All too often, the believer will trade the supernatural for the superficial, the sacred for the mundane, the heavenly for the earthly. One might object, “When have I traded the heavenly for the earthly? I would never do such a thing.”

Yet it’s done on the daily. When one takes no time to pray but has plenty of time for scrolling through social media, a trade is made. When one consumes hours of media yet reads not one word of Scripture, a trade is made. When one chooses to say “yes” to a sinful temptation and rejects the power to live holy, a trade is made. When one remains silent about the gospel and instead chooses to blend in with everyone else, a trade is made. Choices are made between the eternal and the temporary.

Everyday, we must choose to either live as citizens of this earth or as citizens of Heaven.

But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior. (Philippians 3:20, NLT)

We’re not from here. Literally speaking, the believer is an other-worldly being filled with God’s divine power, the Holy Spirit. So we must choose. For what world are we living? In what world are we investing? From which world do we derive our identity? 

15 Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. 16 For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. 17 And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever. (1 John 2:15-17, NLT)

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, NLT)

Of course, we exist in this world, but that doesn’t mean that we are to move with the patterns of this 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, NLT)

Choose a world. Jesus came not to bring peace but a sword - to divide His sheep from the goats. To which world do you belong? 

To invest your life in a temporary world is to embrace temporary life, but to invest your life in an eternal world… is life eternal. We are not of this world.

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