His name was Samuel Augustus Maverick. He was born in Pendleton, South Carolina, on July 23, 1803. He was educated at home until he was 18 years old. He went to college at Yale and received his degree in 1825. He later studied law and obtained law licenses in Virginia and Texas. He practiced law and was active in politics. He lived in several states before moving to Texas and settling in San Antonio. He fled to Gonzales based on rumors of an impending Mexican invasion of San Antonio.
When Samuel Maverick returned to San Antonio, he left a small herd of cattle with caretakers on the Matagorda Peninsula. His herd was unbranded and allowed to wander. The term maverick came to mean an unbranded cow. Over time, the term maverick took on the additional meaning of an unbranded individual--someone whose style or activities are very different from those of the average person.
The purpose of this article is to encourage you to be a Christian maverick unbranded by this world as we wait for the Kingdom of God.
Do Not Be Spotted with the Sins of the World
We are not to be branded as belonging to this world and its god Satan the Devil. Our religion must be pure. Here is how James defines pure religion n James 1:27:
"Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." (KJV)
A part of keeping our religion pure is to visit orphans and widows and help them. Today, we will focus on the other aspect of pure religion--keeping ourselves unspotted from the world. The word unspotted means irreproachable.
The book of James illustrates how we must have works to demonstrate our faith. These works include not only exerting effort to perform acts of mercy, but they also include working on ourselves with the help of God’s Holy Spirit to build righteous character. To keep ourselves unspotted from the world, we must forsake its lusts that offer temporary pleasure but that leave behind the scars of its brand.
The apostle John also gave instructions on not loving the world. Here is what he wrote in I John 2:15-17:.
"15Love 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. 16For 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. 17And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever." (KJV)
The word love here is agapao, which, with respect to things, means to be well pleased or to be contented with things. If anyone is so contented with things and wrapped up in them, he does not have the agape love that comes from God.
We are to love the people in the world with compassion even as God so loved the world that he gave us his begotten son Jesus Christ so that those who believe in him may have eternal life (John 3:16). We are to love our neighbors as ourselves. The story of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37) shows that anyone in need with whom we come in contact is our neighbor.
While we are to love our neighbors, we are to avoid lusting for the things in the world. The word lust means a desire for something that is forbidden.
The Lust of the Flesh
The lust of the flesh includes a longing for things we could do with our bodies, but which God forbids. Therefore, lust includes all forms of illicit sexual activity, gluttony, and drunkenness.
Pleasing our physical bodies is not wrong if we do so in accordance with the law of God. However, living to eat or becoming drunk is wrong. The food or drink we consume is usually not a problem, but food or drink can become a problem if it consumes us. Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. We are not our own. We should glorify God in our bodies (I Corinthians 6:19).
The Lust of the Eyes
The lust of the eyes is the means through which beauty and riches can inflame us with unlawful passions that war against the lead of the Holy Spirit. Our physical eyes can covet people or things that are not lawful for us to have and our minds’ eyes begin to imagine that we already have them and the pleasure they would bring us. The lust of the eyes causes us to focus on the pleasures of sin for a season while ignoring the pain of its brand.
Having money and material possessions is not wrong as long as money and material possessions do not have us. Abraham is the father of the faithful, and he was a very wealthy man. Abraham kept the law of God. Abraham proved his willingness to obey God fully when he offered up Isaac as a sacrifice. Job was also a very wealthy man, but God allowed Satan to take away his wealth, his health, and his family. After Job repented and prayed for his friends, God gave him twice as much as he had before (Job 42:10).
The apostle John in III John 2 wrote to Gaius that he wished that above all things that he prosper and be in health just as his soul prospered. John is not contradicting what he wrote in I John 2. Prospering financially in the same measure as our soul prospers is good. However, we cannot serve two masters—God and materialism (Matthew 6:24). We must seek first the Kingdom of God (Matthew 6:33).
What we own is not as important as who owns us for we were bought with a great price—the precious blood of the Lamb. The size of the house in which we live is not as important as who lives in us--for it is Christ in us the hope of glory. We are to be good trustees of our money and material possessions for the purpose of serving God.
The Pride of Life
The third thing in the world that we are to avoid is the pride of life. The word pride means “empty, braggart talk” or “an insolent and empty assurance, which trusts in its own power and resources and shamefully despises and violates divine laws and human rights.” Satan’s heart was lifted up with pride when he turned to iniquity. We must not fall into Satan’s trap of pride and its philosophy of humanism. We must rely on God to meet our needs.
Renewing Our Minds
What are we to do to avoid loving the world and bearing its brand? Here is what the apostle Paul wrote about this subject in Romans 12:2: "And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." (KJV)
The word renewing means a complete renovation. This renewal must continue after our initial conversion. Paul was writing to converted members of the Church of God in Rome. We are transformed to be different from the world from the inside out through the power of God’s Holy Spirit. Merely having different customs from the world is not sufficient because we could fall into pride as did the Pharisees. We must change not only our actions, but also our motives. We prove what is good and right by being transformed from within and then living that way.
To avoid being conformed to the world we must change by renewing our minds. We should renew our minds daily by feeding on the spiritual food of God’s word. We prove what the perfect will of God is not just by an intellectual exercise but by applying God’s law in our lives.
Conclusion
How are we to renew our minds? Here is what the apostle Paul wrote in II Corinthians 4:16-18:
"16For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. 17For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; 18While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." (KJV)
We must keep our eyes on God’s gift of eternal life and on our rewards in the Kingdom of God. We must forsake the lusts of the world and be filled with God’s Spirit. Our lifestyle and activities are to be very different from those of the average person in the world. Following the ways of the world can brand us with physical and emotional scars that can be very difficult, if not humanly impossible, to remove. If we confess our sins and repent, the shed blood of Jesus Christ can remove all of our sins so that we are not spiritually branded by them.
We walk through this world as strangers and pilgrims just as Samuel Maverick’s cattle roamed the pasture. As we walk through this world while seeking the Kingdom of God, we should strive not to be branded with the sins of this world. With God's help, each us should strive to be a Christian maverick. |
