A Lasting Investment

Matthew 5:1-12

God blesses those who are humble, for they will inherit the whole earth. (Matthew 5:5)

A TREND AMONG CHRISTIAN THINKERS and writers of the seventeenth century was to emphasize solitude and separation from the world. A great many Pietists, Jansenists, Puritans, and others felt that forsaking the world was their sacred calling—that everything heavenly and spiritual was so completely “other” than life on a corrupt earth that no one could draw near to God without drawing away from the attachments of society and the vanity of fleeting pleasures. They emphasized the coming of God’s Kingdom not on earth but in heaven. Some of them forgot that the meek will inherit the earth and focused on inheriting an existence far removed from it.

The devotional writers of that century, many of whom have had a profound influence on today’s beliefs and practices, were right that there is great value in maintaining a spiritual separation from the influences of a fallen world. But that attitude of separation can be maintained, as many reformers had taught, even while engaging in the world’s systems and institutions. God does not remain detached from the world, keeping humanity at arm’s length and refusing to invest his heart in us. And neither should we.

Seek to live in balance, fully integrating into the life going on around you without giving your heart to its ways. The issue is not where you live and work but where your affections lie. God’s love will draw your devotion away from the corruption of the world, but it will also compel you to go into the world with love and compassion. If you believe you are to escape from the world and abandon it, you will never influence it. If you see yourself as an inheritor of the world, you will invest in it. And if you invest what God has given you—the fruit and gifts of his Spirit—your inheritance will be all the more beautiful.

{Lord, I’m not exactly sure what it means to inherit the earth, but I know you have plans for this planet that involve those who are humble and submitted to you. May I grow in true meekness daily and share in the fullness of your inheritance. Amen.