Meditations

Dangerous Friends Woe to the World for Temptations to Sin Matthew 18, 7 The world already bears God's condemnation on its forehead, and yet it dares to set itself up as a judge to hand down decisions on every subject. We say we want to love God, and yet we cringe in fear of displeasing the world, God's irreconcilable enemy. O adulterous soul, unfaithful to the holy bridegroom, do you not know that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? Therefore woe to those who try to please the world, that blind, corrupt judge. But what is the world? Is the world nothing but a mirage, an empty phrase? No, it is that crowd of worldly friends who carry on conversations with me every day. People who pass for moral folk, people who have their honor, people whom I love and by whom I am loved, but who do not love me for God's sake. Those are my most dangerous friends. An avowed enemy could only kill my body, but those people have killed my soul. So that is what I mean by the world, and I must flee from it in horror if my desire is to follow Jesus Christ.