Title: Worldly, demonic, and lust/James 3:13~18
Description When Adam ate the forbidden fruit and hid behind a tree from God, he said, "Adam, where are you?"
Did God say that he was looking for Adam because he did not know where he was? This is what you said, knowing everything.
"Your place is not behind a tree. Come to me now, confess your mistake, and let's go back to the way it was before" was an earnest call.
The son to take the test tomorrow did not come home, so the mother with the child went out to find him and found him in the arcade. "Where the hell are you?" I screamed the moment I saw it. It's pointed out that you're in a place you shouldn't be, and it's a statement that demands the answer, "Yes, I'm in the arcade. I was wrong."
What kind of world do we live in today? In terms of faith, as I said last week, we are wasting our time in vain places, and we live in a dark world where we will not know the will of the Lord at all. And in terms of life, the most important word in today's text is timing. You are in danger of becoming a prisoner of strife and living creating disturbances and all kinds of evil (comparative consciousness/ isolationism/ supremacy).
Today, I want to think about the question of God who asks us where you are now. And I want to see if you are in a life of envy and strife.
In verse 15 of today's text, envy and strife are called evil wisdom. And this explains what it is. "This evil wisdom does not come down from above, it is worldly, it is lustful, it is demonic..." The world is outside of me, lust, lust, is within me, and the devil uses these two to destroy me and divide us.
Envy and contention are worldly.
In the Bible, the word world is used in the sense of "ruling with power." Worldly power comes from various places. Not only money and power, but also things like clothes, cars and houses give people power. But if you think about it, all of these things are external, not something that belongs to human nature or existence itself. These are things that people have after they are born, in this way, and so on. And, in our society today, those who don't have those things are mercilessly put down and judged.
If you look at advertisements these days, you can see this social trend well. There is a CF that says "You're a bad potato" and one potato slaps another. "It's ridiculous that you want me to marry you on a small, ugly, useless subject." So this potato is put on one side and rots while crying. When it's college entrance season, at the entrance to the town, at the school's front door, on the wall of the academy, "Congratulations S University Pass!" Our society, where Iranian placards hang up, obviously has a problem.
At the judgment of the last day, Jesus spoke about the standard by which sheep and goats would be separated.
To his surprise, he said, “Have you given a bowl of water to the most insignificant person or not?”
Not seeing the little one as an object of sympathy, but as an object of love and my neighbor, everything I have done makes me classified as a sheep.
One day, a man met Mother Teresa and asked a mischievous question.
At that time, Theresa was wiping off the pus of a sick man. “Sister, are you satisfied with this kind of life? Do you not feel envious when you see people living comfortably in a nice house and living as they please?” To this question, Grandma Lee answered with a calm smile: "He who lives with his knees bowed in service has no time to look up."
It is clear that he will not ask such questions as we stand before the Lord.
"What position did you work for? How many people did you serve?" You will certainly be asking this question.
“How many people have you served, and how have you served?” Envy and strife are worldly sins that start with seeking service.
Envy and strife are lustful.
The word lust means unspiritual, that is, unspiritual. Unspiritual, what is it? Yes, it is physical. We call this fleshly lust lust, and this lust confuses our hearts, minds, and souls today and creates all envy and jealousy.
In James 4:1, it says, "Where do strife and strife begin, are they not driven out of the lusts of war among your members?"
The event in which physical greed appeared concretely is Eve's tree of knowledge. Eve's feelings when she saw the forbidden fruit were that it was delicious and pleasing to the eye, and that it was desirable enough to make her wise. And in the end, she could not give up her greed, so she ruined her husband and destroyed God's Garden of Eden.
As the legendary British mountaineer George Mallory once said: You all know it. "There is a mountain there, so I go up the mountain."
How great does this look? However, if you look closely, you can see that it is just a word that expresses a desire for conquest. If there is a mountain, I will climb it, and if there is no mountain, I will not climb it. If there is a mountain, I will go up to conquer it.
From Genesis to Revelation, one of the lessons the Bible teaches us is the blessing of giving.
It is a great blessing to be able to give and share. When we stand before the Lord, you will ask:
“How long have you been serving and sharing with all the things I have entrusted to you to use to your heart’s content?”
The devil uses worldly and lustful things to take away our peace and joy.
The devil was originally an angel, and he was also the head of the angels. So how did you become a devil? This is because of the two things I just mentioned. He tried to ascend to the throne of God, saying, “I will compare you with the Most High,” but it happened. Jude 6 explains this in this way. “And the angels who did not keep their position and left their dwelling place, imprisoned in darkness with eternal bonds until the judgment of the great day…” In other words, God has given each and every creature a place to live and a place to live, but when they deviate from that place and position due to greed, envy and jealousy, they will change. What happens when an angel changes? He is not a quasi-angel, an angel candidate, or an apprentice, but a straight devil without any intermediate steps. It's a surprising fact.
There are three very famous pastors in England.
F.B. Meyer (no other pastor has written as many books as this man)// Spurgeon (no other great preacher in the history of Christianity has ever been like this man)//
God asks us today where are we?
Where are you on the religious side? Where are you in life? Let's stay awake today to worship and pray so that we do not become prisoners of evil years and waste our precious years.