The Christian and the World

When we examine the world around us today, there is much to be desired. Fornication is rampant, violence is commonplace in our various forms of entertainment, the level of immorality and decadence keeps rising, with movies and music becoming more and more explicit and grotesque, and there seems to be no knowledge of God in any place. Yet it is in a condition like this where the Christian sees the truths of Scripture: the man of God is set against the things of the world.

The world has reached a level of decadence and immorality that makes it very easy to see the difference between it and the things of God. As John says,

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. Also, the world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God abides forever (1 John 2:15-17). The world and God have been set at odds for as long as the world may last. This has always been the case; our modern society just makes it easier to discern the difference. Has any society or time been less worldly in the eyes of God than others? Perhaps so, yet John's statement has meaning for every society and nation which has ever existed. Furthermore, John's language is clear: you cannot love the world and the Father; you must choose. There is no fencesitting. You must do the will of the Father or succumb to the lusts of the world.

How, then, does the Christian do the will of the Father? Paul makes this clear in Romans 12:2:

And do not be conformed to this world, yet be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is acceptable and good and perfect. Let us notice three things about this verse:

1. "do not be conformed to this world." We are to live in the world, and to help save the lost (Matthew 28:18-20). To live in the world does not mean to be like the world, however, and we must strive to not be shaped or moved in any way by the world around us.