| THEME: | LOVE NOT THE WORLD |
| LESSON: | FOUR |
| TOPIC: | The Believer and This World |
| TEXT: | James 1:27, 1John 2:15-16, 5:19, John 14:30 Psalm 73:1-19 |
MEMORY TRACK:
By the grace of God, in our last lesson, we saw that the world is the brainchild of God’s enemy (2 Cor 4:4). It is the devil’s tool for raising allegiant souls in the earth. It therefore stands to reason that all its suggestions and operations, if followed to their destination or conclusion, would invariably lead a soul away from the Lord and into perdition (2Timothy 4:10). Today, we trust God to shed light on how believers ought to interact with this present world.
THE WAR OF WORLDS (John 8:23, Prov 15:24)
The believer is burdened with two opposing reigns within his or her being. Two opposing worlds are at loggerheads with each other in every believer. There is the world above, the heavenly conversation which is responsible for the regenerated human spirit (Phil 3:20), and there is the world beneath, the earthly, fleshly corrupt life that runs EVERY SOUL, whether saved or not (Eph 2:2-3; 1Cor 12:2). The world we love is the world that will thrive within us. SELAH!
THE BELIEVER AND THIS WORLD
The world lieth in wickedness yet Jesus in praying for all saints did not ask that the Father take us out of the world (John 17:14-16). This reveals that Jesus was not immediately particular about a physical relocation, but more of an innate contamination.
This makes it critical for us as wayfaring saints to know how we ought to interface and interact with the world and yet escape the corruption that is in it, avoiding the allure of its promises while we are in this present world (2 Peter 1:4). This capacity and skill is one key thing salvation delivers to the soul.
A certain understanding ought to govern all our dealings in and with the present world, explained below.
THE WORLD IS PASSING AWAY! (1 John 2:17; 1 Cor 7:31)
It is a forgone conclusion by the Lord God Almighty, that the world is transient. It is with this understanding that saints should base their interaction with the world. There is an expiration date on the world and all the things of it. No dealing with the world should be approached with a sense of everlasting continuity.
The world and all its kingdoms, arrangements and order are passing away! All the successes, achievements and glories of the world are not worth a single soul. Why? Because every soul was made to outlast this world. This revelation needs to dawn on a soul and the degree to which the temporality of the present world is a soul’s reality, is the degree to which the soul has experienced salvation.