Christians live against the culture of the world

When carnal attitudes interfere with the handling of Kingdom affairs there is always loss to the Kingdom of God. Either conflict results or abuse results or the devil gains the upper hand and then seizes those opportunities to sow dissent and scandal in the world and to present a negative image of the children of God and the Kingdom of God.

And this is what we see in this case of Matthew 20:20. That is why it is so important to insist on this point that when we enter into Christian service and even into the ways of the Lord, the first thing we have to understand is that the things of the Kingdom of God are not handled in the same way that they are handled in the Lord. world. The Kingdom of God is a counterintuitive culture; it is a very different culture that is even in conflict with the culture of the world.

When we enter the Kingdom of God we have to assume that many things within us will have to die. The way we process life issues, the way we process conflicts for example, our own wishes and projects; The decisions we make, human relationships, there is a very different way of processing this in the Kingdom than it is done in the world.

And this is what the Lord Jesus Christ tries to take advantage of when these men come into conflict and the Lord calls them apart and says: No, this is the way things are done in My Kingdom very different from things in the world. . That is why we have to continually ask the Lord if we truly want to be used by God to deal with us.

That it makes us aware that we are truly entering a completely different zone, that it keeps us alert to our own carnal impulses, to those destructive patterns that we bring with us that when we incorporate them into the Christian life are terribly destructive and that we have to change them, we have to be continually seeking illumination and direction from the Holy Spirit so that those carnal habits can be subjected to the treatment of the Holy Spirit and that with the passage of time we can assume a posture, a mentality, a way of doing things that is more in accordance with Jesus Christ and His benevolent and generous personality.

I think of one of the passages found in the Book of Romans where it says: "Do not conform to this age but transform yourselves according to the renewal of your understanding." In other words, what the apostle Paul is saying there is that we cannot adjust to the patterns of the world, we cannot live by the way the world does things. So do not conform to this century.

When he says century, he is not necessarily saying century in terms of chronology of time, but rather this time, this era, this culture, this way of doing things in this present form of administration of the world that is history. We Christians live against the culture of the world and we have assumed a very different position, a position that is more in accordance with the principles of the Kingdom of God and in accordance with the attitude that Christ exemplified in His walk here on Earth and that the The Bible is continually trying to teach us.

So the apostle Paul goes on there in Romans saying: "If you do not transform according to the renewing of your understanding." There are two key words here: transform, renew. Transformation is the end result and renewal is the daily process that leads to transformation. Every day we have to ask the Lord to renew a little more of our mind, of our character, of our personality. Every day we have to ask the Holy Spirit to deal with a different facet of our being and gradually polish us, treating us, breaking us, cutting things from our flesh that are not suitable for building the Kingdom of God.

We are a project in continuous treatment on the part of the Lord and unless we are not aware of that need that the Holy Spirit is treating us, renewing us, changing us, removing undue attitudes, character traits that do not suit the Lord, appetites that are not convenient For Christian leadership, ambitions and things that do not suit then we will be neglected and we will continue to execute the same carnal attitudes that will again and again lead us to the failure and undermining and destruction of our ministries, and instead of being used by God we are going to be used by the devil to wreak havoc within the Kingdom of God.

We have to ask the Lord: Lord renew me every day, change the different things in me; I know that I am not all that I should be, I know that the image of Jesus Christ has not yet been fully formed in me and I need You to continually renew me because otherwise what I am going to do is that I am going to be incorporating the same patterns, the same attitudes that I had in the world and trying to graft them into the Kingdom of God and doing damage to my ministry and to the call of God in my life.

So we have to ask the Lord: renew me every day; change my attitudes, make me more like Christ. Conform my thoughts and behavior to the principles of the Kingdom of God so that I can then preach like Christ, act like Christ, solve problems like Christ, and be a true servant of the Lord who reflects the character of Jesus. That is the only thing that can prevent situations around us from continually arising that undo what we are trying to do with such good intentions.

May the Lord bless you and I hope this is a blessing for your lives, I say goodbye to you Pastor Roberto Miranda, many blessings.