You Can Thrive In Babylon

1 Peter 5:13 – She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you her greetings, and so does my son Mark.

Jerusalem is the city of God. Jerusalem is the city of the righteous. Jerusalem is where God is worshipped. Jerusalem is where God’s people find safety, refuge and comfort.

Babylon is the opposite of Jerusalem. The city of Chaldeans. The city of the enemies of God. The city that God hates. The capital city of sin. The city where God’s people are enslaved. The city of Suffering for God’s people.

Jerusalem is in the present day Israel. Babylon is no longer inhabited and its ruins are in the outskirts of Baghdad in Iraq. Jerusalem symbolizes that which is spiritually good. Babylon symbolizes that which is spiritually wicked.

Revelation 21:2 – I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

In Biblical messages on last day events, Jerusalem is heavenly world that we look forward to, while Babylon is this sinful world. New Jerusalem is heaven that we want to live in eternally. Babylon is this sinful world and its tendencies that we must avoid if we are to be saved!

Revelation 14:8 – A second angel followed and said, “‘Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great,’ which made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries.”

Babylon in eschatology is the coalition of everything that opposes God. Beliefs that oppose sound biblical teachings. Practices that are contrary to scripture. Every misleading person, church, religion, teaching and practices are considered to be the maddening wine of Babylon.

God’s people should not be in Babylon but they are forced to be in Babylon. God’s people in the Old Testament were forced to be in Babylon as slaves, but they thrived. Daniel, Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego thrived in Babylon. You too can thrive in Babylon!

In the New Testament times the physical actual Babylon no longer existed. Babylon is used symbolically to represent evil and exile. In the New Testament persecution scatters the church from Jerusalem to places where it must operate in hiding. Peter in his letter in our text today refers to the scattered church as being in Babylon and thriving. You too can thrive in Babylon!

The church finds itself surrounded by evil but it thrives in righteous living. The church finds itself among idolaters but it remains faithful to God. The church finds itself where temptations abound but it remains steadfast. The church is in Babylon but thriving. You too can thrive in Babylon.

Peter in our text today says the church is in Babylon but remains to be God’s chosen church. The church is thriving in Babylon. You too can thrive in Babylon!

Revelation 18:4 – Then I heard another voice from heaven say:

“‘Come out of her, my people,’

so that you will not share in her sins,

so that you will not receive any of her plagues;

God’s people were never in Babylon by choice. Given a slight opportunity any and everyone of God’s people will get out of Babylon. Yet while waiting to get out of Babylon, God’s people are thriving. You too can thrive in Babylon!

Whatever Babylon you are forced into, May you thrive in ever way possible without losing faith. May your health thrive in the Babylon of health. May your finances thrive in the financial Babylon. If you are in a Babylonian relationship- get out! If you are in a Babylonian marriage May you thrive to God’s glory!

If you are employed in Babylon, May you thrive. If you are studying in Babylon, May you succeed. Babylon is never by choice, but thrive in Babylon, in Jesus’s name, Amen!

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