- 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 Joseph
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