by Pastor Afolabi Oladele

Apostle John elaborated in 1 John 4:5 on those who are of the world, taking the cue from John 17:16.

They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. 1 John 4:5 KJV

They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. John 17:16 KJV

They speak the language that’s in sync with the world’s familiar and accepted norms.

The world thrives on present tangibility, seen things.

For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever. 2 Corinthians 4:17‭-‬18 NLT

And this small and temporary trouble we suffer will bring us a tremendous and eternal glory, much greater than the trouble. For we fix our attention, not on things that are seen, but on things that are unseen. What can be seen lasts only for a time, but what cannot be seen lasts forever. 2 Corinthians 4:17‭-‬18 GNT

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:17‭-‬18 KJV

For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. Romans 8:24‭-‬25 KJV

We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it. But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.) Romans 8:24‭-‬25 NLT

For we walk by faith, not by sight. 2 Corinthians 5:7 KJV

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1 KJV