Blindfolded

Paul observing the lives of the world around him gives us this warning: "For they live blindfolded in a world of illusion and are cut off from the life of God through ignorance and insensitiveness.
They have stifled their consciences and then surrendered themselves to sensuality, practicing any form of iniquity which lust can suggest. But you have learned nothing like that from Christ, if you have really heard His voice and understood the truth that Jesus has taught you." (Eph. 4:17-21 Phillips)

"Live blindfolded in a world of illusion." There is no doubt that the temptation to embrace the world's definition of reality---to live in the "real world" as the "real world" lives--is strong. The lust of the flesh and the lusts of the eyes are everywhere and are always portrayed as positives not negatives. In addition, the boastful pride of life--the temptation to be popular, at least accepted by others as "normal," is thought to be unattainable without accepting the lifestyle of the majority surrounding you. But that is deception. There is nothing more unreal than the life the world lives--"blindfolded in a world of illusion." If you choose that reality, don't blame God for your misery--the appetites of the flesh can never be satisfied. Disobedience is self-inflected pain.