How is it that we so easily join the world with our Christianity?  How prevalent has the world infiltrated into the belief system of those who believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior.  I have noticed this in alarming proportion and it has deeply grieved me.  For we are to be a people who are set apart, and are different from the world, in fact the world should hate us.  But instead, we are buddies with it and have joined with it to form our own Christianity.  I especially note this in the area of mental health, to which I have already posted, but I feel the need to reinforce such a troubling trend in light of what scripture reveals to us.  While I respect the study of the human mind and find it very fascinating, I attempt to put it in its place – which is below Christ.  What I see as being the concern among the Christian community is that it is being placed above Christ and my hope is that we will be refreshed in some very important truths that pertain to this path many have taken.

2 Corinthians 6:

¹⁴ Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? ¹⁵ And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? ¹⁶ And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said:

“I will dwell in them
And walk among them.
I will be their God,
And they shall be My people.”

¹⁷ Therefore

“Come out from among them
And be separate, says the Lord.
Do not touch what is unclean,
And I will receive you.”
¹⁸ “I will be a Father to you,
And you shall be My sons and daughters,
Says the Lord Almighty.”

What does this really mean anyway?  I believe it has great meaning and context to a very important law of God.  Not only does He require His people to be one who are set apart, but that his people are set apart – so they may be kept safe and uncontaminated.           Rev 18:4 indicates this:

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.

You see, because we are no longer of this world, and belong in the Kingdom of God we must not partake in what the world offers.  For when we do, we open ourselves up to the wicked one, the ruler of this world, to have ground in our lives.  We do this through the lust of our eyes, the lust of our flesh, and the pride of life as 1 John 2 reveals:

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. ¹⁶ For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.

We also must not regard any philosophy or worldly wisdom higher in our esteem before God as Colossians 2 states-

As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, ⁷ rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.

⁸ Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. ⁹ For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; ¹⁰ and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.

In that the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s eyes, as we read in 1 Cor 1-

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ¹⁹ For it is written:

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.”

²⁰ Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

It is clear that man’s wisdom and philosophy is distinct from God’s wisdom as we read in 1 Cor 2-

These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. ¹⁴ But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

No matter how we attempt to incorporate the world’s ways into our Christianity – it will never prove productive but will only block our victory Jesus Christ has given us through His shed blood.  We cannot on one hand follow after worldly scholars, professionals and therapies – and then expect God be on board in our endeavors no matter how spiritual we attempt to make them.  Any time we camp around our human flesh and our human psyche to adopt the philosophies, traditions and therapies of man in attempt to fix our anguish – we are insulting Christ.   We are seeking on the level of the world and are taking part in the enemy of this world’s business.  We must believe what scripture tells us and move from this futility!  Where is the answer to our problems found?  Not here, not in the latest psychologist’s inspiration, fad, programs or therapy, but in the heavenly realm as we see in Colossians 3

If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. ² Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. ³ For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Did you catch that?  We are no longer alive – in this body of flesh, so why do we try to apply the remedies of this world to ‘clean up or fix our dead flesh?’  For we way too often plant ourselves in our flesh, in our mental and emotional anguish – and begin working there.  This is not how God does things.  Christ made a way for us to receive our healing, our deliverance – but it must be in the Spirit – and only in this will we get our release.  We are told in Galatians 6:8

For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.

This is a very significant piece of valuable truth that speaks in what the difference is when we attempt to ‘fix’ our flesh (our mind) by sowing to it through the world’s remedy then what God prescribes to us, which is sowing to our spirit.  Only He can fix us.  Only He knows where our problems come from and what plagues us.  Let us give Him his proper due, in that we no longer subject ourselves to our flesh, nor to the philosophy and principles of this world – and be diligent to live as a separate people who follows after their God and Him only.