Daily Bible Verses for 11/20/2016

Bible Verse
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world-the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life-is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.

Reading Notes
As Christians, we can never forget who the influencer of this world really is, who really is behind the world system. Let us remember Paul in his letter to the Ephesians. In reference to Satan, he calls Satan, “the prince of the power of the air,” this is because of his influence in this world. Also, we must remember what Jesus told us in chapter twelve of John’s Gospel, verse thirty-one. Jesus warns us that Satan is the “influence of this world.” So when we look at the philosophies, ideologies, social movements and beliefs that proliferate our world today we have to remember who’s behind them. We can’t forget that Satan’s goal is to separate us from God for all eternity. When reading through this section of scripture we see the term love, which in these passages carries the meaning of having a heartfelt affection, devotion and commitment to the world system and its beliefs. What that means for us as followers of Christ is we cannot be of two minds. We cannot claim our loyalty, love and obedience toward Jesus and still hold a heartfelt devotion and affection toward this world which is passing away.

Our current world system, is controlled and greatly influenced by the father of lies, Satan himself. As Jesus reminds us, we cannot love two masters! As much as we would like to believe a middle ground exists, there really is none. We cannot be both for God and for a world system opposed to God and the things of God. A world system designed to hold captive the souls of men and women by appealing to our lust for gain, desire for self and elevation of our pride. In addition the term used here for flesh, carries the meaning of appealing to our sin nature, including our desires, our ego and our pride. These are the areas Satan targets for attack. Why? Because he knows the attraction for us has to be strong, in order to get us to forget that the things of this world are temporary and passing away. To get us to forget that eternity awaits us. With that being the case we need to ask ourselves, will we pass away with them? Shall we join Satan and his demons for eternity in torment sharing in a punishment that was meant for them?