ENEMIES OF THE CROSS

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things.

Philippians 3:18-19

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Current statistics show that there are 2.2 billion Christian believers in the world, making Christianity the world’s most followed religion.

Now on the surface, this appears to be great. More than 2 billion people have placed their belief in Jesus and are saved. Without question, we should rejoice in this.

But our celebration needs to be tempered. For despite the gaudy number of Christians in the world, Christianity is still under constant attack. The world outside Christianity seems to be growingly hostile toward Christian values and those who espouse them. Maybe you’ve noticed.

So why is this happening? With so many Christians in the world and with Christianity the largest religion, how could there be such a consistent, significant threat ever increasing in its intensity?

The answer comes from considering that there are more than 7.9 billion people in the world and you can do the math.

Yes, there are 2.2 billion Christians in the world but there are 5.7 billion people who have not accepted Jesus as Savior. In other words, Christian believers are outnumbered 2-to-1 by non-Christians. Hold that thought as we turn to our two verses from our continuing look at the third chapter of Philippians. Look again at these words from Paul:

For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. Vv. 19-19

Here we find the Apostle letting the Philippian Christians know they are up against a challenge, one that they were well aware of. Christianity was still a fledgling religion in the first century and trying to grow roots within a culture where other religions were far more established. Those with their mind fixed on Christ were outnumbered by those who had set their minds on earthly things, those who Paul called the “enemies of the cross”. These non-believers of Christ were without salvation and therefore destined for destruction.

Today, the threat against the modern Christian church is no different, even though Christianity is now the dominant world religion. There are still 5.7 billion enemies of the cross in our world and that’s a lot of people for Satan to use in his quest to destroy the Christian faith.

As we finished Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, another one of Paul’s prison epistles, we found him urging the Ephesian Christians to put on the full armor of God to defend against attack on the battlefield of spiritual warfare (6:13-17). We need to do likewise today so we can stand firm against our spiritual adversary, the devil, and his army which consists of the enemies of the cross.

Through Christ, the church will ultimately have the victory but we need to be ready for the battles in between.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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