I John 4:4 “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.”
The essential difference between people is determined by what “is in” them. Some people are wicked because of the evil that “is in” them; and, others are gracious because of the Spirit of God that “is in” them. There are those who are wicked to the core; for, “The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.” (Psalms 10:4). These wicked are “as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption” (II Peter 2:12). They have no moral compass to guide them, for the Lord is not in them. They have no conscience to discern good from evil, for the Lord is not in them. Our Good Shepherd tells these wicked folks, “ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep” (John 10:26). To these wicked our Lord Commands, “I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Matthew 7:23)! On the Last day of this earth, they will surely hear the Lord’s voice speaking to them, for He will Command “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41)! On the other hand, we know and love and worship our Lord because “Christ in you” has filled us with “the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). It is our Lord Who strengthens us “with might by his Spirit in the inner man; 17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.” (Ephesians 3:16-19). It is therefore clear that, if we have “faith” Christ dwells within us and if Christ dwells within us, we have “faith”; and without the indwelling of Christ, a person cannot have “faith”; thus, Jesus Christ our Lord is Himself essentially our “faith”. By the grace and mercy of our Lord, we “are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (II Corinthians 6:16). While we live in this present world, we “rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory” (I Peter 1:8); for, “if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness” (Romans 8:10) and “if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you” (Romans 8:11).