"Do not learn the way of the nations....for the customs of the peoples are false:" (Jeremiah 10:1-2)
In Jeremiah's time, the prophet was warning the people of Israel from learning foreign ways.
Jeremiah gives us the same warning today. But for us, "foreign" takes on a different meaning. Our danger is not that we pick up customs from other cultures or nations or ethnicities. The danger for us lies in our very own culture and within our borders.
As God's people, our first allegiance belongs to God's Kingdom. This means above and beyond any other loyalty. When our loyalty to other things--nation, family, friends, work, sports teams, school, ideology---presses on us, we are to consider whether or not it supports our citizenship in God's Kingdom. If it does not, we are to follow the customs that God has given us and let the other go.
Sometimes the footsteps of Jesus lie parallel to the way the world would have us go; sometimes Jesus' steps go in the opposite direction. God asks us to note the difference and to choose to walk the Way.
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