There is a great evil running loose in the land that is demonic in origin, disturbing in pervasiveness, and devastating in impact. Many great servants of God have warned against this damning sin fueled by the fires of hell itself.

• Rev. W. A. Alexander: "No censure upon that evil practice can be so strong that I cannot heartily endorse it. I have never known any good to come of [this sin]... If they are Christians, their spirituality is lowered and their growth impeded. Their usefulness and activity in the church are impaired. Or, if they are not believers, they are thrust by it farther away from the kingdom, and made to feel less concern for their salvation. They are less easily reached by the gospel... [This sin] among church-members means coldness in religion, little reading of God's Holy Word, little praying… Yet I suppose that all who [indulge in this sin, do it] for amusement, most of them unconscious of the danger they are inviting, and without a thought of how the taste they are forming may prove to them a snare and the gateway of ruin."


• Rev. George Mott: "There is a most unhealthy excitement connected with [this sin]. The [sinner] becomes wholly absorbed. The pulse rushes with accelerated speed. The face flushes. The eye stares wildly. The feelings are wrought to the highest pitch, and a state of mind is produced, which often breaks out in unkind words. The love of [this sin] grows on that upon which it feeds. The mind becomes as eager for the [sin] as the drunkard is for his cup. It becomes a passion, and little else is thought of, or desired..."


• Rev. Thomas Brainerd: "Those whom [this sin] has ruined, you see not. They have passed from the circle of respectable society, to association with profligates... to the practice of gambling and licentiousness--to crime degradation, and a premature grace. They have sunk too deep to leave a ripple on the surface of respectable society. Their names you will find on the annals of public justice, and in the records of our penitentiaries."

What great evil are these preachers referring to? Playing cards. You heard me right: cards. Does the act of playing a game of cards seem worthy of such dire warnings and divine condemnation - especially warnings given in the name of God?

Although only a little more than a century old, the preachers' warnings seem trivial, petty, and just plain silly. Let this be a warning to us: we can fall into the same error of trivializing sin as we passionately preach against our own laundry list of items not explicitly mentioned (much less, forbidden) in the Bible.

Why do we so often fall into this trap? Because we are aware of the great danger and threat that worldliness actually poses. The Scriptures are clear in this regard.

You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. (James 4:4)

Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves 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 boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever. (1 John 2:15-17)

Love of the world is set in stark contrast to the love of God. John clearly states "the love of the Father is not in the one" who loves the world (1 John 2:15). To James, worldliness is nothing less than "spiritual adultery" - a manifestation of infidelity to God.

As good Christians, we do not want to be worldly. We want our devotion to God to be real and faithful and fruitful. We desperately want to refrain from worldliness in any form - to live differently from those who do not share our faith.

The question is: How will we be different? Without a clear understanding of what worldliness actually is, many Christians desperately search for some external mark to distinguish themselves from the world. Whether it involves addition or subtraction (addition: attaching fish symbols to one's vehicle, t-shirts bearing Christian slogans, or listening only to "Christian" music, etc.; subtraction: refraining from cinemas, videos, nonreligious music, dancing, alcohol, smoking, etc.), in the end it is the same: some external mark is employed to distinguish the Christian from the nonChristian.

Christian writer and musician John Fischer comments on how these external distinguishing marks trivialize real faith and faithfulness:

So is this it? This is what it comes down to: real Christians don't dance? Moses parted the water for this? Rahab tucked the spies away in her closet for this? Jael drove a tent peg into the head of Sisera for this? Jesus died and rose again, martyrs were sawn in two, and the Church has prevailed for almost two thousand years against the gates of hell so that Christians today can live out this ever important testimony to the waiting, watching world: real Christians don't dance?...

Which is easier to follow: real Christians don't envy or real Christians don't dance? Which one gets noticed first: real Christians don't lust or real Christians don't smoke? Which is harder to comply with: real Christians love their enemies or real Christians go to church on Sundays?

Looking at it this way, it soon becomes evident that we are creating our own manageable system of weighing and measuring ourselves. (John Fischer, Real Christians Don't Dance!, 15-16)

This is the danger of wrongly defining worldliness. When we wrongly define worldliness we trivialize it. Without a biblical definition of worldliness, our attempts at opposing it often trivialize what it really is, just as the preachers' warnings above trivialized real worldliness by demonizing the simple act of playing cards.

What in the world is worldliness? For our own sake, for the gospel's sake, and for the sake of authentic Christian witness, we desperately need a perspective of worldliness that neither ignores nor trivializes it. The Apostle John's warning and description in 1 John 2:15-17 is a good place to begin.

Toward a Biblical View of Worldliness

"Love not the world." What is the world? There are three basic meanings of the term world in the New Testament:

• The earth, the created order
• The nations, the human community, people in general
• The ways of fallen humanity alienated from God, the collective expression of every society's refusal to honor God

If we are to share the heart of God, we must love the world in regard to the first two meanings and struggle to endure it in the third sense.

"Love not the world, nor the things in the world." What are the "things" that we are not to love? Obviously, John is not a Gnostic. He does not reject the innate goodness of creation. As a good Jew, John accepts creation as good (Gen. 1, Ps. 24:1, Is. 6:3). As a good Christians he recognizes that "everything created by God is good" (1 Tim. 4:4; cf. Rom. 14:14) and that "God has given us all things to enjoy" (1 Timothy 6:17). Finally, John places the incarnation of God in Christ at the center of his message (1 John 1:1-4). Only heretics reject Jesus as coming "in the flesh" (1 John 4:1-2).

Creation and the things of creation are intrinsically good, created with purpose, and gifts from the good hand of God. Things are not sinful. Good things are perverted through the sinful hearts of human beings. Sin is the human perversion of the good. "To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure" (Titus 1:15). It is not impure things that make pure people impure, but pure things that impure people distort, pervert, and corrupt.

Sin finds its source in the human heart - it comes from within and not without. Jesus stated this clearly, "Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile… For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person" (Mark 7:15, 21-23).

"Nor the things in the world" underscores the pervasive and inescapable danger of worldliness. It is impossible to escape from "the things in the world." All things can be perverted through human sinfulness. Anything in the world can become a source of sinful desire even though it is good in itself. Food, drink, sex, pleasure, exercise, work, family, friends, the desire to be liked/honored, religion - all these good things can be loved inordinately, improperly. When these things are detached from God, they become an idol, sought for their own sake. They give ultimate meaning to life apart from God and thus take on a weight they cannot sustain. Ultimately, idolatry and worldliness are synonyms: Idolatry is a worldly use of things. It is to give too much weight to something created, something intrinsically good but never intended to be deified.

This is why love of the world is set in complete contrast to the love of God. To love the gifts of God as an end in themselves is to create an idol - to attach ultimate significance to an object or thing rather than to God. Idolatry/worldliness places anything but God at the center of life and relegates God to the periphery (or ignores God altogether). This worldly mindset is described by the Apostle John in three phrases - the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life.

The Nature of the Love of the World

The lust of the flesh. To clearly understand this aspect of worldliness we must immediately divorce these words from their common connotations. "Lust" does not refer to sexual lust but to strong desire - whether good (cf. 1 Tim. 3:1) or bad. "Flesh" does not refer to anything sexual or sensual, but to a mindset oriented toward the self and away from God.

"Flesh" in the New Testament is defined as frail human nature that still suffers the effects of sin. In relation to the physical body, the flesh refers to human frailty and vulnerability experienced by one who suffers the consequences of sin - pain, sickness, corruption, and death. This frailty and vulnerability is not intrinsically bad, but is simply a consequence of human sin. God's greatest revelation is the gift of Jesus - the "Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:14). Jesus "was made in the likeness of sinful flesh" (Romans 8:3), that is, like Adam after the Fall, suffering the consequences of sin. Contrary to popular thinking, flesh is not simply "sinful nature" but human nature suffering the consequences of sin. This is what it means to be "in the flesh" (cf. Gal. 2:20). It is to be mortal and corruptible rather than immortal and incorruptible.

In relation to the mind, affections, and will, "flesh" is "the outlook oriented toward the self that pursues its own ends in self-sufficient independence of God." This is what it means to walk "according to the flesh" (cf. 2 Cor. 10:3) - to have a mind "set on the flesh" (Rom. 8:5-6). It is the fear of death that arises from fleshly frailty and vulnerability that drives a person to live a self-centered life. Life is not lived for the good of others, but for one's self-interests.

The lust of the eyes. This can either refer to the desire to greedily possess what one sees or the human tendency to judge by outward appearances alone. Dodd integrates both thoughts by defining the lust of the eyes as "[t]he tendency to be captivated by the outward show of things, without enquiring into their real values."

The pride of life. This is a mindset that boasts in one's possessions and achievements. Whether it is pride over wealth, status, or reputation, it often leads to contempt for others. Pride always desires to be greater or better than others. This can be as innocuous as "keeping up with the Jones" - as someone has said, "the desire to have things we do not need, bought with money we do not have, in order to impress people we do not like." Put simply, pride of life is self-glorification at the expense of others, including God.

No one has done a better job than C. S. Lewis at getting at the heart of pride.

Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind...

Pride is essentially competitive... Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others… It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest... If I am a proud man, then, as long as there is one man in the whole world more powerful, or richer, or cleverer than I, he is my rival and my enemy. (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 110-111)

The three aspects of worldliness - lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life - can be summarized as "base desires, false values, and egoism" (Dodd). Eugene Peterson, in his popular paraphrase The Message, describes them as "wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important." This kind of living "just isolates you from him." Marshall weaves these three aspects together: "Selfish human desire is stimulated by what the eyes sees and expresses itself in outward show" (Marshall).

Regardless of how we describe these three phrases, the conclusion is unavoidable: Worldliness begins in the human heart. It is impossible to escape the possibility of worldliness because it finds its source within our hearts. Our problem is not "out there" but "deep within." "Worldliness, it must be emphasized in face of much superficial thought and language on the subject, does not lie in things we do or in places we frequent; it lies in the human heart, in the set of human affections and attitudes" (F. F. Bruce).

We trivialize worldliness by pretending it resides in things and then attempt to avoid it through our own personal list of taboos. We must realize that we may keep from playing cards, going to the cinema, renting videos, listening to music - or anything else for that matter - and still not get to the heart of worldliness. Indeed we refrain from all these things and still smugly say, "God, I thank you that I am not like other people" - a genuine indicator of worldliness in the heart manifest in spiritual pride and lovelessness.

Ultimately, the difference between godliness and worldliness is a matter of the heart. The godly person has different motivations, values, and goals. None of these things are immediately observable. Indeed, these different values and goals may be expressed in the very same activities that so-called worldly people do. Can one tell the difference between someone who eats and drinks to the glory of God and someone who doesn't? Is there any real external difference between one who is genuinely grateful to the Creator God for the goodness of creation and one who simply delights in creation as an end in itself?

Our strivings against worldliness are really strivings against self-centeredness, selfishness, and pride. These things manifest themselves in different ways, but they cannot be reduced to a laundry list of prohibited and allowed activities. When we realize that worldliness is a matter of the heart we keep from trivializing human sin. Is refraining from cards truly battling the evil one?

Perhaps the best way to understand worldliness is to set it in stark contrast to godliness. Instead of desires of the flesh, we should purse self-denial. Instead of judging by appearance (the lust of the eyes), we should walk by faith. Instead of proud boasting, we should seek the best for others. What does this type of life look like? It looks like Jesus.

The Apostle Paul speaks of the humiliation, incarnation, and subsequent exaltation of Jesus as the pattern for Christian behavior.

Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit [the lust of the eyes], but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself [the pride of life]; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also the interests of others [the lust of the flesh].

Have this attitude [mindset] in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil. 2:3-11)

The life of Jesus gives us the pattern for our imitation, and indeed, makes imitation possible:

So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. (Phil. 2:12-13)

This work is done in the midst of the world:

Do all things without grumbling or disputing; so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain. (Phil. 2:14-16)

Worldliness is not countered by keeping distant from the world but by letting the mind/attitude of Christ - a heart in love with God - shape our attitudes and mindset. "Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds" (Romans 12:2).

Worldliness is trivialized when it is reduced to a laundry list of do's and don'ts. Worldliness is completely misunderstood when fear of it is used as a reason to separate from the world. True godliness is living out the loving heart of God in the midst of the world for the sake of the world at the expense of one's own welfare. It is to live like Jesus whose self-denial, self-giving, and humility demonstrated God's love for the world.

© Richard J. Vincent, 2004