WORLDLINESS-AVOIDED
Christians
are to be in the world, but not of the world, positively living out their faith
in their various vocations in the “secular” realm and influencing it for the
good, while remembering that their ultimate citizenship is in heaven.
Gene Edward Veith
Tabletalk, v. 28, n. 8, p. 18, Ligonier
Ministries, Used by Permission.
Can you truly say, that you have so far taken the
everlasting enjoyment of God for your happiness, that it has the most of your
heart, of your love, desire, and care; and that you are resolved, by the
strength of Divine grace, to let go all that you have in the world, rather than
hazard it; and that it is your daily, and your principal business to seek it?
Can you truly say, that though you have your failings and sins, yet your main
care, and the bent of your whole life, is to please God, and to enjoy him
forever; and that you give the world God’s leavings, as it were, and not God
the world’s leavings; and that your worldly business is but as a traveler’s
seeking for provision in his journey, and heaven is the place that you take for
your home?
Richard Baxter
The Reformed Pastor, Chapter 3, Part 3.
The Christian
is the most contented man in the world, but he is the least contented with the
world. He is like a traveler in an inn, perfectly satisfied with the inn and
its accommodation, considering it as an inn, but putting quite out of all
consideration the idea of making it his home.
C.H. Spurgeon
The Christian
life is a positive allegiance to Jesus Christ. It is becoming so occupied with
Him that the values and standards of the world around us have little influence.
George Sweeting
Who Said That? Moody, 1994, p. 146.
To be in the
world, and yet not of the world; to use it for our temporal necessities, and
yet not to abuse it for carnal purposes, is a high Christian attainment. May we
be graciously delivered from a worldly spirit, which can assume a thousand
forms to allure and to deceive.
Thomas Reade
The two poles
could sooner meet, than the love of Christ and the love of the world.
Thomas Brooks
The ways, and
fashions, and amusements, and recreations of the world have a continually
decreasing place in the heart of a growing Christian. He does not condemn them
as downright sinful, nor say that those who have anything to do with them are
going to hell. He only feels they have a constantly diminishing hold on his own
affections and gradually seem smaller and more trifling in his eyes.
J.C. Ryle
The
New Encyclopedia of Christian Quotations, ed. Mark Water, 2000, Baker, p. 1135.
Our Lord
calls us out of the world; while living in it, we are not to be stained by it
(James 1:27). We are to be in it but not to love it.
Duncan Rankin
Restoring Love, Tabletalk, June 2005, p. 55. Used by Permission.
Christ's
kingdom people are not to reflect the world but they are to influence the
world; they are to be in it but not of it.
John MacArthur
Matthew 1-7, Moody, 1985, p. 236.
Why not love the world?
1.
Because
the gain of it is the loss of the soul – Matthew 16:25.
2.
Because
its friendship is hatred to God – James 4:4.
3.
Because
it did not know Christ – John 1:10; 17:25.
4.
Because
it hates Christ – John 7:7; 15:18.
5.
Because
the Holy Spirit has forbidden us – 1 John 2:15.
6.
Because
Christ did not pray for it – John 17:9.
7.
Because
Christ’s people do not belong to it – John 17:16.
8.
Because
it will not receive the Spirit – John 14:27.
9.
Because
its Prince is Satan – John 13:31; 16:11.
10. Because Christ’s kingdom is not of it –
John 18:36.
11. Because its wisdom is foolishness – 1
Corinthians 1:20.
12. Because its wisdom is ignorance – 1
Corinthians 1:21.
13. Because Christ does not belong to it –
John 8:23.
14. Because it is condemned – 1
Corinthians 11:32.
15. Because the fashion of it will pass
away – 1 Corinthians 7:31 .
16. Because it slew Christ – James 5:6;
Matthew 21:39.
17. Because it is crucified to us – Galatians
6:14.
18. Because we are crucified to it – Galatians
6:14.
19. Because it is the seat of wickedness –
2 Peter 1:4; 1 John 5:19.
20. Because its
God is the evil one – 2 Corinthians 4:4.
Horatius Bonar
The
Christian Treasury, 1877.