The Lure of the World and its Peril

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. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. 1Jn 2:15-17  

But what is Worldliness?

Beginning today I will be doing a series on the meaning of worldliness and why Christianity talks so strongly against it.

Worldliness is a human system or lifestyle. We may be different from the Dark Ages people but that is only in development or civilization. But the heart is basically the same since Cain killed his brother Abel because of jealousy.

After the fall we lost not just Eden but also our relationship with God. We became enemies. And Satan became the ‘prince of this world’. That is why we are still surrounded by darkness. 

In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. 2Co 4:4  

He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. Joh 12:40       

In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. Joh 1:4-5  

In the Old Testament God told the children of Israel to separate themselves from the Canaanites peoples because they would draw them from God. But they refused to hear. In the end they forgot their God and embraced the religions and traditions of the Canaanites. That desertion of God life is what is called apostasy. And this is what the love of the world can do to a Christian.

Thus Egypt is a type of the world in the Bible. It is a place of bondage. This is where the alcoholic can be found today, and the drug taker, and the lover of pleasure. For pleasure too can be a form of a drug.  

And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. Joh 3:19  

No One Knows He is in Prison until the Day He is Set Free

Education may have freed the modern man or woman in a big way. But only Christianity has redeemed the individual from the tyranny of the world, self and the devil.

From Prison House to Freedom

Hence the world will always be antagonistic towards the Christian. As Christ has said: ‘If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you’ (Joh 15:19).  

So do you feel you are hated for being a Christian? Remember the world hated Christ too. Do you feel as if you are in bondage here? Christ has come to set us free.

It will be a new life and initially it will scary. Your loneliness might be magnified. You will be ridiculed and hated. But don’t worry. God gives the power to finish what he has started. And ‘leaving’ the world for God is a decision you will never regret. Christ died for you. Believe him that he will never leave you nor forsake you.

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; Isa 61:1  

To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house. Isa 42:7  

And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them. Isa 42:16  

And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness. Isa 29:18  

But this is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses: they are for a prey, and none delivereth; for a spoil, and none saith, Restore. Isa 42:22  

To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified. Isa 61:3