“…the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins, that He might rescue us out of this present evil age….”
(Part One may be found at the end of this blog.)
Has the devil ever taken you “in tow”? This is what the picture represents. Your love for God being “towed” away. Read on to find out what in the world I am talking about.
Apostle Paul says Jesus came to be the substitutionary atonement for our sins. He took our guilt and the penalty the guilt required. One reason He did this was to rescue us from this present pernicious age. Because it is pernicious, this age has a corrupting influence upon the born again believer. Apostle Peter tells us in II Peter 1:4 that God has given to born again believers everything we need to live a godly life and become “partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.”
The corruption (phthora) that we need to escape is defined in the English dictionary as “to degrade with unsound principles or moral values” and “to change from good to bad in morals, manners, or actions”. The Greek word means “a bringing or being brought into an inferior or worse condition, a destruction or corruption” (Vines). Some authors refer to the effect of corruption as “inward decay and rottenness”.
In other words, if we are not being led by the indwelling Holy Spirit, the corrupting influence of this age will cause our love for God (expressed in obedience to Him) to become infected with evil passionate cravings resulting in disobedience (sin). Our good morals or Christ likeness begins to rot or decay. Another way to say it, is that our love for God is corrupted by a worldly love that considers something in the world more precious than God.
The effect of the pernicious, corrupting influence of the age is to “carry away” or, as the original language says, “taken in tow”, the believer from his steadfast love for God by “enticing him with his own lust” . This is what James is saying in chapter 1:14:
“But each one is being solicited to sin when he is taken in tow and enticed by his own craving.”
(Wuest)
Satan uses the things of this evil, pernicious age to “carry us away” or “take us in tow”. The first thing he does is to get us distracted from God and focused on something in his kingdom (the world) and he hooks us up to his Enticement Wagon, so to speak, so he can “tow” us further down the Road of Distraction where he entices you with things that you crave, i.e. attention, money, fame, power, liquor, fornication, adultery, homosexuality, drugs, rebellion, your way, freedom, etc. And:
“Then when the aforementioned craving has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and this sin when it is full grown brings forth death.” (James 1:15)
It is “conceived” when we give our “will” over to do the enticement. When we say “Yes” to it. Satan knows what our passionate cravings were before we were saved and he will use the same passionate carvings to “entice” us to sin. Plus new ones. I was never a drug user; therefore, he does not tempt me with illegal drugs but he tempts me with other things that were in my life prior to salvation. Let us therefore, if possible, steer clear of areas of the world where we know our past and present temptations exist. Be wise as a serpent but as harmless as a dove.
In Mark 9:50 the Lord Jesus warns the twelve disciples “Have salt in yourselves…” This is an important commandment and we will discuss salt and how it relates to this present evil age in the next blog. Hope you will join me.
Thank you for your time and God bless you and your family.
Don’t be taken in “tow” by Satan. “…be keeping one’s self unspotted from the world” it says in James 1:27. Stay free from the corruption of this age and stay steadfast in your love for God. Let us keep our minds full of the Word of God and our eyes fixed on His purposes in the earth. Let us be led daily by the indwelling, powerful Holy Spirit who He has so graciously made to dwell in us!
Let us pay close attention to ourselves for the purpose of holiness.
Carl
Psalm 119: 38 