Finally! I know. It’s been a long one …
Sexuality, materialism, violence, individualism, false religion.
On some level, man has always dealt with those struggles. As we will continue to.
The message of the gospel is the same as it was two thousand years ago. “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” To be a part of God’s Kingdom, we must be saved from the kingdoms of this world: the systems, the philosophies, the methods, the principles of this world. The kingdoms of this world will end and fall and come to destruction from within or without.
The apostles of Christ understood this. The “generation” they spoke of was the most godly in the world: Israel. But God does not compare you with others, but with His standard of righteousness and holiness. So they must be saved even from that legal system. The first apostles saw first hand the conflict between religion and the Son of God, how that religion killed the Messiah. They understood.
Do we? We take pride in the freedom given us by God, which invariably enslaves us again to the very thing Christ came to save us from: sin. We call righteousness legalism and justify our own weakness and defeat at the hands of our own lusts. Instead, we should humbly show our thanks to the God who have His Son for our freedom from sin by dying to this world and all of its influence and living in obedience to our master and Lord Jesus Christ, by faith achieving a true righteousness and a holy life.
A quote I heard recently states: “We’ve repented from our bad deeds but not from our good ones.” This must happen if we are to truly separate from the world. Why? Because we will always justify our own good according to our comparison with this world, thereby shortchanging God, the only good. Remember, it was the tree of GOOD and evil. We must repent from the whole tree, not half, altogether, to lay hold of the tree of Life, Christ Himself.
The result is not a commune away from the world, rather a community within the world that is wholly different from the world. Then Christ is revealed through His Body, a holy priesthood.
Many today claim they are not of the world in some mystical state that holds no obligation upon what they do. Therefore, the world only sees another part of the world being hypocritical. As the scripture clearly shows, we can only claim our separation from the world if it holds EVERY action in its sway. “By this they will know you’re mine, to love one another as I have loved you.” Giving our lives so that others might live.
So be saved from this evil generation. First, though, you must believe it is evil. Second, you must have the revelation that this evil is doomed to destruction. Third, you must live this belief out in good works born of an eternal faith.
Seek to lose your life for Jesus and really find it. That is how Jesus showed us it works. I don’t know why we think we’re smart enough to change it a couple thousand years later.
Peace.