“The World’s Stain”

James 1:27
“Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”

There are plenty of “big” extravagant and outrageous sins in this fallen world. After all, this world is extravagant in glorifying its outrageous fallenness. And we spend plenty of time discussing those outrageous sins while furrowing our brow at those who do them. We often hear sermons about how wicked these sins are and we shout our hearty “Amens!” in righteous condemnation of them. So, dear friend, it is not rape, pedophilia, murder, or any other number of sins that we likely do not struggle with that I care to speak about with you today...no....instead I want to talk with you about mud.

Just some days ago I came home from daily busyness and as I was sitting down to relax I noticed something alarming: there were muddy foot prints in my wife’s home! (Only a married man will understand that last bit) Who could have committed this travesty? And why would they? So I prepared my list of likely offenders...but as I ran down the roll of potential suspects, I quickly realized that only I was home. Imagine my surprise when I realized that I was the guilty party! Somehow in my travels that day I had unknowingly stepped in mud and now it had left clear evidence of the fact in clear display. Mud leaves it’s mark.
God’s word tells us that this evil world works much the same way. Sometimes without even our knowing, it can leave a mark on us. James calls it a “stain”. The idea is that something pure has been dirtied. My friend, this world is a spiritually muddy place...and often without too much coaxing, we step right in. A coworker gets the promotion we were sure we deserved and we step in the mud of jealousy. Our husband comes home and has forgotten to buy milk AGAIN and we stumble in the mud of angry and uncaring words. Our neighbor just refuses to stop being just so completely strange so we slip in the mud of personal judgment. On and on the muddy list goes; but not only does it not have to be this way, it mustn’t. The Lord has saved us for more than to be destined for this world’s mud. He has called us to love His loves and hate His hates. Isn’t it such a wonderfully humbling fact that God will give us the strength we need to accomplish His will? If we’ve fallen into sin, He promises to forgive and cleanse when we seek Him.

So I ask you, dear reader, is there any of this world’s mud on you? Where do you need to be most careful that you don’t step in it? At the office? In the car? With the family? In front of your computer or TV? Perhaps the most wise answer would be to say that we must be watchful everywhere and all the time...because like we said...this world is a muddy place, and The Lord’s wants His people like my wife wants her carpet: spotless.