Dead Men Walking - Part 2

What were we enslaved to? We were enslaved to the world, deceived, “In which you once walked according to the course of this world” (Eph.2:2). Before a person comes to faith in Jesus Christ they are in bondage to a system of thought that they think they have freely chosen. Unbelievers think Christians are the ones trapped in bondage to their beliefs, but the truth is it is unbelievers who are enslaved. They are entirely controlled by the worlds thought system. The Greek word translated “world” in Romans 12:2, "Do not be conformed to this world", means “all that floating mass of thoughts, opinions, rules of conduct, speculations, hopes, impulses, plans, aspirations — at any time current in the world, which may be impossible to accurately define but which constitute a most real and effective power of influences.” (Trench Greek Word Studies) The world is a mentality, a view of life without God. J.B. Phillips translates this “This world’s ideas of living”. Unbelievers are the ultimate conformists — they all conform to the same politically correct ideas, they are afraid to disobey or disagree because they are afraid of the consequences. We all did this before we came to Christ. This is tyranny— absolute control. I have heard so many people say, "no one is going to tell me what to think or what to believe!", not realizing that they have already been told and are just parroting lies that have been around for a long time.