It is to be feared that the great mass of nominal Christians is nothing but unconverted worldlings!
"Do not love the world or 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,
the lust of the eyes,
and the pride of life,
is not from the father, but is from the world!" (1 John 2:15-16)
The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life; that is, pleasure, and riches, and honor. These are the great objects of worldly ambition to which every godless heart is attached to!
"If after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." (2 Peter 2:20) The Apostle here takes for granted, that this effect will universally and invariably follow that all who know the adorable Savior will escape the pollutions of the world. There never was, nor ever will be, one exception to this truth.
All who savingly know Christ, will no longer supremely love the world, but escape from its enticements and pollutions. Yet it is to be feared that there are many professing Christians who have never been delivered from the pollutions of the world. Their desires, and hopes, and joys, and pursuits are all worldly.
Be assured that you cannot love the world, and God also; for they are diametrically opposed to each other. "You cannot serve God and Mammon." (Matthew 6:24)
Know that while you love and desire and pursue earthly vanities then you have not yet truly devoted yourselves to the Lord Jesus.
Whatever your situation or circumstances may be, God's view of worldliness is the same: "You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God! (James 4:4) "Remember Lot's wife!" (Luke 17:32)
Scripture paints the world, and all who love it, in darksome colors. O that all the votaries of gaiety, and fashion, and pleasure, would realize what Scripture compares them to: "Swine wallowing in the mire!" and "Dogs returning to their own vomit!" (Proverbs 26:11)
Yes, this is the feast to which your earthly friends invite you!
Learn to view the world as God views it! Regard it as a country infected with the plague! Let your great concern be to get through it in safety.
[Charles Simeon]
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2 Corinthians 6:17 ... Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.
Galatians 1:4 ... Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: ❤
