WORLDLINESS continued
Everything can be worldly just as everything can be spiritual. . . it’s the attitude of the mind
If you are hurt because people don’t notice you, that’s worldliness! If a TV program conflicts with something that you know the Lord wants you to do, your attendance at church or prayer meeting or something else, that’s worldliness! You’ve chosen that, you see, in place of the Lord’s will. Now I’m not trying to make up new lists in this article. What I’m trying to do is to show you that everything can be worldly just as everything can be spiritual. This is a tremendously important point. Read what John says. “ All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh” (that includes eating and drink ing and sleeping and wearing clothes or anything else your body wants to do); “ all that is in the world, the lust of the eyes” (that includes the desire for any thing that you want to buy or possess, whether it’s good, bad or indifferent), all “ the pride of life” (or the vainglory of life, the fighting for station and for promotion and for advancement and all the other things), “ all that is in the world, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” Now what does he mean by that? He means that everything is worldly, if your attitude is worldly. And on the other hand, if your attitude is that of the Fa ther, nothing is worldly. You see what he’s getting at? That’s why the Apostle Paul could say and did say, “All things are lawful to me. But there are only three restrictions: I will not be brought under the power of any, all things are not profitable for me, and all things do not help other people.” And those are the only restrictions. Everything else is fine. Now you can’t make up lists. Each of you may have your own personal areas in which you feel, under the guidance of God, you cannot enter. There are certain things you cannot do or do not want to do, not because someone else doesn’t want you to or because you think the church will frown on it, but because you feel that’s not the Lord’s place for you personally. But that must be decided individually. You see, what makes a thing worldly? Listen to John again. “ All that is in the world . . . is not of the Father. . . .” That’s the thing. You exclude the Father out of your thinking and when you do that, you’re worldly no matter what you’re doing. You’ve done some act or taken some step or made some plan with out the Father, without taking Him into consideration and seeking His guidance on it. That’s worldliness. No matter whether it’s a completely innocent thing in itself. So the making of lists only increases worldliness. It makes it worse because we let down our guard about the things that are off the list, and as a result we become saturated, we become steeped in worldly thinking, worldly acts and worldly deeds.
I say it sadly because I see it in my own church) are so lethargic, so lackadaisical, so utterly pepless about their Christian lives. It’s difficult to get them to avoid the things on our lists any longer. They’d rather feel some of the stimulation and the challenge and the temptation of the world than to live lives that are so colorless and lackluster as many of us would like them to. Now the second result of this isolationist separation is a tremendously increased amount of worldliness in Christian living. Now I mean that! This is a para dox. It seems strange. But the reason why Christians isolate themselves is because they’re trying to avoid worldliness, and it always results in more worldliness than ever. You see, if you think that the things on your mental list are the only worldly things and you avoid those, then what happens? Why, you let down your guard and the world then begins to seep in, in a thousand places all through your life. And instead of being worldly in the ways that are on your list, you’re worldly in a thousand different ways and all of them equally as bad. The truth is that worldliness is not a matter of things. Of doing this and not doing that. That’s not what marks the difference between worldliness and spirituality. If we could just learn that! That’s the mistake we so often make. But worldliness is a matter of the attitude of the heart, the attitude of life in thinking and dealing with things. L et me see if I can illustrate that. If you ladies wear a new dress to church in order to attract attention, that’s worldliness. You’re trying to attract attention to yourself. The opinions of others mean much to you. That’s worldliness, no matter whether you never drink, dance, smoke or go to a nightclub or anything else. You’re just as worldly as if you did. Thoroughly saturated with it. On the other hand, if you wear a dowdy old dress to church in order to be thought spiritual, that’s worldliness too. Now the dress, you see, has nothing to do with it. New or old. It’s the attitude of the mind that constitutes the worldliness. If you have to have a new car every year in order to keep up with the style, that’s worldliness. Pure and simple. Worldliness! If you need it in your business and you’re honest about it and you really need it, that’s another matter entirely. For this reason no one else can sit in judgment on you on this matter. But the Lord knows the heart, and if you have the car just because you’re trying to keep in style, you’re worldly!
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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