The church is not to be conformed to this world

 

e.       The church is not in conformity to this world

It is hard for some people to conceive the idea how the church could be in the world, but not of the world. But Jesus said quite emphatically; “I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth” (John 17:14-17).

The church because of her status, is a living sacrifice to God, and has been admonished saying; “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God”.

The church has been forewarned saying; "Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities” (Romans 12:1-2; Revelations 18:4).

So although we have been duly instructed to submit ourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king as supreme or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good: For this is the will of God, that by doing good we may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men ---as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God. Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king” (1Peter 2:13-17).

Nevertheless, when it comes to our human body and the way we think we are to be careful to present it as a holy living sacrifice to God which is our reasonable service, for this is the will of God, our sanctification: that we should abstain from sexual immorality; that each one should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit.

The main reason why the church should not be in conformity to this world it is because, the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned and the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So the way the world thinks and the way the church thinks is contrary to each other.

For example, the world has just used a kidney from a genetically modified pig and implanted it in a human being, should the church, the body of Christ, the temple of the Holy Spirit subject themselves to such defilement? The church therefore should take cognizance of what they allow to enter and associate with their body and what laws they subject themselves to for we ought to obey God rather than man.

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With brotherly love

Lucius Joseh