2 Corinthians 5:16-17 NIV

So from now on, we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

The New Person in Christ in not just to accept Him as Lord and Savior with an attitude of ‘that’s all I need to do’.  Too often, Christians run around boasting: I know Jesus; He is my Lord and Savior.  Yet, there is an ever increasing blurred line differentiating Christians from a society that is operating far from the will of God.  As a people, we are born again and assured of sharing in His eternal kingdom, made possible by the Son’s obedience to the will of the Father. This Jesus, who subjected Himself to be crucified and suffered death on the Cross, this Jesus, who rose from the grave, ascended to Heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father, is continually interceding for us so that our sins may be forgiven.  Because of this act of love by our Lord, we are now a New Person in the eyes of the Father.  So why would we live, behave and accept the things of the world, as if nothing happen, if we are now renewed in Him?

You see, we must stand on Jesus’ promise. We have to purposefully (and I stress purposefully, not just when trials and tribulations come our way) rely on His promise. The New Person must engage in dedicated and purposeful reliance on praying and fasting to take us through the challenging times that can derail us from our faith.  It is vital that we spend more time worshiping and praising our Lord.  This is our reassurance that when the wiles of the devil come our way, we will be able to stand against the evils of this world.

We have to be steadfast in our conviction, a conviction that is sealed by the Holy Spirit.  This is the only way that we can resist the pressure and temptation of the worldly views.  When we are out of synch with God, we often become willing to substitute His word and His ways for worldly opinions.  We simply lose the understanding of God’s purpose and His will for our lives.  Sadly, an increasing portion of the Body of Christ is marching onto this trap, accepting the rhetoric of the worldly plan to deceive.  A plan that is so successful that we are now seeing an ever developing scorn toward Christianity.  This scorn towards Christianity, believe it or not, is not just from non-believers, but from Christians themselves who also do these ungodly things.  This is the Apostle Paul warning us of this state of being: 2 Timothy 3:1-5,

But mark this:  There will be terrible times in the last days.  People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God – having a form of godliness but denying its power.  Have nothing to do with such people.

This attack on the body of Christ is a spiritual battle that unfortunately, most of our brothers and sisters in Christ are not prepared or equipped to fight or endure. This is a continuous battle against Christianity, amid the sad fact that many of our churches are busy trying to build social clubs and comfort zones, instead of equipping the saints to face this challenge.

I wrote this article as more of a personal challenge for the saints of the kingdom, an article encouraging the New Person in Christ to equip ourselves to fight this persistent degrading of the faith.  I do believe that the stronger the individual is, the stronger the community of saints will be.   I have often times quoted the saying; “You are only as strong as the weakest link.” This also applies to the Body of Christ; the weakest link can cause the whole to stray.

Personally, how do we protect ourselves from this incursion of worldly way into our lives?  Well, I am glad you asked! It begins with our time spent in prayer and devotion.

Devotion time matters: For most of us, the time spent engaged in secular activities is much, and I stress much more that the time we spend in commune with God.  This modern society that we live in is a busy one, and the distraction and activities we engage in are stealing our commune time with God.  This subtle erosion of our time that is spent in undisturbed prayer and devotion is keeping Christians chained to the darkness of the world. Let me make this clear, Satan is not necessarily trying to get us to renounce our Christianity. One of his schemes is to distract the people of God, throw them into confusion that usually leads to division and compromise of God’s standard.  Satan’s goal is to throw the church into confusion and turmoil with a slow methodical progression onto spiritual death.   Let me give you a present time example of real confusion and compromise within the Body of Christ; how many of us know Christians, who know God, yet accept abortion as simply a personal, individual choice, and not the morally unacceptable act that it is?  Wouldn’t you say this very issue has caused a great deal of confusion and division within the Church community?  Pro-Choice believers are in the church also, and they are trying hard to convince the New Man, the Body of Christ that abortion is a personal choice.  This line of division should not be a struggle for the church because God’s Holy Word is crystal clear on life and the taking of life.  This line of division should be a dividing line between the people of God and the world, certainly not among the people of God.  How about Christians, who accept homosexuality and the marrying of the same, as simply an ‘alternative’ life style, a disobedience, so blatantly oppositional to the Word of God?  Why are these things happening within the midst of God’s people?  These things are happening with the Body because too many of us are not grounded in the Wword of God.  We are easily fooled and led astray by the smooth talking instigators with their clever rhetoric.

Do you think as a New Person in Christ, we glorify or demonstrate thankfulness to God with these thoughts or opinions or as in so many of these cases, even our engaging actions?  The New Person cannot accept some part of God’s word and reject or alter others.  This type of being is call sinful; you are now worshiping in the form of depraved understanding.  Paul warned us over and over about this spiritual ill:  look at Romans 1:21

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to Him, (Paul was writing about people who knew God.  Note that he did not say they know of God or know a god.  These are people who knew God more than just in a casual way; they are familiar and well-versed on the nature of God.  The Amplified Bible this as, “They knew and recognized Him as God.”) But their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Let me make this clear: glorifying God and being thankful to Him are not things we only do within the confinement of the opening and the closing benediction of a church service.  In Christ, we are New People, and our entire lives should demonstrate who we are.  We cannot be one way in our church environment and be another way in the world.  I will assure you, with this kind of behavior within Christendom, the chances of the world’s view creeping into the fabric of the church are more likely than the Church influencing society for the Kingdom.  We cannot be of two nature; either we are fully committed to Christ or fully committed to the world.  We should glorify God with all our being and show gratitude in every manner to which we conduct ourselves for the very moment we wake up in the morning to when we go to bed at night.  This can only be accomplished through daily devotions to God our Father in heaven.

This brings us to the second cause that will drive one to develop a futile mind, a state of darkened understanding.

Separation from God: “They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God.”  The King James translation:  Being alienated from the life of God.

Let me make something very clear.  Alienation from God is not God alienating Himself from us.  The alienation that Paul is referring to is self-inflicted…it is self-banishment.  As we begin to reject parts of Scripture, we remove ourselves further and further away for the safety of God’s covering, we become self-estranged.  Maybe it was this kind of spiritual dilution that Jesus was talking about when he described the Church in Laodicea in Revelation 3:15-16

“I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot.  I wish you will either one or the other!  So, because you are lukewarm – neither hot nor cold – I am about to spit you out of My mouth.”

I think the phase that we would use today to describe this Church is “wishy-washy.” The Bible didn’t tell us what the basis of this criticism by Jesus was, but it sounded like He was disgusted with their behavior.

The above passage came to mind as I was reminded of the history of the city of Laodicea.  This is a city that seemed to have embodied the same characteristic of the western world of today.  Laodicea was a city with a vibrant economic system; she was the center of the financial world, and her banking system and investment industry were the greatest in the world at that time.  This was a city that manufactured some of the most sought after goods, such as medicine and clothing. Being that the city was part of the Roman Empire, with the main religion being paganism, Laodicea was well-known for its ritualistic and immoral festivals and celebrations.  Now, as we see in Revelation 3:14-17, Jesus did not say that the church of Laodicea was in a state of apostasy, as He did with others within the seven churches that He gave special instructions to.  Nevertheless, this was the only church that He did not have anything good to say about; He labeled them lukewarm and then spoke about their inclusion into the ins and outs within the city’s financial systems.  Here is a church right smack in the middle of an exciting, bustling financial district. I can only imagine just how tempting it was for the Christians to be a part of the financial opportunities. They were probably too busy to pray, too busy to worship on a regular basis. They were so captivated by the hoard of financial privileges that they forgot about the poor amongst them. Worst of all, their evangelism activity was probably non-existent. In other words, they weren’t necessary mingling with the pagan’s worship as some church were doing at the time; they were just not doing much for the kingdom.  The Church of Laodicea existed with the title of Christian in name only…in other words, they were civil Christians.

It’s obvious why our Lord used the term lukewarm to describe the Laodicea Church, as they would know exactly what He meant.  The phrase ‘lukewarm’ was a well-known term used to describe the Laodicean water supply at the time. This was one of the few drawbacks for this ancient city. Unlike the two other main cities around her, one known for its medicinal hot springs and minerals, and the other known for its refreshing cold water, Laodicea sat in the middle of the two and was known for its tepid, nauseating, lukewarm water: water that smelled funny and tasted gross and that you would want to spew right out of your mouth!

They were neither hot nor cold, a fitting description for the way Christians were in the city of Laodicea. But, wouldn’t you say that the New Person of today is beginning to look more like this church in Laodicea?  Look at the way we are today:  modern Christianity has woven itself into the fabric of society, a society with a very similar infrastructure as the city of Laodicea. Our financial system and economic infrastructure sure resembled that of the Laodicea.  We now live in a time when there are lots of exciting opportunities to distract us from true devotion. The same danger of ignoring our responsibility, our calling as the New Person in Christ, is in danger of waning because the forefront of our desires is to be a part of the opportunities in this great land.  This a danger that we all face. As a matter of fact, I will go as far as to say, most of us have fallen into this trap on various levels.  This warning is from our Lord, making it known that this lukewarm state of being is even worse than being cold and indifferent to the faith.  In other words, it is better to not call yourself a Christian, as that person will be more acceptable, than one who is lukewarm.

This is why I so appreciate the season of Lent.  It serves as a reminder for us to examine ourselves, to look back on the past months and ask ourselves; how have I been of service to our Lord? As we answer this question, we can use the forty pensive days of Lent to get our lives right with God.  You see, most neglected activities within the Body of Christ in today’s modern society are worship, praying and fasting.  The most grievous of our neglect is our duty to take the Word of God to a lost world. We have neglected to obey the last command that Jesus gave before He was ascended to heaven: Matthew 28:19: Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

So, we see that first we start to align our understanding with worldly interpretation, and we fall into that state I refer to as ‘darkened understanding’.  This leads to a life that is indifferent to holy living, one that has us resembling the world and causing us to be ‘alienated from God’.  This kind of existence can lead to the most dangerous of state:  ‘The Hardening of Heart!’

So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.  They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Ephesians 4:17-18

This is that state when the heart loses it capacity to feel and become insensitive, indifferent, and unresponsive to the teachings of God, which is to live a life that is acceptable to Him.  When we are this far removed from holy living, it is as if our conscience stops functioning.  Spiritually, we are now in a state of death.  In the flesh, this could be equated with the inability to feel pain.  Without a nervous system to inform the brain of impending danger, we are at serious risk of fatal bodily harm.  Pain, like our conscience, is a good thing and serves a distinct purpose.  If you have an illness or a disease and you lose the ability to detect it through pain or discomfort, you stand a good chance of dying from it.  Can you imagine, you place your hand on a hot stove, but because you lost the ability to feel pain, you don’t instinctively pull away?  You will just leave your hand there burning, until it is consumed and kills you.  This is what the hardening of heart does to our spirit.  We are no longer able to feel the prick of conscience, that saving fire-pain of wrongdoing!  The pain of separation from God!

Because we no longer have hatred of sin, we will lose our desire to serve Christ.  We no long care about the thing that our Lord cares about and our hearts will not be broken, for the things that break His.  Even though we profess to be Christians, we are no longer operating under Christ protection and care.  There are many in the Body that have fallen victim to this heart condition, ‘hardening of heart’, usually after they succumb to the previous two conditions; ‘darkened understanding’ and ‘alienation from God’.

These three traps are not so foreign or far removed for God’s people today.  We live in a very exciting world!  This is world that is a constant distraction to all people, including the people of God.  However, to part take in this desired standard, there are demands upon the alteration of moral standards as put forth by God holy words.  Too often Christians willingly obliged to these demands to be acceptable in society and be a part of it all.

You see, we live in a world today that constantly feeds us with the notion that nothing is our fault or really wrong. If no-one gets hurt, and it feels good to you, then it is ok! This is a world that now says greed is not greed anymore; it is now placed under the heading of ambition! Sin is not sin anymore; we just make mistakes.  Just say, “I am sorry”, and move on, please. Lies are not lies any more.  It is now placed under the category of, “I mis-spoke.” We promote and push pornography and profanity.  We call it art and freedom of expression.

These are some of the many destructive ways and habits that Christians can fall into.  The result:  A subtle, but persistent numbness towards living a holy life, a life that results in our Lord spewing us out of His mouth. Because of this hardness of heart, we no longer see it necessary to repent to some of the most grievous sins that are committed. Why do we have to repent? We have already decided that it is not sin.

We now accept artist who produce some of the most noxious and reviled forms of entertainment; we call it art and the expression of self.  Churches are now accepting homosexuality as just an alternative lifestyle. Abortion is now promoted as healthcare, even in the Church.  We have tolerated language and speaking habits that are so profane, it can only be described as words coming from one with a rottenness of the conscience that is long dead and decayed.

However, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in Him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus.  You were taught, with regard to your former way of live, to but off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be make new in the attitude of your mind; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.  Ephesians 4:20-24

My advice to all: guard you hearts against theses worldly way which will lead to a futile and derelict mind. We must constantly think about what we are doing, agreeing with and aligning to.  Is it in line with God’s Word, and most importantly, does it glorify God’s kingdom? Our persistence on regular worship, prayer and fasting will better equip us with the discernment to know and resist the temptation of this modern society in an Old World.  As we so equip ourselves, we will be emboldened to take this good news to the New Word that other may be saved also.

To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, He will give eternal life.  But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.  Roman 2:7-8

1 Peter 2:9 describes what it means to be a New Person in Christ.  Peter wrote: “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of Him Who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.”

How wonderful a reality is this!  Why would we want to regress back into the darken world? The reality is this: the lore of the world is a great temptation that the strongest of Christians fall victim to its glittering luxury.  The question then is: how can the New Person avoid this “lukewarm” state of being as it is so abhorred by Christ?  Well, the answer can be found in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 5 – 7. This is the passage of Scripture that Christendom refers to as the “Sermon on the Mount”.  This was Jesus’ first public sermon in which He instructed the listeners on how to live a holy life.  Here we have the most complete sermon ever preached on how we worship, behave, and govern, along with many other social and communal issues.  In the content of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus made two import statements that we should pay special attention to in order for us to live the holy life as He so stressed in His sermon.  Jesus said: 1) When you pray: 2) When you fast.  Jesus did not speculate on whether we should pray or if we happen to pay, He expects us to pray.  As a matter of fact, Jesus’ statement came across as if He expected nothing less than a full prayer life or pray as an integral part of our being.  So as we continue to observe this season of Lent and beyond, let us remain in prayer so we do not fall into a broken and darkened world.  This is the only way, and I will stress, the only way to maintain a holy life that is pleasing to Christ.

J.R.Tracey