Right-Side Up In An Upside-Down World

All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.

2 Timothy 3:12

This is a spiritual law which is as unchangeable as the law of gravity. We must get this fact firmly fixed in our minds: we live in an upside-down world. People hate when they should love; they quarrel when they should be friendly; they fight when they should be peaceful; they wound when they should heal; they steal when they should share; they do wrong when they should do right.

I once saw a toy clown with a weight in its head. No matter how it was placed, it invariably assumed an upside-down position. It could be placed on its feet or on its side, and when let go it flipped back on its head.

In our unregenerate state we are just like that! Regardless of the circumstances, we always revert to an upside-down position. From childhood to maturity we are always prone to do what we should not do and to refrain from doing what we ought to do. That is our nature. We have too much weight in the head and not enough ballast in our hearts, so we flip upside down when left alone.

That is why the disciples seemed to be misfits to the world. To an upside-down man, a right-side up man seems upside down. To the nonbeliever the true Christian is an oddity and an abnormality. A Christian’s goodness is a rebuke to another’s wickedness; his being right-side up is a reflection upon the worldling’s inverted position. So the conflict is a natural one. And mockery, scorn, rejection, and even outright persecution are inevitable.

Our Father and our God, why do I end up standing on my head so often? I am repeatedly distracted by the temptations of this upside-down world. Keep me right-side up, Lord, and in right relationship with You. Balance my life with Your Spirit. Through Christ Jesus my Lord I pray. Amen.

Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).