Present Evil World

Gal 1:4 Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father


How evil was the world in Jesus' day?


For some reason we think our day is the epitome of evil and yet we forget when the world was consumed with evils we would not abide today such as--


The Roman Colliseum and the infamous gladiators-

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Occasionally used for executions in which the hero of the story — played by a condemned person — was killed in one of various gruesome but mythologically authentic ways, such as being mauled by beasts or burned to death.


The brave gladiators face each other in pairs. They know it's a fight to the death.


When the Christians refused to sacrifice to the emperor and worship his false gods, they were accused of treason and thrown into the arena to combat wild beasts. When one member of a family was accused the whole family would be thrown into the lions den, small children included.


In 80 Emperor Titus held an openings party, which lasted 100 days. The party took the lives of 5000 animals.


The fights that were shown in the Colosseum were inhuman. Humans killing humans, animals killing animals and there were even fights between animals and humans. Blood was shed all over.


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We would not tolerate anything like that today. Yet some will argue a lot of that stuff goes on today behind the scenes of every day life and they're right. Criminal activities thrive and the world is filled with evil but it has always been filled with evil. This world is Satan's. Satan is the prince of this world and it will never be filled with peace as long as He remains the prince of this world. Jesus prayed to the Father to keep us from the evil of the world- not take us out of the world. The verse above...


Gal 1:4 Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father


Jesus will deliever us from the present evil world, He died, giving himself for OUR sins. The evil of the world will not disappear. We have to live surrounded by the evil of the present world, but our treasures don't have to be of this world. Our treasures are to be in heaven. As far as I know no one has a physical treasure chest they can fill in heaven. Our treasures have to be treasures of the heart bound to Christ's heart. There should be NOTHING in this world that we should be so entangled with that we aren't willing to give it all up for our heavenly treasure- Christ. Cares of this world will try to bring us down and do away with any heavenly treasure we might possess. As long as we holdfast to this world we lose heaven. Jesus died to deliver us from this present evil world. By His grace and His mercy, by His unfathomable love and forgiveness of our vile sins, we will be delivered.


In Him.


Amen.