The world we live in is an evil world. If we fail to realize this we are in a very vulnerable position and will find ourselves often taken advantage of and misused. And even if we are aware of it we will still many times be a victim. For instance, every time we buy an item at a store we are overcharged in order to cover the store's losses from shoplifting and other misdeeds on someone's part. Even if stores never suffered and such losses, some owners would still oversharge their customers. I have many times been a victim of fraud at the hands of unscrupulous characters. They do such things because "there is no fear of God before their eyes" (Psalm 36:1 & Rom. 3:18). They do evil, because they are evil. Christ prayed for His people, not that the Father would take them out of the world but that He would "keep them from the evil" (John 17:15). We know not what calamities might befall us at the hands of this world if we were not "kept by the power of God" (I Peter 1:5), and if we did not, by His merciful help, "save (ourselves) from this untoward generation" (Acts 2:40). The apostle John tells us that apart from those who are "of God", the rest of the world "lieth in wickedness" (I John 5:19). We will do well to keep this in mind and be careful not to conform ourselves to the world,s much valued fashions and customs. Christ said, "That which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God" (Luke 16:15). Paul exhorts God's people to "do all things without murmurings and disputings," that they "may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom (they) shine as lights in the world" (Philippians 2:14-15). May He help us to do so.