The preachers quoted here define worldliness as giving first place to the things of this world instead of the things of God, with the world as the centre of gravity for one's desires. They say it is a spirit that pervades everything and is not confined to a list of activities, and that it shows when the world's ways get into the church.
The New Testament uses "world" in more than one sense.1 It is the creation God made and the humanity he loves (John 3:16). It is also human society organised without reference to God, and it is in this sense that John writes, "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" (1 John 2:15).
John defines what he means: "the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life" (2:16). Worldliness is therefore a matter of desire and trust before it is a matter of behaviour. James is blunt: "know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?" (James 4:4). Paul's instance is Demas, who forsook him, "having loved this present world" (2 Timothy 4:10).
The answer is not withdrawal. Jesus prayed, "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world" (John 17:15-16). His disciples are to be salt and light in it (Matthew 5:13-14).
Nor is it a list of rules. Paul warns against regulations of the "Touch not; taste not; handle not" kind, which have an appearance of wisdom but do not restrain the flesh (Colossians 2:21-23), and says God "giveth us richly all things to enjoy" (1 Timothy 6:17). The command is inward: "be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Romans 12:2).
The cure is a stronger love. Thomas Chalmers argued in a famous sermon that the love of the world cannot simply be removed from the heart: "The habit can not so be displaced as to leave nothing but a negative and cheerless vacancy behind it".2 It has to be displaced by a greater affection. Paul says the same of the cross, "by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world" (Galatians 6:14), and John of faith: "this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith" (1 John 5:4).
The reason John gives is the world's shortness: "the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever" (2:17).
- Strong's Greek 2889, kósmos: "orderly arrangement, i.e. decoration; by implication, the world (in a wide or narrow sense, including its...".
- Thomas Chalmers, The Expulsive Power of a New Affection.
In their own words
Each line below is quoted exactly from a sermon on this site. Follow the link to hear or read it where it was said.
Worldliness is to give priority to the things and matters of this world, rather than the things of God.
Richard Sipley
in Worldliness
Read in context
To love the world is to live with the world as the center of gravity for our will, our affections, our desires, our thoughts, our time, our money, our energy.
James La Belle
in You Cannot Love God and the World
Listen at 8:19
But worldliness is all-pervasive, and is not confined to certain things.
Martyn-Lloyd Jones
in God or Mammon
Read in context
But to love the world is to make worldly things the principal objects of desire and pursuit.
Charles Finney
in Love of the World
Read in context
Worldliness is when the spirit of the world gets into the church, my beloved.
J. Vernon McGee
in What Is Worldliness?
Listen at 31:39
Worldliness is the accepted part of our way of life.
George Verwer
in Hindrances to World Evangelism
Listen at 16:49
Worldliness is manifested in divisions, in cliques, in groups, in individuals.
J. Vernon McGee
in What Is Worldliness?
Listen at 39:03
What Scripture says
- 1 John 2:15-17 love not the world, neither the things that are in the world
- James 4:4 friendship of the world is enmity with God
- Romans 12:2 be not conformed to this world
- John 17:15-16 not out of the world, but kept from the evil
- Galatians 6:14 the world is crucified to me, and I to the world
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