Dead Man Blogging

I blogged a few days ago about worldliness, and mentioned the definition of worldliness in 1 John 5:16-17: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

Today I read Matthew 4, where Satan tempts Jesus. It seems like Satan’s temptation of Christ follows the same pattern as the definition of wordliness.

First, Satan tempts Christ with the lust of the flesh. Turn these stones into bread. Feed your hunger. Satisfy what your flesh wants and needs.

Second, Satan tempts Christ with the pride of life. Throw yourself from the temple. Everyone will see you! You will prove that you are the Messiah.

Third, he tempted Christ with the lust of the eyes. Here’s the whole world, “all the kingdoms of the world and their glory”. You can have it, just worship me.

And, like wordliness, none of this was intrinsically bad. There’s nothing wrong with food, or with worldly success or material gain. Those are generally good things. Except, like so many good things, when they get in the way of worshipping “the Lord your God, and serv[ing] Him only”.

Satan did not tempt Jesus with simply abandoning or rejecting the kingdom of heaven. He tempted Christ with _exchanging_ the kingdom of heaven for “the kingdo9ms of the world and their glory”.

Satan undoubtedly used his best weapons against Jesus. That weapon was wordliness - the temptation to exchange the spiritual for the carnal and temporal. He did not tempt Jesus with illicit sex, or with anger, or gossip, or theft, or anything like that. But don’t we usually think of those as our more serious temptations? I know I do. I’m generally oblivious to wordliness. If these temptations were the ones Satan selected to use against Christ, if they are Satan’s atomic bombs, then I should be more on guard against them.

I was reading Matthew Henry’s commentary on Mt 13:10-17 and saw this nugget.

A parable is a shell that keeps good fruit _for_ the diligent, but keeps it _from_ the slothful.

To some extent, Christ taught the crowds in parables to make the truth _harder_ , not easier, to get at - in order to “weed out” casual observers. But for those who were enlightened by the Holy Spirit, and willing to work at it (see Proverbs 2:3-5), these parables contain profound truth. And they are presented in such a way that they stick with you. It’s far easier to remember the parable of the prodigal son than it is to memorize Romans 12:1-2, for instance.

Yikes, has it really been _that_ long since I blogged? Sorry. I’ll try to do better. To be honest, I’m growing pretty dissatisfied with blogging, but more on that in another post.

1 John 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. 16For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

Matthew 6
19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: 21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 22 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. 23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! 24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

It seems that loving the world is a pretty big deal. You can’t love the world and God. You can’t serve God and serve mammon. If you love the world, the love of the Father is _not in you_.

What do you think of when you read “love not the world”? What does someone who loves the world, who serves mammon, look like? We usually revert to some caricaturized idea of an incredibly driven person who is all about keeping up with the Joneses and succeeding in their careers, probably dual income no kids, or single, and a party animal. They spend their days wearing themselves out to get rich, oppressing the weak, squeezing every penny out they can, and they spend their nights in drunken debauchery.

I know people who probably fit your definition of worldliness (minus the drunken debauchery part). They have the dual incomes, the nice cars, nice houses, nice boats, high incomes, they know all the right people, travel all the time, and so on. And not a one of them thinks they are worldly. They are actually quite nice, and I count them among my friends. They have a definition of worldliness that is even more wrapped up in materialism than you probably think they are.

Now, if these _clearly_ worldly, carnal Christians don’t realize _they_ are worldly, what makes _me_ think I’d recognize it in my own life? Does anyone read “if anyone love the world, the love of the Father is not in him” and think “Yep, that’s me. Love that world!” We _all_ think we are not worldly. We _all_ think we have our priorities pretty much straight. _Nobody_ thinks it would be fair to label us “worldly”.

I believe that worldliness is far more insidious, and that our caricaturized pictures of worldliness are entirely useless to diagnose worldliness in our own lives.

Jesus and John were not speaking/writing to what we’d call rich people in the passages quoted above. These were average folks, and they certainly didn’t have as much purchasing power as I do. But Jesus and John warned them against worldliness.

I believe worldliness is a far more pervasive problem than I used to think. I no longer think a person making $250,000 is so much more likely to be worldly than a person making $25,000.

But what do I mean by “worldliness” if it’s not the caricature I described earlier? What does loving the world look like?

This isn’t going to be a complete discussion, of course. It’s mostly the view of worldliness from where I sit, and is partially defined by the things in my life right now or the things that are potentially in my life, and I’m more focused on the more insidious forms of worldliness.

I think worldliness is similar to the definition of an idol - anything that pulls you away from God. Worldliness is a system of values and priorities that is focused on the temporal and earthly, rather than the eternal and spiritual.

I believe we are worldly when we allow _anything_ to pull us away from following God. The world, in this sense, is the polar opposite of heaven. We can pursue God, or we can pursue temporal things. We can listen to God, or we can be influenced by worldly voices.

If you take _anything_ into consideration other than “is this God’s will?”, it’s worldliness. If you are concerned about your reputation, your comfort, your income, your position, _anything at all_, then you are worldly.

If there are any changes you think you should make in your life that would help you more fully obey Christ, and you are hesitant to make them because it involves letting go of things that you like, it’s worldliness. These things may not even be evil per se. Maybe they are good. But if you are unwilling to give them up in order to more fully follow God, it’s worldly.

It is good for a man to provide well for his family. A nice income is good. It can be used for many good things. But if maintaining that nice income means I can’t change my job, change my location, etc., in order to more fully obey Christ, then I’m worldly. If I have to work excessively long hours, including Saturdays, to maintain my income, that _will_ come at the cost of obeying Deut 6:7, Ephesians 5:25, and Ephesians 6:4.

It is good for Christians to be involved. It’s good to be in civic organizations, to put your kids in various activities, to have various activities yourself, including ones related to church. Cell group, soccer, softball, gymnastics, Bible study, Lion’s club, Boy Scouts - those are all good. But does the combination of all of them promote your sanctification, and your family’s sanctification? And if not, _why_ are you unwilling to drop them? Or (from my perspective), why am I fairly willing to add them on? Is it because I have a perverse view of success that means my kids have to be involved in certain things? Is there _anything_ in the Bible to suggest that one of my goals in raising my children should be that they are athletically successful? Or well socialized? Is that even on the radar, Biblically? Is it important for me to be in church and social activities for the sake of my reputation in the community or even in the church? If so, that’s worldliness.

What about homeschooling? Are you unwilling to homeschool because that’s weird, and your kids won’t be popular and socialized? Do you believe that you will do a better job of obeying Deut 6:7 and Eph 6:4, raising godly children, by homeschooling - but you are not willing to do it because _it doesn’t conform to society’s expectations_? That’s worldliness.

Do you have an unbiblical view of what a successful life for your family would look like? If it _includes_ material possessions, financial security, wealth, social connections and reputation, power and influence - that’s unbiblical. A Biblical view of success is _only_ measured spiritually. If you think a rich Christian is more successful than a poor Christian, _that is worldliness_. Do you think you’ll be a more successful parent if your children are popular, or athletic stars, or piano virtuosos, or academic successes? Will you feel like a good parent if your son goes to Yale and becomes a Senator, or even President, or is a successful and powerful businessman? That’s worldliness.

It’s good for a church to have a good reputation in the surrounding community, and to do good as it has opportunity. But do you seek that reputation out of “the pride of life”? Do you want it so you’re well thought of? It’s worldliness. Are you willing to compromise what you _know_ the Bible says about how a church ought to relate to the community - ditching Biblical things, and embracing extrabiblical ideas - to achieve it? Do you measure your church’s success by anything other than how faithful you are to the revealed Word of God? That’s worldliness.

Do you know as a man that your job is to boldly lead your family spiritually? Do you realize that you are responsible for the spiritual development of your wife (Eph 5:26, 29) and children (Eph 6:4)? But it’s just too much work, and you know how people get about “domineering” husbands and fathers, and you don’t want to mess with it? That’s worldliness. Not to mention laziness and cowardice.

Do you believe that we are to “be fruitful and multiply”? Do you believe that children are a gift of the Lord, and you are blessed by having a full quiver of them? Do you know that a quiver holds more than 2 or 3 arrows? Do you think that raising many Godly children is one very good way of advancing the kingdom of God? But you don’t have a lot of children, because you know, that’s weird, and how could you possibly afford that? That’s worldliness.

(In the process of writing this, I think part of the reason I’m dissatisfied with blogging is because I’m worldly. I want to have lots of readers and get lots of links and comments. That’s not happening, so I feel like a failure and am frustrated. Funny how my own post is convicting to me.)

You love the world when you are concerned about earthly and temporal definitions of success. The Bible does not say we must not love the world _more_ than we love God. The Bible says we must not love the world _at all_. _Any_ love for the world is incompatible with loving God. “If any man love the world, the love of the father is not in him”. You cannot serve God 75% and mammon a mere 25%. It’s all or nothing. Choose you this day who you will serve. You only get one choice.

I think that _at best_, worldly people like myself are trying to serve both masters, and we intend to give God first dibs, so to speak. And we fail miserably at it. We think it’s ok to lay up _some_ treasures here on earth, as long as we’re _also_ laying up some treasures in heaven. We will serve mammon provided it doesn’t require us to grossly disobey God. We wouldn’t kill someone for money, that would just be wrong. We will, however, neglect our families.

We think we can take orders from both masters. If the world commands us to do something, we first check “did God tell me _not_ to do this?” If not, we feel free to do it. Does God tell me _not_ to send my kids to public school? To _not_ put them in softball? To _not_ work a lot of overtime? To _not_ buy that house, take that job, buy that car, subscribe to DirecTV, watch that movie, read that book, buy a new car, etc? Oh, well then, it must be OK. But we have forgotten that all things are lawful, but not all things are profitable.

God has not told us not to do all those things. But he has told us to do _other_ things. And what happens is that we neglect those things in order to serve the world. Which is why Jesus and John both unequivocally assert that you can’t serve them both. You might outwardly obey them both to some extent, but you will love one and hate the other. And being the sinful people we are, God is going to take a back seat to the world in our lives more often than not. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Could it be put more strongly? Can it be any clearer?

This is not asceticism. We are not trying to avoid creature comforts. It’s about seeking first (and only?) God’s kingdom and His righteousness, and He will add all these things to us. All the things we need, and many good things besides that. If God gave us Christ, will He withold good things from us? Maybe He witholds things from us because they aren’t really good. When _He_ gives a gift, it’s no “mixed blessing”. What we get for ourselves often is.

We are not striving to love God _more_ than the world, or to serve Him _more_ than we serve the world. We are putting away our idols, destroying them. Loving the world has no place in the life of a Christian. We can’t serve two masters.

I’ve been reading and studying Ecclesiastes with some men recently. They found it pretty depressing, but I was really encouraged. I’ve also been reading pretty much everything I can find at the Highlands Study Center and I think the things I’ve read there influenced my reading of Ecclesiastes.

It’s easy to see how “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.” might get some people down. But I think it took a load of pressure off me. _All_ is vanity. Solomon took every conceivable approach and found them _all_ lacking. He sought wisdom, madness, and folly. All vanity. All his learning simply made things worse. He “enlarged [his] works” and built houses, planted vineyards, made gardens and parks, and possessed great wealth. All vanity. None of it was ultimately worth anything. Who knows if a man will even be able to leave a good inheritance to his children? Who knows if they will squander it or not? Wealth can be destroyed in an instant.

The conclusion I draw from this is that there is no point in wearing yourself out to make a great name for yourself on earth. That’s just chasing after the wind.

Our lives are brief. Our works are temporary. Our accomplishments are largely meaningless. We cannot understand all the works that God is doing in the world. It’s not about us; it’s about Him.

Life on earth is closely akin to a short trip. In the course of just a few years we travel from the cradle to the grave. We leave very little behind, and even the memory of us fades within a few years.

But Solomon does not stop there. He gives us instructions for how to live while we are on this trip: “Here is what I have seen to be good and fitting: to _eat_, to _drink_ and _enjoy oneself in all one’s labor_ in which he toils under the sun during the few years of life which God has given him; for _this is his reward_. … Go then, eat your bread in _happiness_ and drink your wine with a _cheerful heart_; for _God has already approved your works_. … _Enjoy life_ with the _woman whom you love_ all the days of your fleeting life which He has given to you under the sun; for _this is your reward_ in life and in your toil in which you have labored under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might”

The lesson I take away is: Recognize life for what it is - a brief journey, just a flame that flickers and goes out. And once you’ve recognized if for that, _enjoy the journey_. Who cares how much wealth you’ve accumulated? Who cares what your social status is? Who cares about your career? _None of these things matter_.

Enjoy life. Enjoy your life with the wife of your youth, the woman whom you love all the days of your life. Enjoy the work that God has given you. Work hard. Enjoy the fruits of your labor. Eat your bread and drink your wine with a cheerful heart.

And later Christ gives us additional instruction:

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
…
Do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will put on. … [I]f God so clothes the grass of the field which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things … seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

This modifies the conclusion a little bit by adding to it. Recognize life is a brief journey, enjoy the journey for what it is, and _remember where you are heading_.

The recognition that God, our loving Father, is in complete control is essential for being able to enjoy life for what it is, rather than wearing ourselves out to get rich, chasing after the wind, and worrying about material things. The recognition that life is temporary is also essential for understanding that nothing we do _on earth_ is of much significance, so we can simply enjoy our families, our labor, and the fruit of our labor.

But the recognition that _something_ is eternal is also important, and is not really a part of the message of Ecclesiastes. Solomon stops with telling us to serve God because things will generally go better, because God will judge us, and because it’s just the right thing to do. Jesus tells us that it’s far more than that - our good works are actually _storing up treasure in heaven_ for us. Houses and lands and money will all be gone. But souls are eternal. The glory of God is eternal. These are things worth pursuing. It’s the goal of our journey.

As in everything, there are many ways to go wrong here. One of those ways is pride and greed. Who really cares if I am a programmer all the days of my life, a manager, a teacher, or a manufacturing plant worker? Does anyone really talk about the _accomplishments_ of dearly departed loved ones? It makes absolutely _no_ sense to sacrifice the enjoyment of life, or to disobey the responsibilities I have as a Christian, for the sake of prestige, pride, or money.

Another mistake would be hedonism. Solomon tried that, and he says it is folly. Jesus warned against it. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die” is a shallow, empty philosophy. Life is not meaningless. Much of it is eternally significant.

Another way to go wrong would be asceticism. Life is to be enjoyed. It is _God’s reward_ to us. My job is not _simply_ a means of supporting myself. It is a blessing from God, a gift to me. It’s something to be _enjoyed_. In 10 years, nobody will care about the programs I write today. But I should enjoy my work and get a sense of satisfaction I get from writing them anyway. There is nothing worldly or illicit or spiritually immature in enjoying life. Asceticism is not necessarily more godly. The Bible does have a lot of warnings against overindulgence, excessive levity, and so on. We are commanded to live soberly and righteously. But this is a warning against gluttony and hedonism, living life as though it is entirely meaningless and as though our journey has no purpose. It is not a warning against _enjoying_ the journey. God commanded _feasting_ in the Old Testament. He wanted Israel to enjoy His gifts and provision.

I am not sinning, or spiritually immature, if I spend my time working in my garden rather than reading my Bible. There is nothing wrong with spending my money to take my family to the zoo, instead of giving it all to the poor. Time spent with friends and family would not necessarily be better spent witnessing. God would not necessarily be more glorified if I became a missionary instead of a programmer. (Of course, we are remarkably apt at sinning, and there may well be times I should read my Bible instead of work in my garden, give money to the poor instead of spending it for my enjoyment, go witnessing, or become a missionary. But it’s not _automatically_ the case.)

I think it’s because I’ve been raised a Dispensationalist instead of a Postmillenialist, and have always been warned “we’re in the last minutes of the last hours of the last days”, but I’ve always tended a bit towards Gnosticism in this area. I’ve had a lingering feeling that, beyond the bare necessities, all my time and all my money ought to be spent “Doing the Lord’s work”. And of course, “the Lord’s work” meant only those spiritual (as opposed to physical) pursuits - Bible study, prayer, worship, giving, evangelism, that kind of stuff.

Contrast that with Biblical statements like “God gave wine to cheer the hearts of men”. I don’t drink for strictly cultural reasons (and don’t want to debate it, thank you), but verses like that are pretty incompatible with the “wretched urgency” I felt like I should feel. You can do some dispensational hand-waving and relegate those verses to the kingdom instead of the church age, but I don’t find that very convincing.

It’s probably true that most Christians, particularly in 21st century America, need to hear messages against worldliness and hedonism. Those messages may sound pretty ascetic and Spartan. And I have a lot of thoughts about wordliness and materialism. I think I could and should do without a _lot_ of stuff that I’ve got, and you likely should, too. I believe we are amusing ourselves to death, to borrow the title of a book. We could use some sermons on worldliness. There are a lot of texts to choose from: Matthew 6:19-22, 1 Corinthians 8, 1 Cor 15:31-34, 2 Cor 6:14-7:1, 2 Cor 9, Eph 5:1-5, 1 Thess 4:11-12, 1 Tim 6:5-12, James 2:1-9, 1 Peter 4:3-7 and 17, 1 John 2:15-16, and Rev 3:17-19.

But just like Galatians and James must be kept in the context of each other, we have to keep all these things in context of each other. Worldiness / sensuality / hedonism is an error, just as pride / greed is, just as asceticism is.

Life is fleeting. Recognize that it is just a journey. Remember the destination. And enjoy the trip.