The Hope of the Believer . . .

THE WORLD'S SQUEEZE PLAY 

Don't let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold, but let God remold your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves toward the goal of true maturity. — Ro. 12:2 (Phillips)

Basketball teams have what they call a squeeze play. Military commanders have also been known to put the "squeeze" on their enemy, at sea as well as on land. Predatory animals also use this tactic. When such a maneuver is properly executed, it is very difficult for the prey to escape. Phillips' rendition of this passage recognizes that the world is one vast "squeeze play" for the Christian. The world is out to fence us in and to do us in. It not only pushes and shoves but it seeks to get a vice grip on us. It intends to squeeze us into its own mold.

The world does this through a vast arsenal of weapons, "carnal weapons" Paul would call them, but they are crafty, deceitful, and alluring. Sin is attractive to the eye and appealing to the ego. The world's squeeze play feeds upon human vanity. It is easy for us to lose our way in seeking to be "men-pleasers," in spite of the warnings of Scripture. We all have a great need for approval and applause, and that is as it should be. The problem is that we seek approval at the wrong source, from men rather than from God. One of the noblest things said about our Lord was that "Even Christ did not please Himself" (Ro. 15:3). It is neat the way Paul says that. If anyone should please himself it would be Christ, but even he chose to please God rather than himself. One of the ignoblest things said of anyone in Scripture was said of the Jewish rulers who actually believed in Christ but they would not confess it' lest they be cast out of the synagogue, "for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God" (Jn. 12:43).

This is why the world has us in a squeeze play, we don' t want to be cast out of the synagogue! There are "synagogues" all around us that are ready to do us in if we do not fit the mold. It begins when we are kids in school and it never lets up right down to the office, factory, and church. There is always the demand to conform, to fit the mold that the world cuts for us. It is so easy to yield to the pressure. There is always the demonic whisper, "One must get along; don't rock any boats." The world's ace card is its own alluring approval. Disapproval and rejection are too much for most of us, and to be shamed is understandably unbearable.

Most theologians recognize that this is the essence of the suffering of Christ, not the physical suffering of crucifixion as much as the shame of the Cross. He suffered the agony of rejection, not only from men but from God as well. Heb. 12:2 says it this way: "for the joy set before Him he endured the Cross, despising the shame."

Some of the references our Lord makes to the world may help us to deal with its squeeze play. Such as Jn. 16:33: "In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." The world's squeeze play didn't work on Jesus. He was not deceived by its craftiness nor did he yield to its demands for conformity. We are to be like our Lord in reference to the world in that we are to think only in terms of overcoming it. He tells us how this is done: by being of good cheer in the face of hardship. We can be of good cheer because we have hope. It was "because of the joy set before him" that Jesus was invulnerable to the world's squeeze play.

Jesus also said of the world: "If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you" (Jn. 15:18). The world here is not the rank and file of people as much as the religious and political power brokers, "the System" that eventually condemned Jesus to the Cross. This system, which is inspired by the demonic forces of hell, will not tolerate nonconformity. It will hate and destroy anything or anyone that threatens its own existence. This is why the church itself, victimized by the System, will often hate and persecute its most Christ-like members on the pretext of their being heretics. Luther was no problem so long as the pope could brush his antics off as merely "a monk's quarrel." It was when he loomed as a threat to the System that the pope took action. This is what Jesus means by "the world," which is as religious as it is secular, and it is this that seeks to tighten the screws on all those who do not line up.

We overcome the world and escape its squeeze play by allowing God to renovate us from within. Phillips puts it this way: "let God remold your minds from within." The KJV renders it: "be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds." This shows that our minds matter, and that if we yield to the working of God through the Holy Spirit within us we can have a "new mind" as the Jerusalem Bible puts it. While it is God who works within us "both to will and to do for His good pleasure," as Philip. 2:13 has it, there has to be effort on our part. That is why in the same context the apostle tells us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. It is not a matter of being afraid of God but of being awed by his power.

The world has the money, the power, the institutions, and the positions of influence. It also has the allurements of the flesh and the enticements of pleasure. It is well equipped to squeeze people into its mold. Each person has to decide where he will cast his lot. In combat with the world we are all disadvantaged except for one thing, resources from within. The renewed mind that is resolved not to be hoodwinked by the world's confetti will, like Jesus himself, overcome the world.

All this proves what nothing else can prove, that the plan of God for us is good, acceptable, and perfect. Or as Phillips has it: "so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves toward the goal of true maturity."

The pragmatic test of truth is the only one that stands up and walks. We can argue doctrine for an eternity and still prove nothing. The world has no argument against a renewed mind and a changed life. That is a great phrase in Phillips' rendition — "that you may prove in practice." When the proof is there in the form of a changed life, the world has no power to apply its squeeze play. It may hate, persecute, and even seek to destroy, but it can't win.— the Editor