are all blessings of God, but they must be held lightly.

We satisfy God when we demonstrate love for Him above everyone and everything else, when He is our supreme delight and everything else that comes into our hands is but a way of serving and honoring Him. Interestingly enough, that is also when we love the people and the world around us as we should.

It takes discipline to keep the world in its proper place. Does your practice of spiritual disciplines draw you into the presence of the unseen God with such intensity, such reality, that you find Him more beautiful and more desirable day by day? Do you have the sense of satisfying God with the quality of your devotion to Him?

Seek the Lord; seek Him earnestly, until, by bringing you into His glory, He shows you how to increase love for Him, and to decrease wrongful love for this transient life.

Today at The Fellowship of Ailbe

ReVision - Our series on moral relativism continues with a critique of "make-believe ethics."

In the Gates - The Law of God is useful for defining sin. How and why that is true is the subject of our daily columns all this week.

The Legacy of Patrick - There's still time to get your copy - and copies of your friends - of this concise volume outlining the achievement of the Celtic Revival.

Thank you for considering us in your prayers and giving.

T. M. Moore, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.