So, as we get correction and curing of His love, we are more and more living in God's love, instead of living in sin. It is like how a child, at first when a baby, can be much more about getting what he or she wants or needs for one's own self. But with growing and having good love example people to relate with, the child can become mature in how to relate in love. So, the child might have started being pretty much selfish, but the child does not stay that way.
So it's a progression? New Christians start out in union with Satan and then slowly over time, wander away the longer they stay Christians...So how long does that process take?
Not quite "in union with Satan" > if a person gets started with Jesus, now the person has started to be in union with Jesus >
"But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him." (1 Corinthians 6:17)
But, "you would wonder", often enough, who a "Christian" is really in union with. In my case, for a while there were times I was quite concerned with how I was supposed to be, in comparison with all the Bible says God succeeds at doing with His children. What the Bible says God does was not "fitting" with how I might describe my experience. But I kept trusting God to correct me . . . when I had the encouragement and sense to do so. And now after decades of processing and "correctional custody", I am more quiet and peaceful and more into compassion for people with problems, versus analyzing and criticizing them . . . though I still need plenty more correction.
And I experience God personally guiding me, and His guiding has to do with loving any and all people, though I need to know right from wrong so I don't do wrong stuff or mislead others.
And there is the evil of being weak enough so evil people can control us with their fear. In sin ones can be controlled by fear. But if we become real and strong in God's love, we have His almighty immunity against how fear would effect and control us >
"There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love." (
1 John 4:18)
I find this highly amusing because so many Christians who lean to the right are constantly in fear of immigration, science, Muslims, gays, atheists, minorities, democrats...
Well, it can be easy to see how someone else is wrong. Wrong people can see how each other are wrong. Talking about the cause of evil, by the way, then . . . part of why we have evil is because wrong people fight one another, instead of each one getting how our Heavenly Father is able to correct us > Hebrews 12:4-11 > the Bible says God judges His own children
"first" >
"For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?" (1 Peter 4:17)
So, if the right ones get judged
"first", I find it "interesting" how some number of Bible claiming people are so busy with judging ones other than themselves first. So, this, of course, helps to keep evil going and keep evil able to effect people.
About fear, though > yes, there can be people who are afraid of gays and Muslims and others; but others are simply saying they are wrong > they are not afraid of them; they don't believe they are right. But, like I say, any wrong person can be "very good" at pointing out my faults, but they do not help me to get real correction with God. And without real deep correction of His love's perfection, we stay weak enough so evil can get the better of us, spiritually and emotionally > and this includes how we can even dread things which are good . . . like how Adam and Eve would worry about being naked, once they had gotten the evil spirit of disobedience messing how they saw things.
Now, for another example, we see people calling rain "bad", when we need rain for life on this planet. People even have down days when it is raining, because they have been messed into feeling lousy about rain. They are committed to this; so for the rest of their lives they could reap all that dismal time, when instead they could be appreciating God's nature while it is raining, and possibly enjoying peace and quiet. So, there is a spirit of evil which has really messed people up, so they even call a life-needed good thing "bad weather" and ones even seem to fear getting hit by a raindrop!!
So, certain self-righteous Bible claimers are not the only ones who have a fear problem.
So, it is good to know that not all people are still in sin, and God's love has been able to deliver us "from the power of Satan to God" (Acts 26:18).
At what point did you know you were not still in sin?
When I trusted in Jesus > the Bible says we are no longer in Satan's kingdom. But in actual experience, plenty of times I have not been convinced, because of how I could get messy emotionally and with lust stuff which was degrading me from how I could be sweetly soothed and pleasant in experiencing God's love (Romans 5:5). Because I had sampled how God's love is, I could get very "homesick" when I got into criticizing and paranoid stuff and lust stuff and unforgiveness. But before I was with Jesus, I did not have any real love to compare with that stuff.
I experience not being in sin, as I get more and more correction and get more and more into caring about people and having compassion for wrong people (Hebrews 5:2). And now I find I am more into submitting to God in His peace > Colossians 3:15 < this is included in the basic calling of a Christian. Part of the cause of evil in this world is how Bible claiming people do not submit to how our Father would rule them in His own peace. There are church culture people and Bible claimers who take it on themselves to try to do what they suppose is Christian . . . or to put on the show they think others are looking for; and so they stay weak so they can keep on suffering the evil of how their relating and emotions can get messed and they can stay hurt. Only in God's peace can we have protection > Philippians 4:4-7 < this shows us that God's peace with almighty power will
"guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus" . . . if and while we obey how He wants us to pray.
But we can depend on ourselves, and so we fail. And certain church culture and Bible claiming people can make it seem like God is distant and not personal with His people. And so ones tend to depend on their own ability to discipline themselves, including to only copy-cat others, and so they do not have the quality and power of God's peace ruling in us . . . personally, in each one's heart. People don't get how God is personal; and so they miss out on being able to personally love without getting hurt and without trying to use people. And away from personal sharing with God in His love, anyone is weak enough to be messed with evil emotional and spiritual stuff, even while they may not cause the more obvious evil in this world. People get isolated with their idol of independence!!