Subject 14 : The First Epistle of JOHN
[Chapter 2-4] Do Not Love the World or The Things in the World (1 John 2:15-17)
(1 John 2:15-17)
“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.”
I
know that you and I are struggling with three kinds of lust. In James
4:1, it is written, “Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do
they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?”
Here in 1 John, the Bible speaks of lust as the lust of the flesh, the
lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.
In
fact, it is because these three kinds of lust that we struggle with our
lives of faith and so often stumble over the things of the world.
Because of this lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride
of life, our lives of faith are often interrupted, though we have been
saved. And it saddens me deeply to see this happening.
The
Bible frequently tells us to wait for the day of our Lord’s return and
to persevere until that day, as it is written in James 5:7, “Be patient,
brethren, until the coming of the Lord.” Just as the Bible admonishes
us, I believe that until that day, we must dedicate our lives to the
spreading of the gospel of the water and the Spirit and persevere with
this precious work until its end.
I
know, of course, that such a life of patience is hard to live. We live
through various hardships not because of anything else particular, but
because of the lust of our flesh, the lust of our eyes, and the pride of
our lives. Of course, you may consider these three kinds of greeds as
nothing to you, but to actually fight against them and to follow the
Lord can be difficult and painful.
The
Apostle John tells us here in 1 John 2:15, “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.” Indeed, if we love the things in the world even a
bit, and if the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride
of life that love the world come into our hearts ever so slightly, then
it becomes that much more difficult for us to lead our true lives of
faith.
This
does not mean, however, that we as Christians must be cut loose from
the ties of the world. Our Lord did not tell us to leave the world and
live entirely apart from it. Rather, what He told us is to cast aside
our greed. Nor did our Lord tell us to despise the world. He did tell
us, however, to beware of the three kinds of lust in our hearts.
Until
the last day, we must live our lives preaching the gospel, for before
us, there are many souls that still have not received the remission of
their sins. Yet this is no easy task; it is really difficult to spread
the gospel of the water and the Spirit to everyone before our lives are
over. Even so, no matter when our Lord returns, and no matter when we go
and stand before His presence, we must preach the gospel of the water
and the Spirit until that day. I thank the Lord for placing us in His
Church, protecting us with spiritual fences, and enabling us to preach
the gospel of the water and the Spirit, for we are such that if our
hearts are drawn to the world ever so slightly, we simply would not be
able to serve the gospel.
I
see how difficult it is to keep our hearts of faith. I think it is more
difficult than to endure hard physical labor. Physical labor is not so
hard, nor is it that difficult to live in this world—we simply do what
we have to do. But for our hearts to move away from God is the greatest
curse, and this is why it is so problematic and troublesome. So the
Bible admonishes us, “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it
spring the issues of life” (Proverb 4:23). Even so, because our Lord has
blotted out all our sins, I believe that if we do not fall into these
three kinds of lust too deeply, then this is not such an insurmountable
problem.
How
many souls are still there, to whom we must preach the gospel of the
water and the Spirit? So that these souls would all come to believe in
the gospel of the water and the Spirit and be saved from their sins, we
must indeed keep our hearts, turn around from our wrong ways, and live
by faith.
Who
knows when the Great Tribulation of seven years will descend to this
world? In this age and time, the signs of the end times are arising all
over. You may have heard of the abnormal climatic changes and the
natural disasters that result from them. The boundary lines of the polar
icecaps were reported to be retreating rapidly. There is no doubt that
this is because of global warming. Great natural disasters unleashed by
such climatic changes as El Niño have now become annual events.
Moreover,
this age is filled with so much tension and conflict among nations. War
and terrorist attacks break out without cease. Now is such an age. So
when we think about how we can spread the gospel to our own family
members and to all the souls throughout the whole world, and as well as
how we can live by faith until the day our Lord returns, we cannot help
but rely on our faith in the Lord. And this is also the reason why we
should keep our hearts with all diligence.
The
Apostle John said, “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” (1 John 2:15-17).
Who
does not love the things of the world? It is because everyone loves
them so much that John told us not to love the things in the world.
Though we love the things in the world, to preach the gospel of the
water and the Spirit to people, we need to maintain self-control so that
our hearts would not drown in the world. It is really difficult for us
not to love this world as we live in it, but whatever the reason may be,
if we love this world, then there is no room for God’s love in our
hearts, and if we love the world, then nor can we preach the gospel of
the water and the Spirit to people. This is why we must not love this
world.
The
gospel of the water and the Spirit that you already believe is not so
intellectually simple, nor easy to understand. Some people say that to
believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit is easier than to
breathe, but it is difficult when one has to first remove all the lies
that false teachers have spread.
So
spreading the gospel of the water and the Spirit is possible only when
we have the heart of the Father that loves all souls. If we have the
Lord’s love in our hearts, then all that we have to do is spread this
love. But if this God-given love is not in our hearts, but all that we
love is the world, then there is nothing more difficult than trying to
spread this love only grudgingly. Since we have been perfectly saved
from our sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we
must absolutely keep our hearts if we were to preach this true gospel
until the day our Lord returns. We must serve the gospel of the water
and the Spirit, in other words, by turning our wrongful hearts around,
by correcting them, by coming closer to the Lord, and by discarding the
lust that keeps entering us. Only when we turn around, time after time,
from our hearts that have gone astray can we serve the gospel of the
water and the Spirit.
Today’s
scripture passage says, “The world is passing away, and the lust of it;
but he who does the will of God abides forever.” My dear fellow
believers, this age is the last age. Because the time is nearing, Satan
is doing all he can to make everyone love this world. Technological
advancement has exposed everyone to the countless temptations that
provoke his lust. Through such means of the world, Satan is trying to
steal everything—our eyes, ears, lips, hands, feet, and even hearts.
When
such an age passes by, there will be nothing remaining in this world
anymore, but only war, earthquakes, disasters, and tribulations. Only
destruction will come to everything that mankind has ever built. To this
day, mankind has relentlessly pursued to further advance science and
technology, but as their discoveries and inventions are not used for
only good purposes, they will eventually face destruction from the very
things that they created.
This
is why God is telling us in this hour, “Do not love the world or the
things in the world.” While it is okay for us to enjoy the things in
this world, it is wrong to love them with our hearts. It is right for us
to reign over the things in this world, to enjoy them, and to manage
them well and use them for good purposes.
But
no matter how much money we might have in this world, how many things
to be proud of, and even the power to rule over the world, when this
world and we ourselves face destruction, everything will be rendered
completely useless. It is because the Apostle John knew this so well
that he is telling us here in the Bible, “Do not love the world or the
things in the world.” He told us not to love the things of the world
because if we love them, the love of Christ is not in our hearts.
This
message is something that we must take to our hearts and ruminate upon
time after time, even if it is heard for a hundred times. These three
kinds of lust are always near us, so that we may be enticed to follow
them at anytime. But if we follow the three lusts of the flesh, then the
love of the Father will disappear from our hearts and we will be cut
from His love of salvation. Therefore, we must always be wary and be
careful of the things of the world, and instead of loving them, we must
devote our hearts even more to the spreading the gospel of the water and
the Spirit.
What
is it that you and I need the most in this age and time? What is the
greatest problem that you and I are now facing? It is for us to love
this world. If something is wrong in our hearts and we are now living
our lives of faith only in emotion, then this can only mean that we are
serving at least one of these three lusts—the lust of the flesh, the
lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. If we follow the world like
this and seek after our own lust, we cannot lead a proper life of faith,
and as a result, we will end up perishing, as will our family.
So
we must beware and be cautious of these three carnal lusts. Though such
lusts of the flesh are in our heart, we must realize that they are not
from God. The lust of the flesh, in other words, comes from the world
and Satan. Moreover, lusting after something does not mean that it could
be satisfied fully just because we pursue it. It is only when God the
Father allows us to have something that it becomes ours. The Bible
states, “Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build
it; Unless the LORD guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain”
(Psalms 127:1). So for our hearts to lust after something is
meaningless, and it is only wise for us to watch out for such greed and
overcome it.
If
we want to keep our lives of faith until the day our Lord returns, we
must remember this one message that God told us here: “Do not love the
world or the things of the world.” Only when we remember this
commandment of God can we keep our lives of faith until the day of our
Lord’s return. If we do not have the love of Christ in our hearts, then
we cannot carry on with our lives of faith, for it is by the heart and
faith that they are led. This is why we must cast aside our love for
this world until the love of Christ blossoms in our hearts instead. It
is only when we cast aside such love for this world that the love of the
Father can sprout in our hearts, and we can also serve the Lord, follow
Him willingly, bear spiritual fruits with Him, and receive the
fertility of the earth, abundant blessings, and care from God the Father
as well. For us to be blessed both in body and spirit, we must not love
the things in the world, but we must overcome the lust of the flesh and
turn around from it.
It
actually is not so hard to live a life of faith. We can lead this life
of faith if we would just keep our hearts with all diligence, but if we
fail to do so, then everything will simply collapse. As each year goes
by, so do we come one step closer to the day our Lord returns, and yet
it seems as though we have fallen asleep and are increasingly loving
this world when we are in fact supposed to wait for Him. In the parable
of the ten virgins waiting for the bridegroom, even the five wise
virgins fell asleep. In these end times, the whole world seems to have
fallen asleep just like these virgins. Nonetheless, let us all cast
aside our hearts’ love for the world; let us live each year by doing the
Lord’s work, receiving many blessings from Him, and bearing abundant
spiritual fruits that save many souls; and then let us all meet our Lord
in great joy.
If,
by any chance, you feel something stifling and suffocating in your
hearts as you are carrying on with your lives of faith, and you find
that you only feel empty inwardly while serving the Lord outwardly, then
surely this is because your hearts love the world, and therefore there
is no love of the Father in them. There is no other reason. Our Lord
wants to dwell in us and walk with us.
If
we love the world, God the Holy Spirit in us becomes jealous and angry
at us, saying, “I am in you and yet you are not satisfied by Me?”
Because the Master in us is the Holy Spirit, when our Master gets angry
and is hurt, then our outward men are bound to get hurt also, and as a
result, we get angry and impatient at even the slightest thing, and we
become hardened and spiritually blind. As such, we must cast aside our
hearts’ love for the world, ask for what we need by faith, and fulfill
our role as stewards by managing what we have wisely. We must also love
Christ, live the blessed life that receives many spiritual and material
blessings from Him and shares them with others until the day we meet our
Lord.
If
this love for the world creeps into your hearts or my heart, then let
us get rid of it regularly. It seems that we would have to do this at
least once a week. While once saved, we are forever saved, we still need
to frequently filter out such sediments from our hearts. It is bound to
happen that the love for this world or the three lusts of the flesh
would arise in our hearts. In our hearts, there are the residues of our
love for this world; this is not something that is unique only to you
and me, but everyone is like this.
Given
this, how could we then carry on with our lives of faith? Just as our
houses are clean because we sweep and mop everyday, it is by cleaning
our hearts from the love of this world that we can continue to lead our
lives of faith. Before every Passover Feast came around, the Israelites
had to remove leaven from their houses (Exodus 12:15). The Lord
admonishes us, “Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and
the Sadducees” (Matthew 16:6). He warns us that we should stay away from
legalism and secularism. If we allow our hearts to love this world
constantly, even a little bit of such leaven will spoil all our hearts,
and we will end up facing His Judgment.
Therefore,
we need to sweep out such love of this world from our hearts; think
about how the Lord has saved us, how this Lord Savior has blessed us,
what pleases Him, and for what purpose He has saved us; and though we
may not be able to do great things, do what pleases the Lord, even if it
is small. We should then meet the Lord.
Beware of the Beauty of the Daughters of Men
Let
us all now turn to Genesis 6:1-4: “Now it came to pass, when men began
to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them,
that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful;
and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. And the LORD
said, ‘My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed
flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.’ There were
giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of
God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them.
Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.”
This
age now appears as though it is an age when Genesis 6 is replayed once
again. God is telling us that now, this age is like Noah’s age, and the
end is nearing this world: “How does the end of the world come? What
happens in the end times? What must we now be careful? ” I believe that
such are what our God is telling us.
In
the days of Noah, men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and
sin had become widespread. And the people of God, abandoning faith and
being drunk by the world, had also become wicked and evil. So God could
not leave the world as it was, and decided to judge it.
Why
then, did the people of God go spiritually astray? It was because the
sons of God, seeing the beauty of the daughters of men, took whom they
liked as their wives (Genesis 6:2). For this reason, God said, “My
Spirit shall not strive with man forever.” What was so important about
this that God would say that He would not be with man forever? We need
to ponder on why God would leave the people of those days. And we need
to also contemplate on what exactly this passage means.
God
had abhorred it so much that His sons would be intoxicated by the
beauty of the daughters of men. All human beings are the descendants of
Adam. These descendants of Adam were all born as piles of sin, but among
them, there were those who had been born again and those who had not.
As time went by, this earth came to be populated by many people, but
because many of them did not believe but instead went over to the world,
mankind was divided into two kinds: those who believed in God and
followed Him, and the worldly people who belonged to the world. By
Noah’s time, sin was so widespread throughout this earth that even the
sons of God were bewitched by the beauty of the daughters of men. This
is the reason why God separated Himself from mankind and judged this
earth.
We
need to understand here what is meant by “the beauty of the daughters
of men,” and why we have to be particularly attentive to this passage.
The passage from Genesis 6 that we are considering here provides a
description of the world just before God rendered His judgment of flood
on this earth. So we can construe that this age was very similar to
today’s age, as it is written, “For this they willfully forget: that by
the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of
water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished,
being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth which are now
preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of
judgment and perdition of ungodly men” (2 Peter 3:5-7).
So
what does it mean when it says here that the sons of God were
captivated by the daughters of men and married them, and that for this,
they were abandoned and judged by God? We first need to understand what
this “beauty of the daughters of men” is. The beauty of the daughters of
men literally means the beauty of body. The sons of God, in other
words, were drunk by the physical beauty of women.
The
Bible tells us that in the ancient times of the Old Testament also,
many people had perished from following such physical beauty and sexual
attraction. The beauty of the daughters of men refers to such elements
that express physical attractiveness as tall heights, long legs, lean
bodies, shapely curves, voluptuous figures, large eyes, high noses, sexy
lips, and so forth. So seeing such features pleasing to the eyes of the
flesh, the sons of God were intoxicated by them and took the daughters
of men as their wives.
Here
then, in this age and time, we need to examine carefully whether we,
today’s sons of God who have been born again by believing in the gospel
of the water and the Spirit, can also be attracted to the beauty of the
daughters of men and be captivated by them. Not knowing ourselves well,
we may say that this is not how we are, but we need to seriously examine
ourselves to see whether we are not in fact being unwittingly drawn to
the beauty of the daughters of men, and we need to find out what we must
do.
Is
it then possible for the sons of God to see and fall into the beauty of
the daughters of men? This is quite possible. In fact, from a spiritual
perspective, such beauty is nothing. When we dig into their fundamental
selves in biblical perspective, we discover that such physical beauty
in fact amounts to nothing. But when we do not have this biblical
knowledge, the world looks beautiful, and we face so many temptations so
often.
The
people of this world prefer long legs to short legs, and they consider
long, thin, and yet toned bodies with shapely curves as beautiful. They
are so attracted to such features that these are all that occupies their
minds, despite the fact when we really think about it, such superficial
attributes actually amount to nothing. Just as Cleopatra ultimately
succumbed to her death and thus to nothingness, and just as beautiful
flowers dry up and wilt away in time, no matter how one may be the most
beautiful woman in this entire world, when she, too, gets old and dies,
everything ends all in vain. For even the most attractive people in this
world, the praise for their beauty is only fleeting, lasting no more
than a few years of their prime.
In
the Old Testament, the sons of God saw how beautiful the daughters of
men were, and being drunk by this beauty, they took these daughters as
their wives and lived with them. In other words, the sons of God had
fallen head over heels into the daughters of men, and had become one in
body with them. What a great sin is it that they would fall into the
beauty of the world that is bound to wilt away in the end and they
themselves would tire of, and as a result abandon the everlasting Word
of God?
Those
who are not born again are still sinners even at their best. And no
matter how beautiful they may be, the difference is only skin-deep. We
cannot even compare them to the born-again. When we look spiritually, it
is the born-again who are the most beautiful. To still be captured by
the daughters of men, whose souls have not yet been born again, is then a
great mistake. The flesh may move our carnal minds, but the great
mistake here is that even their spiritual minds were spoiled by their
carnal lusts.
When
I look at this present age, I feel that it is exactly the same as the
Noah’s age right before the great flood, when these sons of God were
captivated by the daughters of men and took them as their wives. I
wonder if such an age, when the sons of God were destroyed for
succumbing to the beauty of the daughters of men, is none other than
this very age that we are living in.
In
times like this, when the people of God become one with so many people
who have not been born again, God will be provoked to His wrath. Such
times, when the sons of God are attracted to the women who have not been
born again (the daughters of God to the godless men), intermarry and
intermingle, will surely come to this last age. As Jesus said,
“Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on
the earth?” (Luke 18:8), I wonder if this is not how everyone is going
to perish.
What
about you? By any chance, are you not also attracted to such beauty of
the world? If you really look into your hearts and confess yourselves
honestly, you will likely have to admit this. Since we are only human,
it is quite possible for us to have such thoughts, but we should
consider it fortunate that we at least know that we have such desires.
What is more frightening is the prospect of not realizing that we have
such lust and love for the world even when we have them, for when in our
ignorance we fall into the beauty of the daughters of men, we may very
well never be able to escape from it. If we know that we have such
desires, then we will also be more careful. I am saying, in other words,
that we should realize that we have this tendency, and that we should
therefore be cautious about such carnal aspects.
Also,
we must not be double-minded. As it is written in James 4:8, “Purify
your hearts, you double-minded,” we cannot keep two hearts. We cannot
serve both God and the world. We should love and honor each other within
the bounds that are permitted by Him, and not be captivated by and fall
into the beauty of those who have not been born again. If this happens,
then it will be the end of the world.
Just
how many beauty pageants do we have in these days? They all singularly
look at only outward appearances, crowning long-legged, shapely figured,
and tall women with pretty faces as beauty queens.
Genesis
tells us that the sons of God took the daughters of men and bore
children, that these descendants were giants, and that there were many
of them in the world. It also tells us that they were mighty men of
renown. They were, in other words, tall, strong, and handsome.
How
about the current of this age? Since we, too, are only human, we also
like tall and well-built men, and beautiful and slender women, but this
age puts so much emphasis on such superficial aspects that it is akin to
the age when these giants roamed the earth. We, too, have eyes, and so
we see all that there is to see; since we have ears, we hear all that
there is to hear; since we have heads, we think all that there is to
think; since we have minds of our own, we feel all that there is to
feel; and since it is in the environment of this world that we live, we
sense all that there is to sense, irrespective of whether we believe in
the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Therefore,
if we lose our hearts to such beauty of the daughters of men, then
there is no way that we can properly lead our lives of faith. Especially
for you and I who are living in this age, such temptations of the world
are even more enticing, and it takes a lot of effort to reject them.
For
those of us who are doing God’s work, the greatest enemy is the beauty
of the daughters of men—that is, the beauty of this world. Far more
fearsome than any attack with guns and swords is this beauty of the
daughters of men that we see with our eyes, the beauty of the world.
This is why our Lord is telling us here that if we fall into such
beauty, our faith will end there and we will face destruction
inevitably.
Therefore,
we must ensure that our hearts are sanctified. If, by any chance, we
come to have such lustful hearts, we must sanctify our hearts and right
them once again by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
My
dear fellow believers, just how much is the beauty of the world that is
all around us confusing us? There are so many temptations of the world
looking for every opportunity to sneak in through the slightest cracks
in our eyes, hearts, thoughts, and minds. These are not far away from
us, but they are all around us. We have to engrave in our hearts once
again that if we follow them to the world, we will end up surrendering
ourselves to the lust of the flesh, and thus fail to fulfill the
precious work that serves the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We
must neither follow the world, nor mingle with it.
Because
we are now living in such a fast age, virtually everything is easily
accessible for us. In the old days, it took a long time for a rumor to
spread around, but nowadays, it only takes a few hours for everyone to
find out what happened last night. Only a generation ago, it used to
take a full year for fashion to spread around and fade away, but now,
fashion comes and goes by minutes. From TV, newspapers, and the
Internet, we can easily access detailed information on virtually
everything, from such mundane questions as which pop singer wore what
clothes, shoes, and accessories and sang what songs, to what the latest
fashion is, and to how politics, society, and the economy, both domestic
and international, are developing. It is precisely because individuals
know so much information that this age is called as the age of
information flood. It is in such an age, such a time of so much
confusion, transition, and rapid development, that we are all now
living.
The
entire civilization of the whole world is overflowing with the beauty
of the daughters of men. Because of this, there are areas in which we
the born-again also have already fallen into the beauty of the daughters
of men to a considerable extent, without even realizing. Since we are
following the lust of the flesh and falling deeply into it, to an extent
that would have been unimaginable before, we do not realize our own
conditions, and all of us find ourselves, without any exception, firmly
lodged in this culture—what is even worse, furthermore, is that unable
to recognize this, we are falling even deeper into the beauty of the
daughters of the world.
If
those who have been born again through the gospel of the water and the
Spirit drift toward the flesh and are captivated by the beauty of the
daughters of men, of those who have not been born again, they will
ultimately be destroyed, for God is no longer with them. Therefore, the
Bible warns us, “For it is impossible for those who were once
enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become
partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and
the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to
repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and
put Him to an open shame” (Hebrews 6:4-6). The Scripture continues to
say that such people will surely be burned.
Today’s
Scripture passage, therefore, tells us that we must not allow the lust
of the flesh to overcome us so easily, nor be captivated by the beauty
of the daughters of men, and points out what we must be careful of as
you carry on with our lives of faith.
What,
then, must we be most wary of and avoid the most? We must avoid from
being captivated by the beauty of the daughters of men, becoming one
with them, falling into the lust of the flesh, and thereby ending up
discarding God’s work. This is what we must be most careful of in our
hearts.
Do
you know just how Noah’s time was before the coming of the flood? That
age, just like this present age, was a very prosperous one. Some
countries are now quite prosperous, and along with this prosperity came
the single-minded obsession with superficial beauty, utter prevalence of
sin, the hardening of its people’s hearts, and sexual immorality. But
just as Noah’ age had also been a prosperous one right until the very
moment of its destruction, there is a great possibility that this is
what will happen to this age.
Throughout
the whole world, this culture of shameless hedonism is highly developed
and widespread, through every conceivable medium from movies to videos,
songs, games, and the Internet. Even in less prosperous countries, this
industry that advocates the enjoyment of the beauty of the flesh is
highly advanced and booming, while many people continue suffer from
hunger. Just take a look at the picture of this age that reminds
everyone of the age of Noah’s flood. The Bible is telling us have the
faith of Noah, who, by knowing his age and believing in the gospel of
the water and the Spirit, had saved his life as well as his family’s
lives.
Today’s
world is reserved for fire until the Day of Judgment and perdition of
ungodly men (2 Peter 3:7). In other words, God will burn this world with
fire. How is this age then? It is beyond any doubt whatsoever that this
age is now approaching its own destruction. It is an age that as a
whole is utterly and thoroughly filled with the beauty of the daughters
of men. And it is an age when the sons of God are possibly being
captivated by their beauty.
The
sad reality is that even those who ostensibly claim to believe in God
and follow Him are, far from bearing witness to unbelievers, actually
being fascinated and proselytized by them. We must remember here what
the Lord said to us, that He would come when the times are such that the
sons of God, far from preaching the gospel to the unbelievers, are
instead proselytized by them, and, saturated in their flesh, are
following the world. When this happens, the end of the world will come.
We,
too, must recognize and realize that we may possibly be falling into
such corruption, and that if this happens, we will be destroyed then. We
must be careful of this kind of temptation; and until the day our Lord
returns, we must maintain our guards, remain awake, pray, and keep our
hearts. We must not follow the beauty of those who are yet to be born
again, and be tempted by the world to abandon the work of God. We must
realize that we have to keep our faith in the gospel of the water and
the Spirit in our hearts and do the work of God until the last days, not
be captured by the world and follow the lust of the flesh. We must
sanctify our hearts by believing in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit, and diligently keep our hearts always clean.
We
are the sons of God. We must not be captivated by the beauty of the
daughters of men. We must not follow it. All of us, our brothers,
sisters, and the servants of God alike, must not follow it. If we follow
it, this will only mean our destruction. If the born-again follow the
beauty of the world, not only will they face their own destruction, but
the more there are such people, the sooner the judgment will come to
this world. There will be, in other words, no more hope in this world.
We
must be aware of such weaknesses in us and be careful, realizing that
it is more than possible for us to fall into the sinful world. And
having faith, we must not, in this age and time when the Lord’s return
is imminent, be deceived by the temptations and deceptions of the world,
nor must we follow the lust of the flesh and forsake everything. Having
faith in the fact that we have been born again of water and the Spirit
in Jesus Christ, we must live in purity. And we must fortify our faith
so that we may not fall into the beauty of this world; we must instead
struggle against it not to ultimately end up betraying our Lord.
It
is my sincerest hope and prayer that in these times, when the end is so
near, no one will ever end up abandoning his faith. Once having been
born again, you must not betray the Lord, your Savior, nor follow the
beauty of the daughters of men.
To
follow the daughters of men does not just mean men following women and
women following men. Rather, to follow the fame, power, wealth, or
beauty of this world is to follow the beauty of the daughters of men.
Therefore,
instead of just following this world’s wealth, fame, physical beauty,
or all that is beautiful in this world, we must remember that the Lord
has given us the great faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit,
keep this faith, thank God, and sanctify and keep our hearts always.
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