WORLDLINESS (PART 1)

After careful study, I have come to the conclusion that worldliness is the greatest threat facing the church today. I am fully convinced that the majority of our problems, individually and collectively, are rooted in this one problem. I believe that at the bottom of the problems of attendance, small contributions, and the lack of development of Christians, will be found in worldliness. Just a moment in reflection will show this is true. Who attends the services of the church faithfully —the most spiritual, or the worldly members of the church? Who is most concerned with their development in the Christian life —the spiritual, or the worldly member?

DEFINITION TOO LIMITED
I am also convinced that our definition of worldliness has been too narrow. If this is true, then I am afraid that preachers and teachers have contributed toward worldliness by leaving the wrong impression on some. Too often we have confined the term to some few things, which were certainly worldly, but were far from covering everything that should be included in the term. Many members of the church think that because they do not dance, or wear immodest clothes, play bridge, and a few other similar things, they are not worldly, yet in God’s sight they are. I do not mean to suggest by this that these things are not worldly and that they should not be condemned, but we should not leave the impression that worldliness is confined to these.

Jesus said in John 17:11,16, “these are in the world...they are not of the world.” How broad is the phrase, “not of the world?” Does it not include ALL THAT BELONGS TO THE WORLD? When John says, “Love not the world” (1 John 2:15), just how broad is that? Is it confined to some few things, or does it cover all that belongs to the world? Have you ever wanted any particular thing more than all else in the world; and been willing to go to any extreme to attain it? Have you decided what you want your life to count for or have you ignored such a decision? Would not either of the above be worldly when measured by God’s standard?

WORLDLINESS
What is worldliness? Worldliness is sin. Worldliness is conforming to the world. Worldliness is anything that is opposed to being transformed. Worldliness is “world-like-ness” in anything. Worldliness is anything that is not Christ-like or that hinders “Christ-likeness.” Worldliness is a wedge that sin drives into the heart of the member of the church, disuniting his own will and God’s will for him, making his actions incompatible with his spiritual potentialities, because he allows selfish interests to usurp the place of God in his life.

MAJORING IN TEMPORAL INSTEAD OF SPIRITUAL THINGS
Worldliness, the opposite of spirituality, is an obsession with temporal, material things, to the exclusion of spiritual growth and to the neglect of spiritual interests. Worldliness is a force that sidetracks the Christian from his greatest function —fruitful service. When one persists in worldliness, he will inevitably decrease in spiritual perception. Worldliness is majoring on the temporal rather than the spiritual, for habits, attitudes, and inconsistencies that produce barriers, minimize influence, and make the permanence of our fellowship with God less vital.

INDIFFERENCE TO MORAL VALUES
Worldliness is a cancer which creates an indifference to moral values, a “no difference” attitude about right or wrong, and ordering of lives without reference to Christian ideals. Worldliness is anything that leads away from God rather than closer to God. It makes a person insensitive to real abiding values and, in most cases, unsteady in Christian life. Worldliness is one of the primary stages of vice (though it is not vice in every instance). Immorality is worldliness, but not all worldliness is in immorality. Worldliness splits an individual’s loyalties, making him selfish, spiritually indifferent, careless, nearsighted, and complacent. These are all unbecoming qualities that nourish unchristian attitudes and belong to the world.

What is your primary concern? Is it to be a social leader, prominent, comfortable, wealthy, popular, living in ease, spending all of your free time in some sort of pleasure that may be right in itself, or is it to be the best Christian possible —whether these other things come or not? These things may be worthy of attainment, but not to the neglect of spiritual growth. Their proper place, if they come, are by-products in the life of one who’s major interest is to make Christ supreme in his life.

Let us keep in mind that worldliness is the opposite of spirituality; and obsession with temporal and material things to the detriment of spiritual growth. One does not have to be knee-deep in sin to be worldly. The person who considers himself a “pretty good fellow,” but whose ideals are material and self-centered is, according to the Bible, a worldly person.

(To be continued)

Franklin Camp