Not of this world.

I find it difficult in that, the closer I get to God, the more I feel I am not of this world, and moreover, that I have such a more difficult time at dealing with said world. Why is this?

2 Corinthians 5:17 says 'If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come, the old has gone, the new is here! (NIV) In John 15:19 it says 'If you belonged to the world it would love you as it's own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.'

We are called as Christians to love, but not in the sense that we are to love 'the world'. As Paul Washer says 'If we are not getting any resistance form the world, then we are of the world'. What this means to me is that if we live as the world does, and people are not seeing the difference in our lives something is wrong. How, as Christians, can we claim to be 'not of this world' and yet do the very things the world considers the 'norm'.

1 John 5:19 says that the whole world in under the control of the evil one. We must not be so gullible as to think that this does not included everything. As for me, although I may considered an extremist by some, I think our Orthodox Christianity has been lost in the sea of worldly pleasure. The word 'obedience' and 'discipline' have become nothing more than mere words. Grace has been abused, and we are lost.

And this is my whole point. I draw near to God, and I feel less and less as though I cannot relate to anyone. And I wonder how this can be.