Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things;
And give me life in your ways. Psalms 119.37
Here's the key
question to sort out. What are 'worthless things'? What qualifies?
Lots of religious
groups have created their lists of things that good Christians just have to
avoid - their versions of 'worthless things'. And these lists are always
changing. What we want is to hear what the Scriptures have to say about this.
So, here's how Paul
answered that question for himself.
Indeed,
I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ
Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count
them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ. Philippians 3:8
I think that
'rubbish' works pretty well for a synonym of 'worthless things'.
Paul is clear.
Anything that gets in his way of gaining Christ is a 'worthless thing' that has
to go. Seeing it this way is quite helpful because it means there isn't any
one-size-fits-all list. What might be worthless for me may not be for you. This
also means that some very good things might become 'worthless things' for this
or that person. So, for example, there are those Christians for whom even their
children qualify as 'worthless things' since, as parents, they place their
children too high on their list of
priorities. Good things can become 'worthless things'.
So, what we need is
for the Spirit to identify those aspects of our lives that qualify as
'worthless things'. That's something to pray for. What's at stake, according to
the psalmist, is the life that comes from walking in God's ways.