Message To Smyrna (4)

The World

Still another potential temptation for Christians is the world around us. Because the world has a different set of values contrary to God's, James wrote, “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4). While the world can appear to be attractive, the end result of focusing on it instead of God is tragic. Paul wrote, “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common?… What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: 'I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people. Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty'” (2 Corinthians 6:14-18, NIV).

At the end of this present evil age, when Jesus Christ returns to establish the Kingdom of God on earth, John, in vision, heard a similar warning for God's people. “And I heard another voice from heaven saying, 'Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues'” (Revelation 18:4). God's people have no other choice we must resist the world and its ungodly influences.

Christ's Encouragement to Us

Before Jesus' crucifixion, He shared some observations about the tests His followers would face. In John 15:18-20, He said, “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.” He concluded His remarks, saying, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

In His message to the church at Smyrna, Jesus was giving the same encouragement. He admonished them and us today to make sure we endure persecution and trials. If we persevere, Jesus promises us “the crown of life” and that we will “not be hurt by the second death” (Revelation 2:10, 11).


God bless you all.