Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?
Teaching: LOVE NOT THE WORLD NOR THE THINGS IN THE WORLD
Date Recorded: September 3, 2017
Teacher: Jerry Robinson
Description: You have never seen your true enemy with your own eyes. Similarly, you have never seen the glorious and eternal reward that awaits those who overcome this unseen enemy.
Because our physical sight is limited from peering into the spirit world that surrounds us, we are instructed by Paul his second letter to the Corinthians to walk by faith and not by sight.
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Hope that is seen is really no hope at all for who hopes for what he can already see?
Indeed, Hope means hoping when things are hopeless for it is only when everything is hopeless that hope begins to be a strength... So said the famed English writer G. K. Chesterton.
Despite the the level of our faith in God and our hope in the the world to come, we are still limited in our vision in this earthly body.
The Apostle Paul compares our limited vision in this fallen world to "seeing but a dim reflection as in a mirror; but after this life, "then we shall see face to face." Now we know in part; after this life or when our Lord returns, whichever comes first "then we shall know fully, even as we are fully known."
The Bible instructs us numerous times to know our enemy and to avoid his world system.
The spirit of the world. (1 Cor. 2:12)
The wisdom of this world (1 Cor. 3:19)
The way of the world (1 Cor. 7:31)
The lusts of the world (Tit. 2:12)
The corruption that is in the world (2 Pet. 1:4)
The defilement of the world (2 Pet. 2:20)
The things that are in the world (1 John 2:15)
The world knew not God (1 Cor. 1:21)
The world's works are evil (John 7:7)
The world cannot receive the spirit (John 14:17)
The world hated Christ (John 15:18)
My kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36)
I have overcome the world (John 16:33)
Now judgment is upon this world (John 12:31)
Friendship with the world is enmity with God (James 4:4)
If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. (1 John 2:15)
The world hates followers of Christ (John 17:14)
Our faith overcomes the world (1 John 5:4)
Many Christians today think that their portion of the world is okay while the rest is bad. American Christians for example, falsely believe their country and government are okay while the rest of the world is not, unless they look exactly like them. Strangely, the more a country looks like America in its overconsumption and style of government the more apt American Christians are to think of that nation as somewhat separate from the "evil" parts of the world.
If the world embraces your form of faith, you are on the broad road.
Our modern world is, by definition, opposed to faith in Christ.
If this teaching blesses you, please share it with someone else who you think might appreciate it.
