“Abide in Me” (John 15:4).
Our Christian deportment tells much about our spiritual condition. These days, the enemy, responding to the invitation of most Churches, stalks into the very sanctuary and pollutes the holy place; froth and frolic, religious entertainment, Hollywood ideals, commercial techniques and cheap worldly philosophies now overrun the sanctuary. The grieved Holy Spirit broods over the chaos but no light breaks forth. The hungry sheep look up and are not fed. Why do those attending these religious meeting places not speak out? Because they have been spiritually zombified and can no longer either see the true light or hear the voice of the One speaking from heaven.
Modern Christianity is long on words and short on deeds; it uses the language of power but the conduct of weakness, yet the moral relationship between words and deeds is quite plainly set forth in the life of Christ, the gospels and the epistles. Religion has become disengaged from the practical realm of daily life and retired to the airy region of fancy and fantasy where the sweet insubstantial nothings dwell. While lip service is paid to Christ, He does not have much importance in terms of daily living and is probably not even regarded as real if the truth were known.
We must stop slipping in and out of the kingdom; coming and going in and out of the world. “Abide in Me” Jesus said and the Greek word translated as “abide” is meinate and is in the imperative voice. It means “to dwell in”, not to visit every now and then, but “to continue” or “remain”; it is translated in each of those ways in different passages of the Bible. We can’t abide partially; it is either complete abiding or it is not abiding at all in the Biblical sense of the word. It is a deception of Satan to think that we can live in both the kingdom and the world; with a foot in both camps as it were.
This is what Jesus taught;
“No-one is able to serve two lords; for he will hate the one and love the different one, or will be loyal to one and think nothing of the different one. You are not able to serve God and Mammon” (Matthew 6:24). (“Mammon” means whatever you put your trust in that is not God; i.e. riches, status, religion, people etc.).
James added to this;
“Unfaithful people! Do you not have understanding that the friendship of the world is hatred of God? Therefore, whoever should wish to be a friend of the world is made an enemy of God” (James 4:4).
He is “made an enemy of God”; the verb is in the passive; it automatically follows desiring the friendship of the world. We are called out of the world and if we comply, the world will hate us as it did Jesus (John 15:18-19).
Leave a Reply