Life in This World: You Will Be Hated. Last week we looked at what Jesus and the Bible tells us about how live in the here and now – which is to live only in Christ, abiding in Him. The Bible has still more to say on this. Jesus tells us that we, though living now in this world, are actually no more of the world, just like He, when He walked the Earth, was not of this world ( Jn 17:16 ; cf. 17:20 ). Yet Christ has no intention of removing us from the world but intercedes for us that we be protected from the devil ( Jn 17:14-16 ; Mt 6:13 ).  So He does want us in this world. There’s no mistake. We’re supposed to be here. In fact, Christ has sent us into the world ( Jn 17:18 ). He wants us to be consecrated in truth ( Jn 17:19 ), to bear witness to the truth ( 1 Jn 4:14-15 ), and to preach the Gospel ( Mk 14:9 , 16:15 ). At the same time we must guard ourselves from getting contaminated by the world ( Jas 1:27 ), must not love the world ( 1 Jn 2:15 ), nor model ourselves on t...

Life in This World: Only in Christ       In our series of articles on what Jesus and the Bible tell us about life in this world, we now want to focus specifically on what the Bible says about how live in the here and now.       We who were fallen “in” Adam (as our head), are now risen “in” Christ (as our new head; 1 Cor 15:21-22 ). To put it another way, when we abide in Christ, we are made alive together with Christ, are spiritually raised up with Him [in His Resurrection and Ascension], and spiritually made to sit with Him in the heavenly places ( Eph 2:5-6 ). If this is true, and it is, what does that mean? Well, if we have been raised with Christ, then we must seek the things that are above, to set our minds on things above not on earth ( Col 3:1-2 ). Start living in heaven now. Paul says to put to death what is earthly in us, such as immorality, our passions and vices, and to put on the new man ( Col 3:5-17 ) – our new being now in Christ. To...

Idolatry and the Enemy's Lies.       Lastweek’s article began to address what the Bible tell us about dealing with the evil and demonic in the world. One way evil deceives is under the lie of occult powers or other “gods.”       Let’s consider the experience of one person, we’ll call him Jack. Jack had no religious information in his family growing up, but he had some sense there had to be something more. By the time of his marriage, then birth of his first child, it just made sense that there must be a God.       Now Christianity recognizes that there are some truths about God that people can reach by natural, God-given reason. Jack is at this point. He has a general belief in God because his reason and life experience persuade him it must be so. So he seeks to live a good and loving life the best he can based on that understanding. Hopefully this general belief will enable his to inquire further and, in God’s grace, com...