“Be in the world, but not of the world”

Philippians 3:20

“But our citizenship is in Heaven, and we eagerly await our Savior there, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Philippians 1:27

“Above all, you must live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ.”

As Citizens of Heaven, we are here on a temporary visa.  We must look at our lives differently than those who are here, not knowing that they are children of God.  We must work together as one body, working against one common enemy.  Our common enemy is the ruler of this world, so living here on this earth, in this world, we are in a war.  The enemy knows we are here on a temporary visa and it is his job to keep us here to get us to forget the reason we are here, and he knows we are here and is completely aware of our moves.

He is here to keep the human race from turning to God and to try and tempt God’s chosen with sinful desires.  He also is here to attack the called and prevent them from ever answering the call. He does this through, in, and throughout the world we live in.  As citizens of heaven being on a planet earth, in this world we must realize we are not to be concerned with earthly matters for these things are temporal.  These temporal things such as material, money, gain, and self are all the things the world seeks after and have no eternal value.  So we, the chosen citizens of heaven, must seek things of eternal value and most importantly do the will of our Father in Heaven.  Let’s start off with the understanding what the word of God says about the world:

“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” Romans 12:2

“We know that we are children of God and that the world around us is under the control of the evil one.” 1 John 5:19

“You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God.” James 4:4

“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.” 1 John 2:15-17

So by the words of our Father in Heaven, we are not to conform to the lusts of the flesh.  So what is He talking about?  What is a lust of the flesh?  What does the flesh want, sin?  Yes, the flesh desires sin.  It has an appetite for rebellion against God, His rules, and His Word.  The flesh wants impurity, sex, money, material wealth, new, shiny, and expensive things.  It wants control; it wants pleasure, not pain.  It wants to feel good, all the time, with no consequences. The flesh is completely worldly; its desires are all temporal.  Anything we do that does not have eternal value is done by the flesh.  Our flesh wants to be rebellious against God and His will for our lives.  The flesh is the earthly shell we live in while we are inhabitants of this world.  That is why we must die to its desires and lusts, for this is what the Word of God tells us to do, to die to our flesh.

Romans 8:13 “For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.”

Let’s move on to the lusts of the eyes.  We are also told by God that this is a way of the world. Let’s break that down to lust with your eyes.  Our eyes see, they see and they want.  They see and lust over beauty, expensive items, luxury, materials, and they covet.  They cause you to commit adultery, to want the very thing we are told not to do.  Thou shall not want.  The eyes are our viewports and must be controlled.  We go to the mall and our eyes get our brains all sorts of stimulation with 100s of desires and wants.  The devil has millions upon millions of his minions on TV, in commercials, in movies, in school, in the mall, in music videos, and everywhere we go we see advertisements for new and updated materials.  So it’s no wonder why our eyes would be a port to lust and that is why God says the world lusts with its eyes.  The world and its lusts are temporal and not of God.  We must keep our eyes on Jesus and His will for His chosen.

In Matthew 18:9 the Bible says “And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.”  Now we move on to the next way of the world, which is the pride of life.  “Look at me, I did this, I am AWESOME! This is my accomplishment.”  Actors, movie stars, sports players, musicians, and Youtubers are all self-seekers looking for all the praise and glory for their prideful accomplishments, successfulness, entrepreneurship.  Millionaires, billionaires, and investors, all want the praise and glory.  We must be careful because without God we can do nothing.  The world looks at this sin, the pride of life, as awesome.

Think with me here, you are born into this world and your ultimate goal is to grow up, get educated, and climb to success as quickly as possible.  We push our children into sports so they can rise to stardom, which equals dollar signs.  There are a few people pushing to climb the ladder of selflessness or servanthood.  That’s because we can watch the world’s success on TV, the internet, at the movies, in and around where we live, people wear their success.  I’m guilty of this myself, we want to look successful to the world, but we do not have to be part of it, that’s for sure.  So be in the world, but not part of it.

Bottom line is, if the world is doing it, we should not.  If it’s in the category of lust whether it be with the eyes, or flesh, or pride we have no business partaking.  We need to wake up, you citizens of heaven and open up your eyes before you just jump in and do what the world does.  We are better than that.  We are God’s chosen, so act like it and take off your former self.  Step out of your fleshly shell and into your new spiritual coat, wear it proud, wear it loud and become that lighthouse in a dark area.  Become a favorable salt for people to taste.  Become spiritual farmers, planting seeds, watering other seeds that already have been planted, break chains of bondage, spread the good news, cast out demons, pray, fast and be the hands and feet of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Here is a list of priorities for a citizen of Heaven, things we should be doing continually:

• Loving and leading people to Christ
• Praying and Fasting
• Meditating in God’s Word and living according to it.
• Become Heavenly Minded
• Serving and pleasing God
• Not sinning and asking for forgiveness
• Singing spiritual songs, hymns, and Psalms
• Healing, performing miracles, teaching, and rebuking
• Obeying Jesus and being guided by the Holy Spirit
• Planting seeds, being the salt and light for Christ
• Don’t conform to the ways of this world, especially the ungodly practices of the world
• Do your homework and see where these things of the world stem from before you partake.