Weirder all the time. The verse you cite does not say anything like what you claim. How you equate:
We know that we are children of God and that the world around us is under the control of the evil one.
If the world is under the
control of satan, then it certainly does.
It’s not about giving thanks to God per se, because that is something we can all do individually. It’s when it’s done in a collective way that you have to be concerned. Who is in control of that collective and who is part of it? “The whole world” which is what most translations state, leaves no part of the world that is
not under the devil’s influence. Surely that is a warning in itself?
Considering the identity of the “evil one”, whom Paul states is “the god of this world” (capable of “blinding” people to the truth. 2 Cor 4:3-4) you appear to be unaware of his devices. The
way he deceives is the point here. He transforms himself into
“an angel of light” otherwise he could not deceive as successfully as he has. No one would do the devil’s bidding if he presented himself as he truly is.
What is deception after all?
Considering the pretenders of his day Paul warned....
“For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder, for Satan himself keeps disguising himself as an angel of light. 15 It is therefore nothing extraordinary if his ministers also keep disguising themselves as ministers of righteousness. But their end will be according to their works.”
Has this warning fallen on deaf ears.....we can clearly see that it has. It is the “works” that identify the deceived ones....not just what they believe or say...but what they do and allow, and even embrace, in the practice of their "Christianity".
Those agents of the devil, back in the first century, pretending to be “Christian” teachers, were manifesting even back then. This foretold apostasy was held back by the living apostles, but once that restraint was gone (when the last apostle John died) those false teachers gradually overtook the Christian Faith and replaced it by force with a counterfeit....keeping the masses in ignorance for centuries.
By the 4th century, a pagan Roman Emperor saw benefit in religiously uniting his divided empire. He mandated a new state religion....Roman Catholicism.....which ended up with so much power that no one could defy it, without severe consequences.
Power corrupts, as we all know.....so Revelation speaks about a harlot-like entity which Jesus identified as “Babylon the great”.....this spiritual “harlot” ended up having a
“Kingdom over the kings of the earth”. (Revelation 17:3-6, 18)
They were “in bed” with God’s enemies, using her power to manipulate the masses through ignorance and fear. Her friendship with the world meant that she too was God's enemy. (James 4:4)
"Babylon the great" ended up being a global empire along with all the other false religions that the devil was permitted to “sow” in the world. All had the same core of false beliefs.....a multiplicity of gods, (esp. triads) belief in an immortal soul, and a place of fiery torment after death for the wicked or a place of heavenly bliss for the righteous.
Sound familiar?
Jesus also warned about specific “weeds” that the devil would plant as a convincing counterfeit “Christianity”, to mislead people away from God, ‘appropriating’ all manner of false religious beliefs and practices which we can see from history was a “church” that behaved in a most unchristian way, but implanted itself as a ruler of kings.
Any human political leader who declares themselves to be Christian is a fake. This world is not ruled by a single Christian. We are to be “NO PART” of that world.....for all the reasons already discussed.