They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world – John 17:16.
The Bible tells us in 1 John 5:19; ‘We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.’ We are of God suggests that we are of a different school of thought, a different way of life, a different Kingdom. Sitting by and allowing satan to deceive us into worldliness is counterproductive. Satan has masterfully crafted his ploy to deceive, if possible, even the elite (Matthew 24:24). It is not wise to not address the pining for things you had left behind when you first believed as a child of God. The excuses we make to live like Godless people while being the sanctified will only produce death (James 1:14-15). True Christianity is supernatural, it is power and a daily victorious procession in Christ. The moment you have to explain why you are defeated and weak, and even quote scripture, tells you something is wrong. It is no longer Christianity. We are not living as we ought to, hence we are not bearing the fruit of righteous living as we ought to.
“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. “1 John 2:15. In this we have to do serious introspection. The Lord does not want us devoted to anything of this world, because the scripture tells us that when we are devoted to anything other than God, the love of the Father is not in us. It doesn’t matter what it is, when it goes against the witness of the Holy Spirit within you it is not good for you. Because of worldliness we esteem ‘making a living’ higher than seeking and living for God. Even bemoaning the lack of success instead of seeking the mind of God is of itself idolatry. Other Christians are vested man pleasers, they will put God in the back banner to meet the requests and desires of people they want to impress, idolatry. Do not love the world, friendship with the world is enmity with God (James 4:4). The love we should have for God is the one that will help us overcome carnal inclination and lead us to grow in the things of the Spirit. As we grow into the fullness of God in love, a war will ensue between the flesh and the Spirit (Galatians 5:16-18) because there is no way you can say you love God and abound in the things of this world at the same time.
‘Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour’ 1 Peter 5:8, we need to be careful, the things that take up all our time that we claim we don’t have time for the word and prayer are not innocent. The devil is crafty deceiving us to believe there are things that are more important than God, things that are more important than the Church, that is a lie, and not only are we being deceived in that state, we are being killed. Nothing is more important than God, nothing is more important than your role and membership in the body of Christ (Mark 12:30, Ephesians 1:22-23, 1 Timothy 3:15). Anything that leads you to compromise God, anything that is swaying you to compromise His Word is an enemy. We are supposed to have repented from dead works, not searching scripture to excuse worldy behavior with impunity. The devil’s game is too slick for the carnal mind, put on the mind of Christ, abide in the love of Christ, and hate what God hates!
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