Subject 10 : The Revelation (Commentaries on the Revelation)
[Chapter 17-2] Concentrate Our Attention On His Will (Revelation 17:1-18)
Revelation 17:1-5 states, “Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying to me, ‘Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.’ So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. And on her forehead a name was written:
MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”
The harlot in the above passage refers to the religious of this world, and it tells us that they have indulged in extravagant luxuries with the things of the world and the material abundance given by the Lord. They adorned themselves with all kinds of luxuries, with necklaces of gold and earrings of diamonds, and put on all kinds of fragrant oil. The passage tells us that in her hand was a golden cup, and that it was full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication. This is what God showed John.
What this passage tells us is that Satan contrives in people’s souls and seeks to make them surrender to him by having them be drunk with the things of the world. All the kings of the world, too, have been made drunk with the things of the world by Satan. As such, everyone on this earth is made drunk with the wine of the world’s fornication.
Satan achieves his goals when people become drunk with the tide of this world, its pleasures, and its material greed. The truth is that his goal is to prevent people from looking toward God. To do so, Satan makes their souls drunk with the material things of the world. We must realize this truth.
There is no one in this world who would not fall into the materialist trap. Everyone falls into materialism. The fashionable trends of this world are all manipulated and led by Satan. Everyone thinks that he/she has his/her unique style. But behind it lies a manipulator, and this manipulator is none other than Satan. This is why we must not live soaked in materialism, but instead live imbibing from His Word and doing the works of God.
The Word of Revelation that God reveals to us through the Apostle John is the truth. What, then, is God trying to tell us with this Word? Our Lord is telling us that we should not saturate ourselves with this world, but instead stand against it. He is telling us, the saints, in other words, to think of and believe in God with our hearts.
1 John 2:15 says, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” When our hearts love the material things of the world, God cannot dwell in our hearts. But when our hearts throw away the things of the world, God would then dwell in our hearts. We must not live our lives saturated in the material things of the world. Only when we contemplate on the Word of our Lord and His purposes alone can we be led by His guidance.
We can change our minds at any time. When the things of the world try to enter into our hearts, we should always reject them. We can then drive away all the filthy things of the world from our hearts, and our hearts soon dissolve into the Lord’s own heart. What does our Lord want from us? And what does He tell us to do? To make sure that such godly thoughts would spring up in our hearts, we must erase the worldly things from our hearts.
God has given us so many blessings, and we realize now that we should preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit to the people of the entire world for the rest of our remaining days. We therefore do not let down our guards, and come to concentrate our attention on His will. By thinking of spiritual works, we can drive out the things of the world found in our hearts.
We the saints must drive out the things of the world. Until the Lord comes again, we must live our Christian lives with faith. For the remainder of our lives, we must do what the Lord has entrusted us with until we stand before Him. And we must love the Lord, and live by faith, doing whatever works He permits us to do.
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