The Two Ways
To become transformed, the first awareness we must arrive at is that there are indeed two separate and very different ways laid out before us. Not many ways, but two ways. It may at times seem more complicated than this but it really is that simple. Naturally, along the way one chooses to go, many crossroads may open up to him, but in the end, when he is laid in his final resting place, the only relevant question to be answered is, did he go GOD's way or the world's way?
ISAIAH 55:8-9 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Here in the Book of the prophet Isaiah, GOD has revealed to the reader the two separate ways, the world's way and HIS. The world's philosophies are not HIS. The morality of this world is not GOD's. The patriotisms of the world are not GOD's. HIS way is totally different than the world's. They don't merge somewhere down the road. The world's way is not going to someday lead man unto GOD but is as separate and distinct from GOD's way as the heavens are from the earth. This basic premise must first be grasped for one to be able to begin his transformation. If we don't first distinguish between these two ways, we are destined to continue moving with the herd.
MATTHEW 7:13-14 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
Here our Lord also has set forth the two ways; the broad way unto destruction and the narrow way unto life. Yeshua (Jesus) often made a point of distinguishing GOD's way, which He followed, as being different from the way of the establishment. He did not embrace the world with open arms as He is portrayed in Art, but rather distinguished Himself from them. "Wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction" actually describes the outstretched arms of the world beckoning to all who might fall for her charms and go her way. The hidden way unto life however is "narrow" and only a few find it. GOD's way is the way of the few, not of the many. It is the solitary way of those outside the camp, who have chosen to answer HIS call.
Yeshua often withdrew from the multitudes to be alone with His inner circle. Here He would explain the parables or show them things to come. On one particular occasion, when He attempted to enlighten His disciples concerning the way of suffering which GOD had chosen for Him, Peter answered in his usual stubborn manner, "this shall not be". Because Peter's thoughts were not yet GOD's thoughts, he reasoned in his mind a more acceptable destiny for Yeshua then GOD had. The way he perceived things should be was the world's more pleasant way. Yeshua was quick to rebuke him, saying, "Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men" (MATTHEW 16:23).
Even today there is great temptation to reject the way of GOD and follow the herd, for there appears to be agreement, security and comfort in their camp. The World Trade Organization, the World Council of Churches, the United Nations all strive to guide our feet into the broad way. Their allure is persuasive and their argument seems sound but for those who have ears to hear, GOD's way reveals the craftiness of their calling. Each individual must decide for himself which way he will go. Will he be mastered by the thoughts of the world, or will he be mastered by the thoughts of GOD. To accept one we must reject the other for no one can follow both ways!
ponder the path of thy feet (PROVERBS 4:26)
The world has had eons to construct and establish its systems so as to deceive the hearts of men. Our only hope for enlightenment is to totally and without reservation reject its way. The Book of the PROVERBS repeatedly lays out for us these two ways. The first couple of chapters alone are quite illuminating. "If they say come with us...refrain thy foot from their path." And again, "Because I have called, and ye refused...therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way". Also, "Who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness". Only from Scripture can we learn to separate the way of uprightness from the way of darkness. We must seek HIS way from HIS word and reject all that the world would have us believe about another way.
Here again our Lord shows the two ways.
LUKE 16:15 And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.
These two distinct ways are continually set before us. One way is to be conformed to this age by following the herd and remaining in the comfort of their camp. The other way is to be chosen out of this world and then to seek Him who is "without the camp". The low road is traveled without GOD, by resisting the truth and "kicking against the pricks" (ACTS 26:14). But answering GOD's "high calling" opens the door for us to escape the way of this world. This high road is realized as we obey the truth. Through that obedience we become transformed from the way of this age unto "a new and better way".
Howbeit, we can not find the narrow way on our own. We need GOD to "direct our paths" (PROVERBS 3:6). HE must "guide our feet" (LUKE 1:79). Not our elders, nor our political leaders, not even our religious leaders. The way of patriotism or religion is not unto GOD nor does its end find HIM. If one is willing to read untethered from tradition what is written in the Scriptures, he may discover things very different than what is often taught on Sunday mornings or from Presidential speeches. Take for instance our Lord's own words here in Matthew's Gospel.
MATTHEW 10:34-37 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more that me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
Here again are the two ways. Answering GOD's call may divide families, even households. The son chooses one way and the father another. Some choose to leave the way of the world while others cling to their familiar way. There is no middle ground.
To successfully pursue GOD's way, one must abandon the course of the established world order. These two ways are like oil and water, they never mix, they never harmonize, they never merge. One is the way of Abel, while the other is the way of Cain. One is the way of Abraham, and the other is the way of Lot. One is the way of Noah while the other is the way of the world. As our Lord intimates below in His prayer to the Father, we are not all one brotherhood, one village or one community.
JOHN 17:9 ...I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.
The "them" and the "they" Yeshua prayed for were those who had received and kept His word. Those following the way of the world rejected His word and therefore Yeshua had no prayers to GOD for them. This is far different than what we will hear about Yeshua's ministry from the establishment. We are led to believe that the way of GOD is to unite man in some sort of harmony where we all can get along and profit from a global economy. This is the broad way to destruction. If we would find the narrow way unto life we must leave the course of this world and commence upon a solitary journey. This was Abraham's way (HEBREWS 11:9). It was the way of Moses (HEBREWS 11:27). This was our Lord's way (MATTHEW 14:23). This was the Apostle Paul's way (GALATIANS 1:17). None of them choose the broad way of the world but all choose the narrow way and abandoned the allures of the camp for the kingdom of GOD.
How often in the Bible do we find an individual discovering the true way by joining the establishment? Nearly always the way of GOD is found after he has slipped under the wire and escaped the compound. This is because the establishment is nearly always working against the ways of GOD. Stephen revealed this reality just moments before they stoned him to death, when he asked the religious leaders, "Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted?" (ACTS 7:52).
This establishment stood against Noah, against Joseph, against Moses, against Elijah, and against Daniel. It was the masses which cried out "crucify Him" while Yeshua stood silent before His accusers. It was Paul who beckoned with his hand for silence, but it was the multitude of the people which cried "away with such a fellow from the earth: for it is not fit that he should live. And as they cried out, and cast off their clothes, and threw dust into the air..." (ACTS 22:22-23).
In his second letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul exhorted his readers to be not "unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?" (2 CORINTHIANS 6:14). GOD's narrow way and the world's broad way are two entirely different pursuits. To be yoked together with those following the world's way is like trying to yoke light with darkness. How can we find the narrow way if we are yoked with those moving with the herd? Even with those who seem to have a form of godliness, if they are following the herd, we cannot afford to bare their yoke.
Religion is a very successful tool the world uses to conform men's minds to its way. The Judeans were religious and very devout in the ways they worshipped GOD, yet Yeshua said to them, "Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world" (JOHN 8:23). They talked about GOD and practiced many traditions which they perceived were holy, but going the way of the established order, they only found the broad way of destruction. These were the theologians of Yeshua's day. These were the ones who were educated and were expected to understand the Scriptures. They were the ones who could read and write the original Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. Yet with all that learning, they were not able to come to a knowledge of the truth (2 TIMOTHY 3:7).
But religion is not the world's only tool. Philosophy works almost as well. The Apostle Paul wrote the "saints and faithful brethren" which were at Colosse to beware of this way.
COLOSSIANS 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments [the primary and fundamental principles] of the world, and not after Christ.
Beware! That means to step back and reconsider what we are presented with as being the true way. One way is after the "primary and fundamental principles of the world", the other way is after Christ.
Each man's feet are guided into the broad way of the world from the day he begins to reason. The educational system teaches him that there is no God. Religion teaches him in a false God. His peers teach him to be his own god. No matter where he turns he cannot find truth until he turns from the secular, religious and social orders of the world and as a pilgrim seeks to find the kingdom of GOD with his whole heart, soul, mind and strength.
Consider James' words here in his epistle.
JAMES 4:4 ...know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
Strong words but they accurately depict the nature of our contest. James has cut to the heart of the matter. Thus the choice is ours. We cannot understand GOD while in the camp of HIS enemy. We must escape that "concentration camp" where the world has gathered its captives. We must flee unto the solitude of the Scriptures. Only there can we find the true way of GOD (EPHESIANS 3:4).
1 JOHN 2:15-16 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
It is the world, not GOD, that teaches us to competitively strive to obtain its wares and then to imagine security in our accumulations. It is the world and not GOD that promotes our allegiance to some nation and then uses this "patriotism" to motivate us to support their unholy causes. It is the world and not GOD who uses school sports activities to instill within our children a competitive drive, as if to aspire to disable a young player on the opposing team is okay if it is done to win the game.
Are we proud of our lawn, of our car, of our hair? Does not the world use these emotions to motivate us to buy their fertilizer, their Armorall and their shampoo? As the advertisements relentlessly bombard us with the look or the feel they sell, do we desire it? Do we seek the lifestyle they peddle? If so, the world will love us because we enrich them. If we align ourselves behind their causes we empower them. But if we dare to be different and separate ourselves from their ways, then they despise us; then they hate us. As our Lord testified,
JOHN 17:14 I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
This is quite an astounding thing for Yeshua to declare. The world hated His followers for no other reason than that He had given them GOD's word. They hated His disciples because GOD's word turned them from the course of this world to the kingdom of GOD. When all of the herd is content to be corralled in the pen, all is fine. But when a few begin to search for what might lie beyond their daily rations, then the keepers of the gate rise up against them (LUKE 11:52). This is why the establishment desires that we all become conformed to its way, molded into a form they can then shape and control. They hate a message that may transform men's minds because it stands to reduce their castles to sand (JOHN 11:48). In stark contrast, the words He spoke are sown to free the world's captive slaves from mental bondage, from the power of Satan unto GOD. But where GOD's word goes the world's hate follows. Where that seed of liberty is sown in the hearts of believers, the tares of the enemy are scattered soon after.
After we have received HIS word, and obey that word, and continue in it, we will grow to become repulsed by the "pride of life". We will begin to feel an inner disgust for how religion beguiles and seduces men's minds. We will then be able to glimpse an understanding of why with a whip our Lord violently drove from His Father's house those "changers of money". I'm sure these profiteers would not have gone easily, leaving their gains on the table. What a startling event this would have been to witness as Yeshua whirled His whip and yelled with such force as would have been necessary to eject "them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables" (JOHN 2:15). One wonders why we do not see any portrayals of this event displayed on the walls of our Churches?
As our transformation is accomplished, we will more and more begin to realize the techniques the systems of the world uses to deceive the herd and concentrate them into their camps. It is not so much unlike the rage felt by the liberators of the Nazi concentration camps at the end of World War II. The enemy sucks the life out of their captives until they are reduced to not much more then human debris. And even though the war is over and the victory has been won, many are content to stay within the camp and perish away. They have been so long decaying from the corruption of the world that they know of no other way.
The few who love the truth receive the spirit that is of GOD, which is the spirit of truth (JOHN 14:17), which the world cannot receive. Those who love the world, instead receive a lying spirit from the "prince of this world" (JOHN 14:30), "the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience" (EPHESIANS 2:2). These "are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them" (1 JOHN 4:5). They hear and believe the "rulers of the darkness of this world [age]" (EPHESIANS 6:12), which are identified as "that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world" (REVELATION 12:9). Men are deceived because they become intertwined with the systems of the world. Receiving and obeying GOD's word cuts this cancer from our bones that we can escape its corruption.
2 PETER 1:4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
But escape is only possible if after GOD has freely given us HIS word, that we then believe that word. The broad way leads unto destruction while GOD's narrow way leads unto life. Corruption is accomplished by all the desires the world's systems present us with. Obeying the spirit of truth side steps those desires which otherwise would cause our ruin. To find this narrow way we must first hear and then believe these "exceeding great and precious promises".
JOHN 18:36 Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.
Again the two ways. Why should we fight for the world's economy? Let them fight among themselves while we pursue another way. Let them divide among themselves the temporal kingdoms of this world while we seek an entrance into HIS eternal kingdom.
JOHN 15:19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
Being chosen out of the world is of more consequence than just deciding upon which Church to attend. This is not as simple as choosing whether or not to adopt the religion of our parents or that of our spouse. This isn't even about which Country we are from, one nation under GOD, or a nation where GOD is outlawed. We who have been chosen out of the world are not of any Country. Our "better Country" is not across the oceans but across the heavens. This is about dieing to the ways of the world and being raised together with Christ. We are called unto a different way. We are to step aside and let others chase on after their various passions. We instead are to find the narrow way and in that finding become transformed unto life.