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If we paid attention
in grade school during history class, we all learned about Benedict
Arnold and
his
treasonous affair with the enemy of these
betrayal of one’s
country, especially by giving aid to an enemy.
3:18,19 that there are “enemies of the cross” who sadly are professing
Christians, “whose God is
their own
appetites and their mind is set mostly on earthly things”.
to be, don’t want to be, and
if encountered will make no bones about the fact that they don’t
believe Christ
to
be the Savior of the world. So these
souls automatically fall into the category of enemies of Christ. It’s the
professing Christians that should
concern us.
of Satan as their father,
along with all sorts of inferences connecting these folks to “the god
of this
world”. These
are the enemies of
Christ. They actually hate Him, along
with all those who are part of His Body/Church.
We
know this because Christ also said in John 15:18 that “If the world
hates you, know that it hated Me first”.
What
we’re told in all this is that hatred for Christ and those in union
Life with Him, is to be expected and even embraced.
For Scripture says that if you’re not hated,
something is radically wrong with your walk.
a part of it.
And the world does not hate its own.
So going back to Mr. Arnold and his treasonous relationship with
“the
enemy”, I want you to consider what signal you’re putting forth when
you aid
and abet the enemies of Christ by
contributing to their delinquency. “Not
me”, the cry goes out. I love Jesus and
would never do anything to
offend Him”.
Well, be aware that in
James 4:4 it says “friendship with the world is enmity towards God, and
whosoever therefore
will be a friend of the world, is an enemy of God”.
Holy cow, James is talking about believers
here! And he begins
the verse with, “Ye
adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that friendship with the
world…”. Is he talking about
having sex here? No, not carnal, but
spiritual intercourse. Sexual
union between a man and a woman while they’re
married to someone else still
alive is what adultery is all about. So
who are Christians married to for James to call
them adulterers? Romans 7:3 and 2
Corinthians 11:2 give us the
answer, at least in part…”I have betrothed you to
one husband, that I may
present you a chaste virgin to Christ”.
The only Biblically based conclusion to all this is that
all true
Christians are betrothed to Christ. In Bible times, for the Jews,
a betrothal was as good as being already
married. All that remained was for the marriage to be consumated,
which in most cases was held off for a year.
Now, no believer will deny that their Husband (Jesus) is very much
alive and in fact will never die again. So
you can
see why James, by the Spirit, tells us not to unite
ourselves with the things of the world and if you do, God considers
you
an
adulterer or adulterous. And not only
that, but this adultery is with the enemy of the cross, for again, the
world
is
at enmity with God.
“come out of her (the worldly church) My people
least you be partakers of her sins” (Revelations 18:4).
and faithful to God and your heavenly citizenship.