Pastor’s Thoughts – 07/12/2026

Something that most people do not acknowledge or understand is that we are born as sinners into a fallen world. We exist with corrupted natures in an environment of moral, spiritual, and physical brokenness resulting from our first parent’s, (Adam and Eve), direct disobedience to God. Their act of disobedience brought sin, suffering, and death to all humanity. The harmony between us and God is not just broken, but we are prone by nature to do evil, injustice, and we are naturally living in deception. This also affects our relationships with one another. We are all moving swiftly by disease, calamities, and aging toward physical death. Although as we move through this life, we experience good things, joy, times of refreshing, but these are mixed with suffering, pain, trouble, and inevitable death.

Most people have great difficulty accepting troubling circumstances. When difficulties arise, answers are sought but cannot be found except in God’s Word. It is sin that has corrupted us and our environment. We need Christ. He is the solution given to us by God Himself to redeem us from our condition. When, by faith, we experience the new birth, a process of changing us begins, but the new birth does not change our environment. It becomes a life where we don’t fit our surroundings. The Bible explains and maps out our new life in Christ. We are told we do not fit; “Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4). What does James mean by world? He does not mean the beauty of creation that God has made and should reflect to us His glory. No, it is the world as fallen human nature has made it; people are, “Walking according to the prince of the power of the air” (Eph. 2:2). That prince is referring to Satan, who we are told sways and holds mankind in a state of rebellion against God taking full advantage of man’s fallen condition (1 John 5:19). The Bible calls it living in darkness (John 3:19). That is a condition of desiring evil rather than desiring God and His truth. So, James means by world, the abode of unrighteous humanity, which recognized or not, is organized in rebellion against God, His right, and His righteousness. It is a world that has denied God and does not want Him to rule. This is the world we are born into and continue to live in even after being born again.

Those born again have a new nature; “Old things are passed away, behold all things are new” (2 Cor. 5:17). The Christian finds himself living in a world contrary to his new nature. This is why James will say, “Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4b). John also addresses it; “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” (1 John 5:19). James calls those who claim to love God, but also love the fallen world, adulteresses. He means that all who love the fallen life are unfaithful to God. The important issue requiring understanding is that a Christian cannot feel comfort or feel at home with the evil system of this world. It is hated by God and thereby should be hated by His children. People that have spiritual life love God and love what He loves. By the context presented by James to the church, there are those in the church still having a love affair and attachment to the world system or to their old nature. These attempt to make the church fit into the fallen world or bring the fallen world into the church.

Christians are not exempt from the problems presented by our fallen environment. God does not provide exemption or isolation from the world, but He does provide insulation by His Spirit and through His church. We are to be in the world, but not of the world. John proclaims that, “Whatever is born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith” (1 John 5:4). There is great tension in all this mixture of things that are part of our fallen environment. As Christians, we don’t stop enjoying the blessings that God brings us. If anything, we enjoy them more knowing from where they come, and that we are unworthy of all His gifts. We don’t enjoy trials and troubles, but we know they have purpose, and these help us to be reminded that this temporary fallen world is not our home.

God has given us a spirit that can never be satisfied with sinfulness, and with all that is tainted by sin, and continually opposed to Him. Instead, we live by faith and by expectation daily while we continue here, leaning upon God, knowing that our present circumstances will never satisfy our yearning for all that God has promised for those who love Him. We are told by Christ, “Seek first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things, (things good, wholesome, lovely), will be added to you” (Matt. 6:33). We receive many blessings in this fallen life, and none are more wonderful than those associated with His Gospel messages, with godly families, with His promises, and the fellowship He gives us with His people. Yet, we know, even these do not compare to what God has promised for His children in eternal glory. Indeed, “Things which eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Cor. 2:9). Soli Deo Gloria!