What is Worldliness?
A Christian Concept explained by Rev Earl H. Jackson
What is Worldliness?
Rom 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
1Jn 5:4-5 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. 5 Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?
1Jn 4:5 They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them.
1Jn 2:15 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.
Anyone who has been around a Christian church for any length of time will soon encounter the word “worldliness”. Some churches even build a whole theological system around this word. I saw a program on TV about the Amish people in Pennsylvania, and during an interview with a bearded old gentleman with a straw hat, he said that his people practiced certain forms of primitive-ism in order to avoid wordiness. Women wear long skirts and cover their heads. Men grow beards. Cars are forbidden. Some also refuse to have electricity and telephones. The idea is that worldliness is what you do or do not do. If you drive a car you are worldly. But if you drive a horse and buggy you are not worldly. If you wear makeup, short skirts, and use a telephone you are worldly. But if you put flour on your cheeks, wear long woolen dresses, and torture your self with burlap underwear, you are not worldly.
Now most people can easily recognize the folly in this form of living, yet it is a powerful idea that historically emerges periodically within all sorts of churches. Today most so called evangelical churches harbor at least some vestiges of sympathy for this notion that worldliness is what you do, or do not do. This is always due to deficient views of Grace and a doctrinal position of legalism. When you do not do something you are supposed to do, you are worldly. When you do something that you are not supposed to do, you are worldly. So that worldliness is always a matter of “do this” and “do not do that”. Legalism and asceticism go hand in hand, and neither are Christian or Biblical doctrines.
I was heavily exposed to this kind of thinking when I was a young Christian, a student at a Fundamental Baptist college. At that time I thought it was quite normal to follow the fundamentalist guidelines that a Christian is supposed to look like a Christian, act like a Christian, walk like a Christian, speak like a Christian, dress like a Christian, and even smell like a Christian! (However a Christian is supposed to smell? I never quite understood that!) Now, however, I know that this entire concept springs from a deficient gospel and is nothing more than legalism varnished and painted up to look like grace.
Lost People Are Worldly People
When you have a gospel that doesn't actually get people saved, and that doesn't radically transform their lives, you will have a church full of unconverted people, who will naturally look and do what unconverted people do. When that happens, you have no alternative but to try to get their lives in order by legalism which will tell them what they must do to supposedly look like a Christian, act like a Christian and yes even smell like a Christian. If we tell lost people that they are saved; simply because they made a profession, or prayed a prayer, or made a trip to an old fashioned altar, or responded to an emotional plea; then we are forced to cover up their lostness with do-good-ism and theological two-stepping paint.
The Bible is quite clear on this. Salvation is either by grace or by law keeping. Either you receive it as a sinner who can do nothing, or you receive it as a sinner who can save himself by what he does or does not do. Either you are saved by grace through faith in the finished work of Christ, or you must save your self through constant self-improvement and law-keeping. There are no other alternatives, if you will be a Christian.
Now what happens in most churches is a weird mix of the two systems. We preach salvation by grace, or at least we use the term, so that we sound orthodox. But then when it actually comes down to the Christian life, we set up all kinds of rules and regulations. We define Christians by their so called fruits of what they do or do not do. Christians should not smoke or drink, dance or wear make up, etc etc. This mix of legalism and grace, creates a lip service to God's truth, but it actually is a denial of it at the same time. We say we believe in, and practice, grace; but then we proceed to live by our own church's self-improvement agenda of good deeds, works and legislated morality by outward appearances. The whole thing is a disgraceful sham which infects churches with real worldliness, while all the time trying to prevent it. The ones who wear the long skirts and prescribed head gear, the ones who are always pointing the finger and exposing other peoples “worldliness”, the ones who are busy judging others ; they are in actuality, the worldly ones. This is exactly what Jesus taught. Those who condemn and judge others actually condemn and judge themselves.
Jesus Was Radical Toward the Worldly Religious People
Jesus encountered this same phenomena in His day. When dealing with a prostitute; the religious crowd of self-righteous, self-authenticating, somber faced, pious acting, spiritual gas bags, wanted to stone the woman, because of what she did or did not do. But Jesus nailed the truth against their own corruption, when he simply said: “let him that has no sin cast the first stone” (John 8:7). That settles it. Do-good-ism does not eliminate sin. Do-good-ism creates people who are always busy judging and condemning other people, who do not conform to their self-made and arbitrary standards. Legalism is a cloak whereby hypocrites can hide deceptively among the true believers. But God looks upon the heart, and knows it. Self-approving do-good-ism, may fool the people, but it does not fool God. Jesus told the people who were busy judging others who were committing acts of adultery, that they had already committed adultery in their evil and unconverted hearts. He told those who were accusing others of stealing, that they had stolen already because of the covetousness and lust of their hearts.
Jesus radically upset the religious apple cart of His day. That is one of the primary things that He came to do! He came not only to save men from sin, but to save them from self-salvation. He came to overturn the righteousness of the righteous, and the religion of the religious. He called them vipers and snakes, white washed tombs full of dead men's bones. He said that despite of their glitter and eyewash on the outside, inwardly they were ravening wolves. That's what legalism does. It produces churches full of scribes, pharisees and hypocrites. It does not promote true godliness and spirituality. It promotes worldliness as God describes it.
Worldliness is The Way That You Think, Not What You Do !
Worldliness is not what you do or do not do. Worldliness is what you think! Notice: “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Rom. 12:2). In other words: “conformity to the world is failure to have a transformed mind!” Worldliness is thus a thought problem not a deeds problem. Worldliness is worldly thinking. What you think is what you are. “As a man thinketh in his heart so is he” (Proverbs 23:7)
Keep in mind that Jesus taught that it is:
“That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. 21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22 Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: 23 All these evil things come from within, and defile the man”
Mar 7:20-23.
When you do not think converted thoughts, but instead you think just like everybody else, you are worldly. Worldliness is the thinking that springs from the UN-transformed mind. Christians should never think like this, because their minds have been transformed. Now they “have the mind of Christ” (1Cor. 2:16). “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil 2:5), reminds us that if we are Christians, then we should think like Christ thinks. Christ's mind is never worldly, so if we think with that mind, we will not be worldly either. This is faith thinking!
The Only Way to Overcome Worldliness is Through Faith-thinking.
1Jn 5:4-5 “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. 5 Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?”
Faith-thinking is God-honoring thinking. Faith-thinking is right thinking. Faith-thinking is belief thinking, not unbelief thinking. That's why God says that “whatsoever is not of faith is sin” (Rom. 14:23). When you read Rom 14 where God says that all other forms of thinking beside faith-thinking is sin, He does so in the context of a discussion about eating or not eating meat. It does not matter if you do or don't, because those things only cause you to judge others foolishly. What matters is do you have faith? If you don't, then you are sinning! Whatsoever is not of faith is sin, because it springs from a doubt based system of thinking.
Doubt Based Systems of Thinking.
Worldliness is doubt based not faith based. In fact, the whole system of this world is against God and against Christ. God allows it, and in fact perpetuates it, because He uses it to bring glory to Himself and to the grace He has on those whom He delivers from it. But the actual worldview of the world is that of unbelief. That's why Christians should never allow themselves to follow human viewpoint, or think like everybody else thinks. Christians have a Divine Viewpoint, which informs their thinking, and they derive it from the word of God, and The Holy Spirit who is their inner Divine guide into all truth.
It is amazing to me how Christians cannot see worldly thinking all around them, and even in their churches. They even ignore and sometimes praise statements of outright unbelief when they happen. I heard a supposed sister praised one day in a church when she said, “I believe Christians are supposed to be healed. With His stripes we are healed. God does not receive any glory when His children are sick”. This lady was praised by those in attendance for her supposedly spiritual words. After all she made reference to a scripture in what she was saying. And it makes sense and sounds good. I was shocked. Indeed I almost could not restrain myself from correcting her. This statement was a statement of rebellion, hardness of heart, human viewpoint and unbelief, and it had no faith whatsoever in it. You ask me why I would say that? Let me explain.
When a person says that it is God's will to heal everybody, or that God wants everybody to be healed, he or she, is obviously ignorant of God's will. Only a blind man would say such a thing. The Bible does not say anything like that. This errant view is not derived from the source of Divine viewpoint. It is purely human viewpoint. That makes it sin, because it is an expression of unbelief. Jesus did not heal everybody at the pool of Bethesda. He healed one person only, even though hundreds of sufferers were there. Jesus did not heal everyone then, and he has never healed everyone at any period of human history, and he will not heal everyone now or ever. That is just human viewpoint expressing fake views of a false God. It is not Christianity, and it is not faith.
Then, as if that were not bad enough, she went on to say that God does not receive any glory when His children are sick. Is that so? Where does the Bible say anything other than the fact that “God is glorified in all things”. Rom 11:36 “For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.” If all things are of Him, and all things are through Him, and all things are to Him, then please explain how sickness does not glorify Him? Speech that does not agree with God is unbelief speech. The dear lady who spoke thus in church was clearly and obviously out touch with the Bible, and was very worldly in her thinking. She expressed nothing but unbelief, and not one word of faith, not one word of truth. Yet, she was praised and upheld as a model of spirituality. People thanked her for saying what she said. That's what Jesus meant when he mentioned the blind leaders of the blind. Doubt based systems of thinking can never produce truth, and will never agree with God about anything. Christians should not think like the world, because when they do, they are admitting that they are worldly. They are admitting that the natural human viewpoint is right. They are admitting that God is wrong. They are admitting that reasoning is better than revelation, that error is better than truth, and that sight is better than faith. In all this they actually show that they are unbelievers, and are yet in their sin.
I am not saying that Christians will know everything, or have perfect thinking. I am not saying that at all. I am saying that believers will believe God, will gladly submit to his word, and will make every effort to conform their viewpoint and thinking to His. Christians will grow in grace and knowledge, and will not be reversionistic and hateful toward God and the truth. Christians operate according to resources and strength which the world does not possess. When the Bible says that the dog returns unto His own vomit, and the sow returns to wallowing in the mire. It says so, as an analogy whereby unbelievers can be instantly identified and marked out. People who love their old way of thinking are most assuredly lost. They have fallen from Grace, if they ever indeed had any to start with.
2Pe 2:20-22 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. 21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. 22 But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.
Identifying The worldly
1Jn 4:5 They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them.
Worldly people know one thing... worldliness. That's what they think, so that's what comes out of their mouth. Always. They cannot speak truth, because they are filled with falsehood and lies. They love to talk that way, because that's what they love to listen to. Only worldly people will listen to that kind of speak. It is the voice of ungodliness, and if people are confused and think it to be the voice of God, they are lost also. Jesus said, His sheep hear His voice and can clearly identify it, and they follow him, and not other voices. Look up and compare John 10: 4, 8, 16, 27 and John 8:43
When Jesus said “by their fruits you shall know them” (Matt. 7:16,20). He was talking about how to identify false prophets. A good tree brings forth good fruit and a bad tree brings forth bad fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth bad fruit and a bad tree cannot bring forth good fruit. The fruit comes out of the mouth. Look
Mat 12:33-37 Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit. 34 O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. 35 A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. 36 But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. 37 For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.
Mat 15:18 But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man.
Luke 6:43-45 For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. 44 For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes. 45 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.
Christian ministers of Christ ought not pussy foot around and try to skirt or ignore these important teachings of Christ, as though they know more than the Lord who spoke them. The lost men, the worldly men, cannot speak the truth. They speak exactly what is in their hearts, and that fact proves beyond a doubt that they are lost. A bad tree cannot bring forth good fruit (Matt. 7:18). Jesus knows men better than men know themselves, and Jesus was clear, speech that comes out of a mans mouth (fruit of the lips) is the clearest barometer of faith. Faith speaks faith words. Unbelief speaks worldliness and human viewpoint. This is always the case. A bad tree cannot speak otherwise, and a good tree cannot speak otherwise. That's what Jesus our Lord said. If you believe Him, then you cannot contradict or improve upon His words.
When you say that a man or a woman who speaks worldly thoughts, human viewpoint, and unbelief, is a Christian, you contradict Christ. Christ said that is not possible. The problem is that preachers have become too generous and too liberal with the lost, allowing them to fill our church pews and populate themselves freely in our midst, without being actually converted. Easy-get-save-ism, and easy-believe-ism has polluted the gospel, and polluted our churches, and now millions of so-called Christians think just like the world thinks, and express their unbelief and disagreement with Christ. We no longer recognize it, or preach against it, because it is so prevalent that we have come to think that it is normal. People do not see it or recognize it, because even the pulpits of the land have been infected. In the guise of scholarship, preachers blaspheme the Lord and talk about all the apparent contradictions in the Bible, the antimony's, and such. And they make a mockery of God and Christ in the process. These are not the friends of the Lord, they are his murderers, detractors, traitors and His haters. It's time to identify them, and call them what Christ calls them. They are bad trees bringing forth bad fruit from their bad hearts. They are corrupt, and they attempt to corrupt other people with their filthy and corrupt speech. Ignoring them or approving what they say, is not the way to handle them. Christ said you will be able to clearly identify the lost by their words. Yet, when these people disagree with God, doubt Him, and call Him into question right in our churches, we allow it and even praise it. All such people should be excommunicated, because they are no more saved than a dog or a pig. Pastors and prophets who speak visions of their own head and disagree with God, should be tarred and feathered and excommunicated from our denominations and banished from our pulpits. Why don't we see this happening? We simply choose to ignore this, and that is also a sign of terrible evil and unbelief which has invaded our churches.
Jer. 23:16 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD.
By their words shall you know them!
Clear Warning Against Worldliness
1Jn 2:15 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.
This what we as believers are told. We must not love the world, or any worldly things. Worldly love is is a clear sign that the love of the Father is not in you. If worldliness is thinking wrong, and God warns against it, then every believer should take heed and guard themselves against all things that would promote worldliness in them or their churches. Our stance should be clear, God wants us to think like Christ. Cornelius Van Til, used to say it this way, that as believers we “think God's thoughts after him”. I like that phrase, even though it is not technically a Biblical statement. It does however, express a clear Biblical idea. “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5).
If worldliness is not what you do, but what you think, then it is also true that spirituality is not what you do either, it is produced only by right thinking about what God says. Our churches need to get back to this simple and clear teaching, and quit confusing our people with a bunch of legalism and worldly thinking. We all need to be transformed by the renewing of our minds so that we will not be conformed to this world.
©2012 revised 2020 Earl Jackson All Rights Reserved
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What is Worldliness?
Rom 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
1Jn 5:4-5 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. 5 Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?
1Jn 4:5 They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them.
1Jn 2:15 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.
Anyone who has been around a Christian church for any length of time will soon encounter the word “worldliness”. Some churches even build a whole theological system around this word. I saw a program on TV about the Amish people in Pennsylvania, and during an interview with a bearded old gentleman with a straw hat, he said that his people practiced certain forms of primitive-ism in order to avoid wordiness. Women wear long skirts and cover their heads. Men grow beards. Cars are forbidden. Some also refuse to have electricity and telephones. The idea is that worldliness is what you do or do not do. If you drive a car you are worldly. But if you drive a horse and buggy you are not worldly. If you wear makeup, short skirts, and use a telephone you are worldly. But if you put flour on your cheeks, wear long woolen dresses, and torture your self with burlap underwear, you are not worldly.
Now most people can easily recognize the folly in this form of living, yet it is a powerful idea that historically emerges periodically within all sorts of churches. Today most so called evangelical churches harbor at least some vestiges of sympathy for this notion that worldliness is what you do, or do not do. This is always due to deficient views of Grace and a doctrinal position of legalism. When you do not do something you are supposed to do, you are worldly. When you do something that you are not supposed to do, you are worldly. So that worldliness is always a matter of “do this” and “do not do that”. Legalism and asceticism go hand in hand, and neither are Christian or Biblical doctrines.
I was heavily exposed to this kind of thinking when I was a young Christian, a student at a Fundamental Baptist college. At that time I thought it was quite normal to follow the fundamentalist guidelines that a Christian is supposed to look like a Christian, act like a Christian, walk like a Christian, speak like a Christian, dress like a Christian, and even smell like a Christian! (However a Christian is supposed to smell? I never quite understood that!) Now, however, I know that this entire concept springs from a deficient gospel and is nothing more than legalism varnished and painted up to look like grace.
Lost People Are Worldly People
When you have a gospel that doesn't actually get people saved, and that doesn't radically transform their lives, you will have a church full of unconverted people, who will naturally look and do what unconverted people do. When that happens, you have no alternative but to try to get their lives in order by legalism which will tell them what they must do to supposedly look like a Christian, act like a Christian and yes even smell like a Christian. If we tell lost people that they are saved; simply because they made a profession, or prayed a prayer, or made a trip to an old fashioned altar, or responded to an emotional plea; then we are forced to cover up their lostness with do-good-ism and theological two-stepping paint.
The Bible is quite clear on this. Salvation is either by grace or by law keeping. Either you receive it as a sinner who can do nothing, or you receive it as a sinner who can save himself by what he does or does not do. Either you are saved by grace through faith in the finished work of Christ, or you must save your self through constant self-improvement and law-keeping. There are no other alternatives, if you will be a Christian.
Now what happens in most churches is a weird mix of the two systems. We preach salvation by grace, or at least we use the term, so that we sound orthodox. But then when it actually comes down to the Christian life, we set up all kinds of rules and regulations. We define Christians by their so called fruits of what they do or do not do. Christians should not smoke or drink, dance or wear make up, etc etc. This mix of legalism and grace, creates a lip service to God's truth, but it actually is a denial of it at the same time. We say we believe in, and practice, grace; but then we proceed to live by our own church's self-improvement agenda of good deeds, works and legislated morality by outward appearances. The whole thing is a disgraceful sham which infects churches with real worldliness, while all the time trying to prevent it. The ones who wear the long skirts and prescribed head gear, the ones who are always pointing the finger and exposing other peoples “worldliness”, the ones who are busy judging others ; they are in actuality, the worldly ones. This is exactly what Jesus taught. Those who condemn and judge others actually condemn and judge themselves.
Jesus Was Radical Toward the Worldly Religious People
Jesus encountered this same phenomena in His day. When dealing with a prostitute; the religious crowd of self-righteous, self-authenticating, somber faced, pious acting, spiritual gas bags, wanted to stone the woman, because of what she did or did not do. But Jesus nailed the truth against their own corruption, when he simply said: “let him that has no sin cast the first stone” (John 8:7). That settles it. Do-good-ism does not eliminate sin. Do-good-ism creates people who are always busy judging and condemning other people, who do not conform to their self-made and arbitrary standards. Legalism is a cloak whereby hypocrites can hide deceptively among the true believers. But God looks upon the heart, and knows it. Self-approving do-good-ism, may fool the people, but it does not fool God. Jesus told the people who were busy judging others who were committing acts of adultery, that they had already committed adultery in their evil and unconverted hearts. He told those who were accusing others of stealing, that they had stolen already because of the covetousness and lust of their hearts.
Jesus radically upset the religious apple cart of His day. That is one of the primary things that He came to do! He came not only to save men from sin, but to save them from self-salvation. He came to overturn the righteousness of the righteous, and the religion of the religious. He called them vipers and snakes, white washed tombs full of dead men's bones. He said that despite of their glitter and eyewash on the outside, inwardly they were ravening wolves. That's what legalism does. It produces churches full of scribes, pharisees and hypocrites. It does not promote true godliness and spirituality. It promotes worldliness as God describes it.
Worldliness is The Way That You Think, Not What You Do !
Worldliness is not what you do or do not do. Worldliness is what you think! Notice: “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Rom. 12:2). In other words: “conformity to the world is failure to have a transformed mind!” Worldliness is thus a thought problem not a deeds problem. Worldliness is worldly thinking. What you think is what you are. “As a man thinketh in his heart so is he” (Proverbs 23:7)
Keep in mind that Jesus taught that it is:
“That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. 21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22 Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: 23 All these evil things come from within, and defile the man”
Mar 7:20-23.
When you do not think converted thoughts, but instead you think just like everybody else, you are worldly. Worldliness is the thinking that springs from the UN-transformed mind. Christians should never think like this, because their minds have been transformed. Now they “have the mind of Christ” (1Cor. 2:16). “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil 2:5), reminds us that if we are Christians, then we should think like Christ thinks. Christ's mind is never worldly, so if we think with that mind, we will not be worldly either. This is faith thinking!
The Only Way to Overcome Worldliness is Through Faith-thinking.
1Jn 5:4-5 “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. 5 Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?”
Faith-thinking is God-honoring thinking. Faith-thinking is right thinking. Faith-thinking is belief thinking, not unbelief thinking. That's why God says that “whatsoever is not of faith is sin” (Rom. 14:23). When you read Rom 14 where God says that all other forms of thinking beside faith-thinking is sin, He does so in the context of a discussion about eating or not eating meat. It does not matter if you do or don't, because those things only cause you to judge others foolishly. What matters is do you have faith? If you don't, then you are sinning! Whatsoever is not of faith is sin, because it springs from a doubt based system of thinking.
Doubt Based Systems of Thinking.
Worldliness is doubt based not faith based. In fact, the whole system of this world is against God and against Christ. God allows it, and in fact perpetuates it, because He uses it to bring glory to Himself and to the grace He has on those whom He delivers from it. But the actual worldview of the world is that of unbelief. That's why Christians should never allow themselves to follow human viewpoint, or think like everybody else thinks. Christians have a Divine Viewpoint, which informs their thinking, and they derive it from the word of God, and The Holy Spirit who is their inner Divine guide into all truth.
It is amazing to me how Christians cannot see worldly thinking all around them, and even in their churches. They even ignore and sometimes praise statements of outright unbelief when they happen. I heard a supposed sister praised one day in a church when she said, “I believe Christians are supposed to be healed. With His stripes we are healed. God does not receive any glory when His children are sick”. This lady was praised by those in attendance for her supposedly spiritual words. After all she made reference to a scripture in what she was saying. And it makes sense and sounds good. I was shocked. Indeed I almost could not restrain myself from correcting her. This statement was a statement of rebellion, hardness of heart, human viewpoint and unbelief, and it had no faith whatsoever in it. You ask me why I would say that? Let me explain.
When a person says that it is God's will to heal everybody, or that God wants everybody to be healed, he or she, is obviously ignorant of God's will. Only a blind man would say such a thing. The Bible does not say anything like that. This errant view is not derived from the source of Divine viewpoint. It is purely human viewpoint. That makes it sin, because it is an expression of unbelief. Jesus did not heal everybody at the pool of Bethesda. He healed one person only, even though hundreds of sufferers were there. Jesus did not heal everyone then, and he has never healed everyone at any period of human history, and he will not heal everyone now or ever. That is just human viewpoint expressing fake views of a false God. It is not Christianity, and it is not faith.
Then, as if that were not bad enough, she went on to say that God does not receive any glory when His children are sick. Is that so? Where does the Bible say anything other than the fact that “God is glorified in all things”. Rom 11:36 “For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.” If all things are of Him, and all things are through Him, and all things are to Him, then please explain how sickness does not glorify Him? Speech that does not agree with God is unbelief speech. The dear lady who spoke thus in church was clearly and obviously out touch with the Bible, and was very worldly in her thinking. She expressed nothing but unbelief, and not one word of faith, not one word of truth. Yet, she was praised and upheld as a model of spirituality. People thanked her for saying what she said. That's what Jesus meant when he mentioned the blind leaders of the blind. Doubt based systems of thinking can never produce truth, and will never agree with God about anything. Christians should not think like the world, because when they do, they are admitting that they are worldly. They are admitting that the natural human viewpoint is right. They are admitting that God is wrong. They are admitting that reasoning is better than revelation, that error is better than truth, and that sight is better than faith. In all this they actually show that they are unbelievers, and are yet in their sin.
I am not saying that Christians will know everything, or have perfect thinking. I am not saying that at all. I am saying that believers will believe God, will gladly submit to his word, and will make every effort to conform their viewpoint and thinking to His. Christians will grow in grace and knowledge, and will not be reversionistic and hateful toward God and the truth. Christians operate according to resources and strength which the world does not possess. When the Bible says that the dog returns unto His own vomit, and the sow returns to wallowing in the mire. It says so, as an analogy whereby unbelievers can be instantly identified and marked out. People who love their old way of thinking are most assuredly lost. They have fallen from Grace, if they ever indeed had any to start with.
2Pe 2:20-22 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. 21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. 22 But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.
Identifying The worldly
1Jn 4:5 They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them.
Worldly people know one thing... worldliness. That's what they think, so that's what comes out of their mouth. Always. They cannot speak truth, because they are filled with falsehood and lies. They love to talk that way, because that's what they love to listen to. Only worldly people will listen to that kind of speak. It is the voice of ungodliness, and if people are confused and think it to be the voice of God, they are lost also. Jesus said, His sheep hear His voice and can clearly identify it, and they follow him, and not other voices. Look up and compare John 10: 4, 8, 16, 27 and John 8:43
When Jesus said “by their fruits you shall know them” (Matt. 7:16,20). He was talking about how to identify false prophets. A good tree brings forth good fruit and a bad tree brings forth bad fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth bad fruit and a bad tree cannot bring forth good fruit. The fruit comes out of the mouth. Look
Mat 12:33-37 Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit. 34 O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. 35 A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. 36 But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. 37 For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.
Mat 15:18 But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man.
Luke 6:43-45 For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. 44 For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes. 45 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.
Christian ministers of Christ ought not pussy foot around and try to skirt or ignore these important teachings of Christ, as though they know more than the Lord who spoke them. The lost men, the worldly men, cannot speak the truth. They speak exactly what is in their hearts, and that fact proves beyond a doubt that they are lost. A bad tree cannot bring forth good fruit (Matt. 7:18). Jesus knows men better than men know themselves, and Jesus was clear, speech that comes out of a mans mouth (fruit of the lips) is the clearest barometer of faith. Faith speaks faith words. Unbelief speaks worldliness and human viewpoint. This is always the case. A bad tree cannot speak otherwise, and a good tree cannot speak otherwise. That's what Jesus our Lord said. If you believe Him, then you cannot contradict or improve upon His words.
When you say that a man or a woman who speaks worldly thoughts, human viewpoint, and unbelief, is a Christian, you contradict Christ. Christ said that is not possible. The problem is that preachers have become too generous and too liberal with the lost, allowing them to fill our church pews and populate themselves freely in our midst, without being actually converted. Easy-get-save-ism, and easy-believe-ism has polluted the gospel, and polluted our churches, and now millions of so-called Christians think just like the world thinks, and express their unbelief and disagreement with Christ. We no longer recognize it, or preach against it, because it is so prevalent that we have come to think that it is normal. People do not see it or recognize it, because even the pulpits of the land have been infected. In the guise of scholarship, preachers blaspheme the Lord and talk about all the apparent contradictions in the Bible, the antimony's, and such. And they make a mockery of God and Christ in the process. These are not the friends of the Lord, they are his murderers, detractors, traitors and His haters. It's time to identify them, and call them what Christ calls them. They are bad trees bringing forth bad fruit from their bad hearts. They are corrupt, and they attempt to corrupt other people with their filthy and corrupt speech. Ignoring them or approving what they say, is not the way to handle them. Christ said you will be able to clearly identify the lost by their words. Yet, when these people disagree with God, doubt Him, and call Him into question right in our churches, we allow it and even praise it. All such people should be excommunicated, because they are no more saved than a dog or a pig. Pastors and prophets who speak visions of their own head and disagree with God, should be tarred and feathered and excommunicated from our denominations and banished from our pulpits. Why don't we see this happening? We simply choose to ignore this, and that is also a sign of terrible evil and unbelief which has invaded our churches.
Jer. 23:16 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD.
By their words shall you know them!
Clear Warning Against Worldliness
1Jn 2:15 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.
This what we as believers are told. We must not love the world, or any worldly things. Worldly love is is a clear sign that the love of the Father is not in you. If worldliness is thinking wrong, and God warns against it, then every believer should take heed and guard themselves against all things that would promote worldliness in them or their churches. Our stance should be clear, God wants us to think like Christ. Cornelius Van Til, used to say it this way, that as believers we “think God's thoughts after him”. I like that phrase, even though it is not technically a Biblical statement. It does however, express a clear Biblical idea. “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5).
If worldliness is not what you do, but what you think, then it is also true that spirituality is not what you do either, it is produced only by right thinking about what God says. Our churches need to get back to this simple and clear teaching, and quit confusing our people with a bunch of legalism and worldly thinking. We all need to be transformed by the renewing of our minds so that we will not be conformed to this world.
©2012 revised 2020 Earl Jackson All Rights Reserved
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