by Jacob Ninan
Salvation is not merely about escaping from hell and receiving a place in heaven. It is also not about a provision for forgiveness every time we sinned. It certainly starts with forgiveness, but God's goal is to transform our lives themselves from our sinful level to His divine nature. This transformation begins and continues with the transformation of the way we think. But we face a battle here because the world is trying to capture our minds and fill us with its values even as the Holy Spirit is trying to change us into His nature (Gal.1:4). Satan is currently the god of this world (until he is finally cast into the lake of fire at the end), and he is trying to influence the world's thinking so that people will turn away from God and His values (2Cor.4:4). In order to protect ourselves from being moulded into the worldly ways, it is necessary not only to do things externally to conform with the ways of God, but we need to also strongly focus on learning to think according to God's ways.
Our mind is the field where Satan puts up the battle to capture our lives (2Cor.11:3). He knows that if he can capture our mind, our pursuits and our behaviour will come into his hands easily. The mistake many Christians make is to focus on controlling their behaviour in order to make sure they don't commit sin. But when Satan is able to control our ideas, soon our behaviour also will follow. It is not just ideas that we entertain in our mind that matter, but the way we think and the approach we take to examine new ideas will also influence the direction of our life.
The world is being taken by Satan on a downward spiral, with values going downwards or being given up, and tolerance towards sin becoming the fashion. Moral values that were universally acknowledged earlier are now being discarded, immoral behaviour is being normalised, and self-centred lives are being promoted. Even if we start our Christian life with a determination to follow Jesus in every way, we can get drawn into this spiral unknowingly, if we are not aware that we should protect our mind deliberately by aligning our values and ideas to remain with what God has given for us in the Bible.
It may surprise some to hear that it is not enough to be born again, since they have thought that it would ensure their future entirely. Some think they are all right with God permanently because they have been born again, baptised or are speaking in tongues! We cannot rest on our past, but realise that God has started this work of salvation in us and that there is much yet to be accomplished! Now we need to learn to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord (Col.1:10). As we seek to do this, we will keep discovering more and more things in our life that are not according to the life of God. One of the things we need to do in order to deal with this situation is to take care to make the right decisions at every point, and that will in turn depend on what ideas and values we have been filling our mind with. We have to put aside the ways of wickedness we have been used to in the past, and allow the word of God to transform our thinking (Jas.1:21).
We have to recognise the fact that the more we become aligned to God, the more the world will hate us. We will face mockery, ridicule and hatred, and face hostility, ostracisation and harm. Jesus said that people will persecute us when we stand with Him (Matt.5:11,12). Much of the opposition is from the people of the world who want to live in whatever way they want, irrespective of if they are right or wrong. But a lot of opposition will also be surprisingly from fellow Christians, including from our families, who are content to remain at whatever point they have reached, without pressing on forward.
As we seek to do the will of God better and better in our life, our challenge will be to make finer distinctions between what God approves and not. The Berean Bible translates this verse as, "Do not be conformed to this - world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you - will be able to test and approve what is - the good, - pleasing, and perfect will - of God" (Rom.12:2). This 'testing' between what the world says and what God says has to be conscious and deliberate if we are not to be swayed by the pressure the world puts on us to try and make us give in. God gives us His truth in the Bible, but Satan tries to infiltrate our mind through opinions from 'experts', scientists, philosophers, psychologists, professors, media stars, etc. We watch as many of our brothers and sisters are slowly getting pulled back into worldly ideas.
For example, let us look at what is happening in a few areas. The media loves sensations, and if some scientist makes a claim that he has created life in his lab, that becomes 'truth' overnight! Another man claims that homosexuals are born that way, and no one can question that henceforth. With a little falsehood here and another there, Satan is managing to destroy the truths of God which He has revealed to us for our salvation. If being popular before the world and avoiding rejection by the world are top priorities for us, it will only be a matter of time before the world draws us back into it (1Jn.2:15-17). If we have ambitions to become great in this world, we will be tempted to 'bow down' a bit here or there to the Devil and compromise with God in order to go for those ambitions (Matt.4:9). Jesus warns us that what people consider to be great in their eyes are things God despises (Lk.16:15).
We have to be on our guard, not to believe every new idea that comes along. Some fake news is obvious, and the cleverness of some ideas is to appear so much true that it will be difficult to recognise its falsehood. What we need to do is to check everything with what God has said in His word. We must look at new ideas with a question mark till they are checked and verified to be in line with God. In order to be able to do this, we must ourselves be well-grounded in the teachings of the Bible.
Many start well, and afterwards become a little comfortable with where they have reached, and begin to slacken up on their vigil. The lure of fame, popularity, pleasure, wealth, etc., draw us to a point where we start thinking about how much we can get into the world without giving up our Christianity. It will become easy then to keep up an appearance before people by being engaged in Christian activities, while beginning to compromise in our heart attitudes towards God. Let us examine ourselves, and repent and return to God if need be. He is waiting for us, and willing to forgive us and gives us new strength.