Save Yourselves (Acts 2:40)

Acts 2:40 With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.”

In this passage, Peter appeals to every man’s tendency to look out for his own interests, saying, “Save yourselves!” He is not just talking about being saved from sin or being saved from hell, he’s talking about being saved from this world. Peter does not say this as a fiery sermon point. He begs and pleads with them to pull themselves out of the quicksand that is the world.

Peter captures this thought well in another place:

1 Peter 2:11 Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.

There is a battle being waged for my soul, and my sinful desires can gravitate toward the kingdom of the world instead of the kingdom of God.

John makes the allegiances involved in this colossal struggle quite clear. Our hearts love God or the world, not both.
1 John 2:15-17 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For everything in the world — the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does — comes not from the Father but from the world. 17The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.

This is a hard teaching. We all have things in this world that we love, errrr, I mean “like”. It is hard to read this passage without doing a little self-reflection. I guess the question comes down to, who do I really love? It may be best answered by asking, “Who or what consumes my thoughts, my time, and my resources?” If the answer is the things of this world, then it is time for a heart check.

Although I think some of the Amish and Mennonite communities go overboard in detaching from the world, I do admire the idea. If we don’t engage in the world, if we don’t buy the things the world buys, play the games the world plays, and do the things the world does, perhaps the hold the world has on our hearts would loosen. I don’t see anything legalistic at all about trying to detach the grasp of my heart from its hold on the world.

1 Corinthians 7:29-31 What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they had none; 30those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; 31those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.

I think some of the admonitions in 1 Corinthians 7 were related to the “crisis” mentioned in verse 26 which likely relates to some of the afflictions and persecutions faced by the early church. However, I believe the admonition of verse 31 still applies, that we would not be engrossed in the worldly things we use. Instead, we should attempt to “save ourselves from this corrupt generation.”