Do Not Love the World

As Christians, we are confronted with three great and powerful enemies. These three enemies are, "The world, the flesh and the devil." They are terrible enemies that we MUST OVERCOME if only we want to be saved. However, in this article, we will consider only one of these enemies which the Holy Bible warns us not to be "conformed" unto. The enemy that we will consider briefly in this article is called, "THE WORLD."

My cherished Brothers and Sisters, this world is under the dominion of Satan who is its "prince" and who controls its policies and politics. Satan is the god of this world who directs its various religious practices. This present evil world is hostile to godliness. This present evil world is dominated by selfish ambition, pride, greediness, self-pleasing and sensuous desires and interests. Its opinions are false. Its aims are selfish. Its pleasures are sinful. Its influence is totally demoralizing and soul-ruining. Its politics are corrupt. Its honours are short-lived and worthless. This present evil world is at rebellion against our God. It is in opposition to God.

Dear Friends, this world seeks to gratify its own sinful lusts with no thought of or concern for God's will or glory. Most men and women of today do not care about the provocative dresses they put on, many do not care about the means they use to obtain wealth while most people now do not differentiate between what is good or spiritual to watch or listen to. Even as many keep loving the world, it is high time for God's children to walk on the path of righteousness and separate themselves from the world. It is God's purpose that as Christians we should detach our affections and interests completely from the things of this physical and corrupt world and set them upon things above. But from the look of things now, it is hard to detect any line of separation between those of us that claim to be Christians and the world. Looking at the way that so many of us conduct ourselves, it is difficult if not impossible to distinguish "him that believes" from "him that believes not" that Jesus is the only Saviour of humanity. It was never in the mind of God that as His people, we should make ourselves at home here, because our, "citizenship is in heaven" (Philippians 3:20).

God separated Abraham from his people, and "righteous Lot" and his family members from the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. God carefully separated Israel from the nations and set them apart by special laws and customs. And during these final hours of the world's history, He commands us to, "have no fellowship" with unbelievers, or be, "unequally yoked" with them.

With all these things in our view, what are we doing? Are we obeying God's command to separate ourselves from the world? If we are not, why are we not? Will God accept any of our useless excuses? He has given us our marching orders to represent Him in character in this world. Our duty is to do just that! Do we think we can mix the things of this wicked world with our lives and not sin? It's impossible. Sin is a serious matter. Jesus Christ, the very Son of God suffered and died in order to deliver us from it, and yet great numbers of those of us who claim to be Christians are taking an active part in the world's merrymaking and mad struggle after this world's pleasures, wealth and temporal rewards! If we do not believe in the loving and humble Jesus as the Saviour of humanity, then let us quit our miserable pretense of being His followers. In other words, let us stop being hypocrites and take our Christian walk seriously in these evil last days.

Any of us who is seeking God must be prepared to make a full surrender of all sinful and worldly prospects, pleasures and benefits, and give himself or herself completely to God. All of us must be willing to give God all the affections of our hearts because His command is,"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with ALL THY HEART" (Numbers 22:37).It is a sad fact that at this end of the world, there are only two kinds of "Christians." These are the "truly repentant or possessors" and the "unrepentant or professors". Those of us who are mere professors of Christianity have been overcome by the love of the world, the cares of the world, the business of the world, the money of the world, the pleasures of the world, the desire to go along with the world, and, sadly enough, the desire to be LIKE the world. Of course, we are only pretending to live holy and religious lives. Yet, we still have the false hope of getting to heaven at last.

Beloved Brothers and Sisters, when God commanded us through Paul to, "Come out from among them," He did not mean that as Christians we must give up all our worldly callings, our trades, our occupations, our businesses. No! If only they are lawful and according to the Holy Bible, we can engage in them. God did not forbid any of us from being teachers, farmers, or nurses, or engineers, just to mention a few. God does not expect man to be idle but busy, "working with his hands the thing that is good" (Ephesians 4:28). The Bible is very clear on the point that, "if any man will not work neither shall he eat" (2 Thessalonians 3:10). We are not to avoid doing any lawful work but, "do with our might whatsoever our hands finds to do" (Ecclesiastes 9:10), being very careful to carry the testimony of Jesus as the only divinely appointed Saviour of the world with us into our businesses, conducting it in the, "fear of the Lord" and to "the glory of God."

Whatever the work of each and every one of us may be, we should of course try everything within our power to do it well. But we must be very careful that we do not permit our work to come between Christ and us. If we find that our worldly affairs are interfering with our Bible studies; if we discover that the affairs of this world are interfering with our private prayers and meditation, and prevents us from actively participating in church activities, so that we do not have adequate time for God as we should, it will be better for us to choose being less rich and prosperous in this world rather than to lose our salvation. For us to do this may require genuine self-denial, but this is the way of true separation from the world. Anything that occupies too much of our time and attention so that we do not have sufficient time for the things of God must be avoided. We are to, "SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD." (Matthew 6:33).

I know of course that it is not an easy thing for us in these evil days not love this sinking world and separate ourselves from it even as it approaches its swift destruction. For us not to love the world demands a constant struggle, a continuous conflict and extreme self-denial. For us not to love the world and its evil ways requires a strong determination on our part. But if the heart of each one of us is right, and we are determined, God Himself will be our Helper.

My dear Readers, the time is short. The end of all things is at hand. The night is coming when none of us can work on his or her salvation. The judgment will soon be set and "the books opened." Are we ready to stand before God on the last great Judgment Day? Let us arouse ourselves and refuse to love the world while we still have the grand opportunity today. It will not be long and the things that we now see will have passed away. The time is rapidly approaching when there will be no more gluttonous eating and drinking, partying, and obtaining riches.

Readers, let us kindly consider these things more seriously than we have ever done before. Let us awake while we still have a little probationary time and set our affections on the things above, and not on things of this fallen and sinking world. We should persevere in our separation from the world and take our walk with God most seriously in these present evil last days. If we do this, there is no doubt we will never have regrets for having refused to love the temporal things of this world when our Saviour comes the second time to rescue His children from this wicked world.

Paul Fonsi