UNSPOTTED FROM THE WORLD
(week 48/13)
OLUBI JOHNSON
James 1:27 KJV: Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
The physical good works of giving to and caring for the fatherless and the widows MUST have as its foundation the spiritual practice of keeping ourselves unspotted from the world.
It is possible to give without divine love; but it is not possible to practice divine love and NOT give!
1 Corinthians 13:3 AMP: Even if I dole out all that I have [to the poor in providing] food, and if I surrender my body to be burned or in order that I may glory, but have not love (God’s love in me), I gain nothing.
1 John 3:17 KJV: But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
So what does it mean to be unspotted from the world?
The spot spoken of here is the spot of the block of the sin-nature that hinders or stops the flow of the life of God to us; these spots can ONLY be removed by the blood of the Lord Jesus.
1 Timothy 6:14 KJV: That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ:
2 Peter 3:14 KJV: Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.
1 John 1:7-10 KJV: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (8) If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. (9) If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (10) If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
Hebrews 13:20-21 KJV: Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, (21) Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
After you have removed the spots by the blood of the Lord Jesus, you now overcome the world by crucifying the sin-nature in the will, mind, emotions and body by the power of the Holy Spirit.
1John 2:15-16 KJV: Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. (16) For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
Galatians 6:14 NIV: May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
How then do we crucify the world: the lusts of the flesh, eyes and the pride of life?
By the daily application of the power of the Holy Spirit through prayer: taking up the cross daily.
Romans 8:13 NIV: For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live,
Romans 8:26 NIV: In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.
Luke 9:23 NIV: Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”
We do this by habitual daily praying in the Spirit with all types of prayer (Eph. 6.18) to be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus like the Lord Jesus did when He was on earth:
Hebrews 5:7 KJV: Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;
