The Modern Lie of Friendliness with the World

The more we focus on Christ and His calling for us, the more this will cost us family and long-time friends.

 
Most people remain our friends when we are satisfied with stagnation or when we validate all their worldly ideas and pleasures.

 
When we grow and change with the help of the Holy Spirit, it will be off-putting to most people who say they are Christians. We no longer experience life the same way that our friends and family view it, everything we see, do, and say is infused with the principles and thoughts of God.

We no longer want the things of the world, even though we move within it and enjoy many things about our lives. This world is only the place we live and work for Christ until He takes us home.

Our connection with people is all about Him continually and works well when we are in company of others who think the way we do. This radical dedication to Christ is driven by the Holy Spirit Who guides and trains us every single day, unless we ignore Him, then He will go silent until we return to obedience.

1 Thessalonians 5:19-22
"19 Do not quench the Spirit, 20 do not utterly reject prophecies, 21 but examine everything; hold firmly to that which is good, 22 abstain from every form of evil."

Ephesians 4:30
"And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption."

Galatians 5:16-17
"So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh craves what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are opposed to each other, so that you do not do what you want."

When we seek Christ every day to be more like Him and to be directed continually by Him we will become despised by the world and even some people who say they are Christians.

 
The modern church system wants "Christians" to keep their faith in that designated building while walking with the world when they leave it so they can fit in with the world. The excuse I have heard many times is "to win the world we must be like them." This phrase comes in many forms, but essentially it is the same mentality that is "to be liked and friends with the world, will make the world like Jesus." It is a false teaching and must be discarded.

 
It is not true, being friends with the world makes us like them. They do not come to Jesus Christ because we were friendly and accommodating; they pretend to be Christians because of those who compromise their walk with Christ to be loved by the world.

John 15:18-20 "18 If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me first. 19 If you were of the world, it would love you as its own. Instead, the world hates you because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. 20 Remember the word that I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you as well; if they kept My word, they will keep yours as well.…"

When we walk with Christ in a radical dedication to Him the world will hate us even while claiming to be Christian.

 
James 4:4 "You adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world renders himself an enemy of God."

John 15:18-25
Disciples’ Relation to the World
18 “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.
19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.
20 Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you as well; if they followed My word, they will follow yours also.
21 But all these things they will do to you on account of My name, because they do not know the One who sent Me.
22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.
23 The one who hates Me hates My Father also.
24 If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well.
25 But this has happened so that the word that is written in their Law will be fulfilled: ‘They hated Me for no reason.’"

Those who are attempting to manipulate the world to like them are themselves worldly. These people hate Christ even when they pretend to love Him, and they hate us because we love Him.