The World Against the Church

When I talk about the church, I'm not talking about a building.  The church is not a building as the world sometimes says.  The church is the international nation of people set apart from the world by Jesus Christ, and their faith in Christ.




The world hates the church, and the church cannot love the world.
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The church are those who have heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and believed it. They further responded by being baptized for the forgiveness of their sins while confessing Jesus Christ as Lord (Read Acts 2:38-39) They love Jesus and accept Him as their only Head, Lord, Savior and King. Jesus intercedes between them and God as they live their lives on earth as Jesus Christ prescribes in the scriptures.


The world (those who oppose Jesus and the Gospel) hates the church.

In John 15:18-19, Jesus warned His followers:

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated Me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. "

In 1 John 3:12-13 the world is likened to Cain who hated his brother, Abel, and murdered him.  The church is likened to Abel. This is what it says:

^{12 "}Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous. ¹³ Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you." 

The world and the church cannot be friends.  The world is in darkness and Christians are in the Light (Jesus referred to Himself as the Light - John 8:12). 

1 John 2:15-17 says:

^{15 "}Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. ¹⁶ 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. ¹⁷ The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever."

Many Christians want to be friends with the world, so they compromise the Christian principles found in the scriptures for political correctness. They decide to choose the world's ways rather than to stay in Jesus' way and light.  They choose the broad way rather than the narrow way. They fall out of the light and back into the darkness from which Christ had rescued them. 

When a Christian willfully falls back into the darkness, that is a crying shame. It is like they are crucifying Jesus all over again. Read Hebrews 6:4-8, 1 Peter 2:9, and 2 Peter 2:20-22.

Finally, this is what Jesus told the Apostle Paul as He sent him to preach the Gospel to Jews and Gentiles alike:

"I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.’  Acts 26:17-18

I suggest you read 1 John, the entire book, which explains darkness against light and the world against the church.

Read the article at this site titled, The Two Groups of People.