I wonder if you are aware that there is a war waging for your heart. It is a war that began in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3:1–6, 15) and will continue until the appearance of the new heaven and new earth. It is a war between light and darkness, sin and righteousness, holiness and wickedness. According to Genesis 3:15, it is a war between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, or between Christ and Satan. The apostle John reminds us that this war is between the love of God and “all that is in the world.” The world we live in is the great theater of this war, which has battlefields everywhere:

• in seats of government and centers of culture,

• in the legislatures and courtrooms of the commonwealth,

• in the offices and workshops of business,

• in the marketplaces and entertainment districts of cities,

• in colleges, schools, and churches,

• in our homes and families, and,

• most importantly, in our hearts and minds.

     

As long as we are in the body, we must live in the world. Retreat or escape is not an option. God wills that we live in the world as it is, but that we live here as the people of God, being “in the world but not of it,” or, in biblical terms, to “live godly in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 3:12, King James Version).

The Christian life is a struggle. It demands entrance through a narrow gate and a daily walk down a narrow path. It involves living by faith through self-denial and waging a holy war in the midst of a hostile world. And what a war it is, for the world doesn’t fight fairly or clearly, doesn’t agree to ceasefires, and doesn’t sign peace treaties.

Myriads of so-called Christians today fail to realize the war waging for their souls. Because of this, they are being destroyed by worldliness. They think like the world, look like the world, and act like the world. But worldliness ought to have no place in the church of Jesus Christ.

In order to equip us to overcome the world, we will consider two things in this article: first, the nature of worldliness, and second, the remedy of worldliness. A third topic, part 2 of this article, “The Fight Against Worldliness”, will be considered in the September/October Outlook.

The Nature of Worldliness

A common rule of engagement on the battlefield is to know your enemy. This is just as true when it comes to confronting the spiritual battle of worldliness. From a mere strategic standpoint, it is important to know our enemy. But it is likewise essentially important in the case of worldliness because our enemy disguises himself as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14). Worldliness can be very deceptive. Sin rarely, if ever, appears to us as the horrendous beast that it is. If worldliness appeared in all its blackness, darkness, and addictiveness many would be repulsed by it. Rather, this enemy disguises itself to appear alluring, tempting, and fascinating (Prov. 5:3–5). And worldliness is a sin that easily entangles us without our knowledge.

What Worldliness Is Not

Before discussing what worldliness is, we should look briefly at what it is not. We must do this because it is too easy for worldliness to cloak itself in hypocrisy and self-flattery. Satan constantly attempts to counterfeit godliness. One way he does this is by making us think that worldliness is some extreme form of wickedness that we then feel safe from committing. But matters are not always so plain.

First, worldliness is not always an open rejection of God. Though such rejection is worldliness, this rejection is not synonymous with worldliness. Worldliness begins much earlier than absolute rejection. It begins when we do not view things from the perspective of God’s Word. We do not need to openly and publicly reject him to be worldly; we might be worldly and yet be quite religious.

The world can come to us wrapped in Christian clothing, speaking Christian words. In 1 John 4:1 we are warned, “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” Verse 5 says, “They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them.” These people were worldly, controlled by the world’s mindset, under its dominion, and saying what the world likes. But they were not openly against God. They styled themselves as “prophets” of the truth of God revealed by the Holy Spirit. So we need to realize that just because a person is religious, oriented toward spiritual things, and talks about God’s Word, he may still be worldly.

Second, worldliness is not always the same as a grossly immoral life. Often worldliness does produce scandalous sins, but it need not do so all the time. Worldliness can appear to be very upright and moral in its outward actions; many professing Christians live worldly lives. They are worldly in more “acceptable” ways— that is, acceptable to their fellow men, not to God.

For example, the apostle James warns against “the friendship of the world” and teaches that we must keep ourselves “unspotted from the world” (James 4:4; 1:27), but against what sins does he warn most strongly in his epistle? Not fornication or drunkenness, but showing favoritism to the rich (James 2), having a bitter, destructive tongue (James 3), getting into quarrels because you are not getting what you want (James 4), and taking advantage of your employees and workers (James 5).

Third, worldliness is not always blatant conformity to popular culture. We often tend to think of worldliness as the girl who shops all the time. She buys lots and lots of stuff. She is concerned with wearing the nicest clothes. She wears a lot of makeup. She attempts to fit in to all the latest fads. She dates boy after boy looking for someone to make her feel good about herself.

Though this is a form of worldliness, it is only an excessive form of worldliness. John did not speak of worldliness in terms of possessions or outward habits so much as lusts and pride. That means a monk eating dry bread crusts, wearing a scratchy old robe, and living in a hut without an internet connection could be worldly.

What Worldliness Is

So what is worldliness? Worldliness means the state of being or becoming like the world; or as Paul puts it in Romans 12:2, being conformed to this world. Because this world is the realm of fallen mankind, worldliness is any human activity pursued without God or against God. It is all that is antithetical to God; it rebels against the Lord and his Christ (Ps. 2:2), refusing to reflect the glory of God as we were created to do.

Our divine guide for understanding worldliness will be 1 John 2:15– 17. We may say in general that worldliness is in its essence all human love not ruled by the love of God. John wrote in verse 15, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” You see that the Bible defines worldliness in terms of love. It is a self-centered love for people and things in the world. John contrasts love for the world with love for the Father.

The two loves are incompatible. Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other” (Matt. 6:24a). One love must rule our lives: a holy passion for God and the things of God. But since the fall of man, our souls are pulled as by hook and line toward the world.

What did John mean by “the world”? The Greek word kosmos, or “world,” has several meanings in the New Testament. In this case he is not talking about planet Earth, or the entire human race. Rather, he is using the term to refer to the kingdom of which the ruler and his subjects are lost in sin and set against anything pleasing to God. John is talking about Satan’s kingdom of darkness, which includes all people who are under his rule and living according to the standards of this world. And he is talking about all the “things,” whether ideas and teachings or material possessions and physical experiences, that the world uses to promote its agenda.

God created man to enjoy all things richly out of love for God—relying on God’s power, obeying God’s will, and pursuing God’s glory. But man has rejected God’s love for us and cast love for God out of his heart. He now loves only himself and the things of God’s creation with an idolatrous love. Worldliness, therefore, is all human love not ruled by the love of God. Here are some ways worldliness shows itself, so that you can discern it in yourself.

First, worldliness brings a desire to please sinful man and not God. This is part of what John means when he said, “If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” We naturally seek to please those whom we love. Christ said in John 5:42, “But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you.” How did they demonstrate that? In verse 44, Jesus said, “How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?” They lived for the smiles, praises, and promotions of men instead of God.

Second, worldliness brings a higher concern for the physical than the image of God in one’s soul. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life conspire together to make us crave things for the body. Often this is a craving for beautiful, expensive, and pleasant things. We covet the nicest-looking car, newest technology, a girlfriend or boyfriend, and every other material thing. This form of worldliness often disguises itself as needs. Natural and healthy desires grow into ravenous and roaring lions, demanding satisfaction with the words, “I need it.” John contrasts this with our true need: “he that doeth the will of God.” This is the meat and bread of our souls, to do the will of the God who made us and calls us to glorify him.

Third, worldliness brings a preoccupation with temporal things instead of the eternal kingdom of God. John says, “And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever” (1 John 2:17). This world’s best pleasures are temporary. The world is our passage, not our portion. God has marked the day of our death on his calendar. What will you gain if you gain the whole world? In the end, nothing but a nice coffin. But eternal glory awaits the child of God.

Fourth, worldliness feeds the pride of life. Pride comes in all varieties, forms, and shapes. Pride is not something we can easily nail to a wall. Pride can be present when we sin willingly, and pride can be present when we attempt to do the good. Man’s very nature and essence rests in a prideful estimation of himself.

This then is worldliness: the sad, empty, and blasphemous love of the world.

The Remedy of Worldliness

The good news of the gospel is that in Jesus Christ there is a remedy for our worldliness. As 1 John 5:4–5 states, “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?” It is faith in Jesus that causes us to triumph over worldliness. Faith obtains victory over the powers of this world because faith unites us to Christ, enabling us to draw upon the resources of the Savior. If you want your lamp to work, you must connect it with a power source. Likewise, faith connects us to the One who alone has overcome the world.

Sharing in Christ’s Death

Christ died to cut the cord between sinners and the world. As Galatians 1:4 says, Christ “gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world.” Christ didn’t come just to deliver us from eternal condemnation, great as that is, but he came to deliver us from this present evil world. He endured beatings, shame, pain, and rejection to wrench those he calls his own out of this present evil world and into the kingdom of God.

Paul tells us in Romans 6 that believers share in Christ’s death thereby dying to sin’s power. In verse 6, he states, “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” The word for “knowing” involves more than merely head knowledge or creedal affirmation; it refers to a personal experience of gospel truths. There must be a vital experience of the old man’s crucifixion with Christ. The old man designates the old depraved nature that is thoroughly corrupted with sin and in love with this present world. This old, world-loving nature has been definitively put to death in Christ’s death. The apostle tells us that the purpose of this death was “that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” Because of Christ’s death, the Christian is no longer in bondage to sin. Outside of Christ the sinner is in bondage to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Sin is a terrible master that has sufficient power to coerce and control in spite of the sinner’s best intentions or efforts. But because Christ destroyed sin’s dominion by his death and because the believer shares in that death, it is illogical and impossible for the believer to continue under sin’s control.

If you have been united to Christ in his death, you are dead to your old Adamic nature which was enslaved to this world. As Paul exclaims in Galatians 6:14, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” The saving virtue of Christ’s death had been applied to Paul’s soul, making the world totally undesirable to him. The world had lost its color for Paul and become completely unappealing because of the cross.

Sharing in Christ’s Resurrection

Sharing in the death of Christ necessarily means sharing in his resurrection. It is impossible to be united to his death without being united to his life. “It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him” (2 Tim. 2:11). Just as certainly as believers partake of what Christ achieved by his atoning death, so they partake of all the victory of his glorious resurrection. Romans 6:4 states that “like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”

The Christian has a new walk because of Christ’s death-defying, sin-destroying power. Those in Adam walk “according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air” (Eph. 2:2). But when God comes in his grace and unites sinners to Christ, they are made alive (Eph. 2:5), being “created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10). The Christian, by the virtue of Christ’s resurrection, no longer walks in worldliness but rather in obedience to God. He is no longer given over to the powerful rule of the world, the flesh, and the devil. For “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Cor. 5:17). If you are in Christ, you have received a new nature that is different from the world. You have been recreated unto obedience which you must walk in.

Watch for part 2 of this article, “The Fight Against Worldliness,” in the September/October Outlook.

Joel R. Beeke is president and professor of systematic theology and homlietics at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, a pastor of Heritage Reformed Congregation in Grand Rapids, MI, and a prolific author and frequent conference speaker.