“When the Church and the world can jog together comfortably, you may be sure there is something wrong. The world has not been altered. Its spirit is exactly the same as it ever was. If Christians were equally faithful and devoted to the Lord, and separated from the world, living lives that reprove all ungodliness, the world would hate them as much as it ever did.”
Those words from Catherine Booth of the Salvation Army should strike a chord in the heart of any Christian. Because today, more than it was when she penned those words, the world and the church not only jog together; they sit and sleep together. So sad.
The modesty of a Christian has been diluted by the “modernity” of the world – inside out.
But does this change God’s word? No!
1 John 2:15-17 still sits in its golden position in God’s sacred word, the Bible.
“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”
Love not the world – its systems, practices, lifestyle, attitude, fashions, behaviour… Anything that doesn’t agree with the dictates of God and His word is of the world. You cannot marry the world and marry Christ at the same time.
These worldly allurements described as the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life are the same things that caused Adam and Eve to be driven from the garden of Eden (Genesis 3:6). The devil still uses them in enticing men today. He has succeeded in catching the world, and now creeps into the church to steal those who call themselves Christians.
He makes them believe the lie of “it doesn’t matter” and “Christianity is in the heart” and “this is the 21st century”.
But none of those statements can annul God’s word which, as the Bible says, stands forever.
“Come out from among them and be ye separate…. Love not the world… Ye cannot serve God and mammon… We are in the world, but we are not of the world…” These scriptural truths cannot change. God cannot change. And as Christians, He expects and demands that we do not change with the changing world.
Not that we shouldn’t keep up with modern inventions and technologies that help to make life easier and better. We can and should. But we shouldn’t accept and conform to anything that opposes the infallible word of God.
By their fruits, ye shall know them. If you are a Christian, where is your FRUIT? Prove it by the life you live.
