A video transcript of this article will be available soon on YouTube.
The following is a draft of the fourth chapter of a forthcoming League of Believers eBook titled Outwitted: How Christians Have Been Duped by the Enemy and What We Can Do to Wise Up. The first, second, and third chapters can be found here, here, and here.
“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.”
—John, 1 John 2:15
War of the worlds
One of the perennial questions Christians wrestle with is “How should we relate to the world around us?” or to translate this into the familiar “Christianese,” “How can we be in the world but not of the world?” The answer to this question depends upon what we mean by the term “world,” or, better yet, what the Bible means by it.
When the Bible speaks of “the world” and our posture towards it, it does so in at least two distinct senses.
In one sense, “the world,” that is, planet Earth, is our home, a place specially created by God for us to inhabit. Earth is where we “earthlings” naturally belong (Genesis 1:26–31, 2:7, 8, 3:19) and it is where we will spend eternity with God, albeit in its renewed, eternal iteration, referred to in Scripture as “a new heaven and a new earth” (Revelation 21:1–3, cf. Genesis 3:8). Contra ancient Gnostic heresies, Christianity teaches that this world is both fundamentally “good,” having been created by an all-good Creator (Genesis 1:31), as well as cursed, having been subjected to futility and death by God due to man’s sin (Genesis 3:17; Romans 8:18–22).
Elon Musk’s ambitions to “occupy Mars” notwithstanding, the authors of Scripture do not encourage us to seek refuge from the troubles of life on our rebel “silent planet”1 by colonizing, and inevitably despoiling, other planets (1 Corinthians 5:9–11):
“I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.”
Instead of embracing a form of escapism, God intends Christians to remain engaged in the everyday life of this world—becoming neither overly engrossed in it2 nor a party to its sins—as preserving, savory salt and illuminating, disinfecting light (Matthew 5:13–16).
This is because, from a Christian perspective, the main problem with the world is not the world itself but rather how sinful humans have mismanaged it as God’s delegated authorities over creation (Genesis 1:28). Christians should not seek to check out of the world either through a supposed pre-tribulational rapture or otherwise. Instead, our prayer must ever and always be “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven” (Matthew 6:10, emphasis mine).
Thus, while the Bible assumes believers will live most of their lives in the world,3 in another sense the Bible is adamant that we not live of the world, that is, according to the patterns of thinking, speaking, and doing that characterize fallen worldly cultures and the systems they produce (Romans 12:2):
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing, and perfect will.”
Or, as the New Living Translation (NLT) renders this verse:
“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.”
When considering the world in this latter sense, Christians are called not to conform (“Do not conform to the pattern of this world…”), but rather to transform (“…but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”).
One the one hand, we refuse to go along with the practices of the “wicked and adulterous generation” (Matthew 12:39, 16:4; Luke 11:29) of “this present evil age” (Galatians 1:4). When it comes to either committing or condoning sin and worldly compromise, Christians must not yield even an inch.
On the other hand, we refuse to disengage from the needs of a lost and dying world that desperately needs salvation, seeking as a first priority the inner transformation of the Spirit through the regeneration and sanctification of individuals and, as a second priority, the outward ripple effects of individual salvation in the corporate reformation of the family, Church, and body politic.
Thus, when we as Christians are asked what we do and why we do it, it simply won’t do to reply “Because that’s what everyone in the world does and that’s why everyone does it!” Those facts alone should be cause for great concern given that most everyone in a sinful world acts sinfully! As Mark Twain wisely counseled “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to reform (or pause and reflect).”
Put simply, Christians are called to be different, or as the Bible puts it, holy, altogether distinct and separate from the mainstream impulses and behaviors that characterize the world (1 Peter 2:9):
“But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that you should show forth the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”
It is because we as Christians are distinct from the world with respect to its greatest problem, sin, that we can be of service to the world with respect to its greatest need, salvation.
What in the world?
The next logical question before us is “When the Apostle John commands us to ‘not love the world or the things in the world’ (1 John 2:15, emphasis mine), what sort of ‘things’ does he have in mind?” The general answer can be found in what John says immediately following this command (1 John 2:16, emphasis mine):
“For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.”
As with “the world, the flesh, and the devil,” the things of the world can be summed up in another infamous Biblical triad: “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (ibid.), or as the NLT puts it, “a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions.” In other words, the things that the world has to offer us pertain largely to what a man feels, what a man has, and what a man does. These are the sorts of things that make for an impressive resume in the eyes man, but which carry little to no weight in the eyes of God.
What this means is that in order to live a life that is pleasing to God in this world (2 Corinthians 5:9), Christians must learn to eschew the very things that the world holds out to us as being of utmost importance in securing our happiness and self-worth, “For what is prized among men is detestable before God” (Luke 16:15). Learning to value what God values thus entails unlearning the world’s values since they are constantly programmed into us through things like modern mass advertising.4
Satan, the “god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4), wants us continually engaged in a never-ending rat race to beat our neighbors in our collective striving for the American Dream™. The trouble is, upon approaching that dream, it turns out to be a nightmare, a frenetic “chasing after the wind” (Ecclesiastes 1:14) that consumes all of our thoughts and energies only to leave us just as empty and insecure in the end as we were in the beginning.
Notice also that we are warned against “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1 John 2:16, emphasis mine). Though God made our physical bodies (Genesis 1:27, 31) and we ought to take a right kind of pride in carrying out our God-given responsibilities through the strength that He provides (Deuteronomy 8:18; 1 Corinthians 9:15; Galatians 6:4; Colossians 1:29; 1 Peter 4:11; etc.), nevertheless our ever-craving fallen nature (“the lust of the flesh”), our never-satisfied eyes (“the lust of the eyes”; Proverbs 27:20; Ecclesiastes 1:8), and our never-ending ladder climbing (“the pride of life”) will never yield the peaceful contentment that God gives to those who serve Him and others rather than their own selfish lusts (Philippians 4:11–13; 1 Timothy 6:6–8; Hebrews 13:5; James 4:3).
To be sure, the Bible is strongly in favor of both desire and ambition5 (Romans 12:11; 1 Corinthians 14:1; 1 Thessalonians 4:11; 1 Peter 1:22; etc.), but they must originate from God, maintain their proper place, and direct themselves to things of value in God’s book, rather than the world’s.
Below, in no particular order, and in concrete terms, are some of the most common “things in the world” that the modern world presents to us as the “be-all and end-all” of life, but which we as Christians must refuse to fall in love with, even while using them judiciously for God’s glory:
Career. After “Who are you?” the most common follow-up question for sizing up a person in modern American culture is “What do you do?” meaning, of course, something like “What is your current professional vocation?” Not one’s vocation (literally “calling” or “summons”) as a devoted husband, wife, or parent, or even one’s high calling as a Christian or elder in a local church—you know, the things you do in life that are actually the most meaningful.
Rather the question invariably refers to that “hamster-treadmill of contemporary life, which energetic and restless device often goes by the name of ‘career’” says professor and social critic Anthony Esolen, adding, “I like the old meaning of ‘career,’ which suggested undirected racing, or careening from one wall to another.”6 In our culture, what one does from “9 to 5,” “for a living,” that is, to make income and pay one’s “fair share” like a good little worker bee, is quite literally who you are.
Worldly approach: “Hustle culture,” which promotes an extreme imbalance in how one views and defines oneself, ignoring or distorting the fullness of what it means to live a truly good human life. This approach compels its devotees to work 24/7, frequently on holidays (literally “holy days”) and at ungodly hours of the night, ignoring the ancient wisdom of the sabbath and liturgical calendar feasts. This approach pays lip service to the false dichotomy known as “work-life balance” while in reality serving as a kind of crass “careerism,” a false religion in which one’s career becomes his or her god, conferring ultimate meaning and identity, while attempting—and failing—to answer life’s most pressing existential questions.
Christian approach: Working “as unto the Lord” as a servant of Christ, rather than as a mere “wage slave” of men (Colossians 3:23, 24, cf. Ephesians 6:5–8):
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”
The Christian approach to work sees it as part of God’s original, good design for mankind (Genesis 2:15), rejecting both halves of the worldly saying “I don’t live to work; I work to live.” Rather, the Christian lives for the glory of Christ in whatever he or she does (1 Corinthians 10:31; Philippians 1:21; etc.), understanding work as an integral part—though not the whole—of what it means to be a Christ-like image-bearer of God.
As traditions like the “Protestant work ethic” attest, Christians embrace work, even hard work (Ecclesiastes 9:10; 2 Thessalonians 3:8; etc.), the kind that leaves one feeling exhausted in a good way, as both ennobling to the human spirit and conducive to the restorative sleep of the righteous (Psalm 127:1, 2):
“Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for He gives to His beloved sleep.”
Following God’s pattern in creation (Exodus 20:9–11), Christians enjoy both productive work and regular, sweet Sabbath rest (Mark 2:27) as we look forward to the ultimate rest for God’s people when God’s kingdom is finally, fully, and forever established on earth (Hebrews 4:1–13). Our careers a but a partial, momentary glimpse into these glorious, eternal realities.
Money. Closely related to the first point, since careers are often measured by their sheer earning power, money is also worshipped in our culture as the god “mammon,” the principle bestower of nearly every other thing on this list. To the world, money represents security, the kind of peace without which we simply cannot enjoy the simple pleasures everyday life. Of course, this is a lie filthier than lucre itself (Proverbs 23:5; Acts 8:20; 1 Timothy 3:3, 8; Titus 1:7, 11; 1 Peter 5:2) and represents an unbridgeable divide (Luke 16:26) between those who trust in God from the heart and those who merely have “in God we trust” on their currency.
Worldly approach: Make as much money as you can as fast as you can cutting as many corners as you can for as long as you can. Money, not God, calls the shots in one’s life. If money demands that one violate one’s conscience, shamefully neglect one’s family and friends, or violate the laws of one’s God or country, then so be it. When the rich young ruler chose his temporal riches over the eternal riches of Christ (Colossians 2:2, 3), according to the world, he made the wise investment (Matthew 19:22; Mark 10:22).
Christian approach: The Christian view of money can be summed up by the timeless words of 1 Timothy 6:10:
“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”
Thus, Christians ought to handle money with profound circumspection and even wariness. Jesus went so far as to proclaim divine judgment on the wealthy, saying “woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort,” making this very same point in His parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:25). Indeed, Jesus explicitly commanded His followers not to “store up treasures on earth” (Matthew 6:19), stating that it was practically impossible for the rich to be saved (Matthew 19:24; Mark 10:25; Luke 18:25) due to their foolishly short-sighted approach to life and eternity (Luke 12:20). In sum, according to Jesus, you can either serve Him or you can serve money, but you cannot serve both (Matthew 6:24).
If all that sounds a bit too extreme for your tastes, then I’m afraid the Apostles and early Church witnesses will do little to alleviate your concerns.
The Apostle James had perhaps the most dire warnings of all for the rich in his epistle (James 5:1–6, cf. James 2:1–7):
“Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you.”
The early church, including in the time of the book of Acts (Acts 2:45, 3:6, etc.) and thereafter, shared this same antipathy towards the hoarding of earthly riches. For example, an early Christian manual known as the Didache (late 1st to early 2nd century AD), echoing Jesus’s own words (Matthew 5:25, 18:34; Luke 6:24, 12:58; Acts 20:35; etc.), says of giving and receiving:
“Blessed is he who gives charitably according to the commandment, for he is blameless. Woe to him who receives. If a needy man receives charity, he is blameless, but anyone is not in need will be called to account for why he accepted it. And being imprisoned, he will be interrogated concerning his actions, and he will not be released until he has repaid every last penny. Indeed, it has also been said: Let your alms sweat in your hands, until you have discerned to whom you will give.”7
Yet even according to the Apostles, the Christian is not compelled to sell all his or her possessions absent the Lord’s specific calling to do so (Acts 5:4). The average Christian therefore ought to seek neither poverty nor riches (Proverbs 30:8), but rather contentment in what he has (Hebrews 13:5), provision for the needs of his family (1 Timothy 5:8), and leftover funds to help those in need beyond that (Ephesians 4:28), and even then not under compulsion (2 Corinthians 9:7) or to their own impoverishment (2 Corinthians 8:12–15).
Possessions. According to the received cultural wisdom, the point of having a career and earning money is basically to acquire more stuff, because naturally, the more stuff one has, the happier one will be. Americans are notoriously consumeristic in their approach to life and this mentality has bled over significantly into the life of the Church, most notoriously in the heretical “prosperity gospel.”
Worldly approach: Malcolm Forbes’s dictum “He who dies with the most toys wins” nicely captures the worldly approach to possessions. It is gross, unadulterated materialism in all its greedy glory (Philippians 3:19).
Christian approach: Jesus warns us “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions” (Luke 12:15) adding “Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?” (Matthew 6:25, cf. Luke 12:23). Indeed, the Lord asks all those who would sell themselves out for mere earthly gains (Matthew 16:26; cf. Mark 8:36, Luke 9:25):
“What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?”
Sex and entertainment. Seen as both the highest good and most natural approach to life—“maximize pleasure, minimize pain”8—the hedonistic pursuit of pleasure through sex and entertainment nevertheless leaves us feeling empty, guilty, and adrift. As Christian polymath Blaise Pascal once observed “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”9 Keep in mind that he said this long before the age of the smartphone.
American culture is saturated with sexually-stimulating entertainment and all of it on demand at our fingertips, any time, any place. Next to survival, reproduction is purported by scientists to be the most fundamental driving force of bodily, organic life. And yet, a life lived merely for base, animalistic ends or vain, fleeting trivialities, as the old preacher and hedonist par excellence Solomon reminds us, is literally “meaningless” (Ecclesiastes 1:2).
Worldly approach: Either sexually promiscuous or altogether frigid, a “binge watcher” or a pharisaical ascetic. One the one extreme, we glut ourselves with illicit pleasures (Proverbs 7:18), while on the other we avoid even healthy pleasures to our detriment (Colossians 2:23). Both the hedonist and the ascetic exchange the costly relational investments with God and our fellow man that true and lasting pleasure entail for their ephemeral, carnal substitutes.
Christian approach: Leonard Ravenhill once said that “Entertainment is the devil’s substitute for joy. The more joy you have in the Lord the less entertainment you need.” Christians are neither too high, nor too low, on sex and entertainment. Sex in marriage is both “very good” and commanded (Genesis 1:27, 28, 31; 1 Corinthians 7:5), but it ends at death and will not continue into eternity (Matthew 22:30; Romans 7:2: 1 Corinthians 7:39). Likewise, while wholesome and edifying forms of recreation, leisure, and entertainment10 are essential to healthy living and human culture, as gods “their wrath is awful.”11 Scripture, common sense, and experience all tell us that the motto “If it feels good, do it” is a recipe for disaster.
Power. As a reaction to pietistic, retreatist, and pacifist tendencies in some quarters of the Church, a growing number of Christians are now advocating for a more robust, muscular, in-your-face engagement with civil and political authority. “Why are Christians so afraid of power?” they often wonder.
While a refusal to exercise right and proper authority in the family, Church, and state is indeed an abdication of our duties as Christians, not to mention as American citizens, so too are the Machiavellian, Nietzschean, Schmittian, and even Marxist powerplays now promoted by formerly conservative, “post-liberal”12 “Christians”13 that view power as an intrinsic good that must be obtained by any means necessary.
Worldly approach: The creaturely “will to power” must be harnessed to impose one’s will upon others supposedly for supposed “common good.” Power must be obtained and retained at all costs. Any means justify these ends, including all manner of dishonesty, corruption, intimidation, and even violence.
Christian approach: Limited power must be exercised by lawful civil and ecclesiastical authorities in their respective secular and sacred domains of authority (Matthew 22:21; Mark 12:17; Luke 20:25) in order to secure and protect the ordinary, everyday blessings of the lives of free citizens, which are theirs by right of nature and nature’s God. Instead of “lording” their authority over their subjects for their own benefit (Matthew 20:25; Mark 10:42; Luke 22:25), Jesus’s teachings and example as the “King of kings and Lord of lords” (Revelation 19:16) show us that a godly ruler must first and foremost be the “primer minister” (literally “first” or “chief servant”) of his people.
Wisdom. In an increasingly complex, rapidly changing world of information technology and artificial intelligence, recall of facts is often mistaken for authentic knowledge and understanding. But data does not interpret itself, much less determine how one ought to act in light of it. For that, we must acquire, above all else, wisdom (Proverbs 4:7). But there are two kinds of wisdom: one that comes from below and one that comes from above (James 3:13–18):
“Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such ‘wisdom’ does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.
But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.”
Thus, worldly wisdom, even if it does have a kind of cynical, self-serving truth to it, bears no resemblance to true heavenly wisdom, which comes from a divine perspective that transcends all the small-minded sophistry that passes for wisdom among the intelligentsia of this age (1 Corinthians 1:20–25).
Worldly approach: Obsesses over reductionistic readouts of intelligence14 and the trendy advice of the day to advance one’s social and material status. As with Mr. Worldly Wiseman’s advice to Christian in John Bunyan’s classic The Pilgrim’s Progress, such wisdom may be perfectly logical, yet it leads to blatantly false conclusions. This is because worldly wisdom rests on faulty premises that neglect the most important consideration of all: God.15
The wisdom of the world sets before us precepts such as “Carpe diem!” (“Seize the day!”), “Grab the bull by the horns,” and “You only live once” (aka, “YOLO”), not accounting for the facts that man must wait upon the Lord’s timing in all things (Psalm 27:14; John 7:6; etc.) and that our present lives are but a vapor compared to our eternal destinies (Psalm 73; James 4:14).
Likewise, sayings like “Never talk religion or politics,” “Let sleeping dogs lie,” or “Pick your battles,” while pragmatic for those desiring to avoid personal conflict of any kind, are not the kind of noble, magnanimous sentiments that principled men of God live by, even when it costs them (Leviticus 19:17; Psalm 15:4; Ephesians 4:14, 15; etc.).
Christian approach: Seeing wisdom as something fundamentally from, of, and for God that yields benefits not only in this life (e.g., Psalm 103:2), but especially in the life to come. This perspective enables believers to accept setbacks and even great suffering for the time being given their eternal rewards in heaven and beyond (Mark 10:29, 30; 1 Corinthians 15:19; 2 Corinthians 4:17, 5:10; Philippians 3:10, 11; Hebrews 11:35; etc.). God’s wisdom sets us free from being perpetual prisoners of the moment.
“Not so the wicked” (Psalm 1:4). Such lofty considerations do not even begin to enter the unbeliever’s thinking, since his mind is fixated entirely on the here and now while the believer’s mind is fixed on things above (Colossians 3:2).
In fact, so essential is the fear and knowledge of God to obtaining wisdom that in a very real sense the non-Christian has not even taken the first step toward the path of true wisdom, much less set foot on it, much less travelled down it for any length of time (Proverbs 1:7, 9:10):
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. […]
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”
Recognition. Perhaps the most rare and coveted commodity in today’s economy is attention. With digital distractions at an all-time high and attention spans at an all-time low, holding the average app user’s interest for longer than about ten seconds is a remarkably difficult task. To garner a following among the practically limitless podcast and social media offerings, people today will resort to almost anything to stand out and gain recognition.
Worldly approach: Principles only get in the way of the rapid, constant demands of fame and notoriety. First, gain a following by ingratiating yourself to the major “influencers,” the real “movers and shakers,” in your field of endeavor. Then, once invited into the inner circle, never criticize the other members of the circle no matter how absurd and immoral they become for fear of losing their imprimatur and, potentially, your share of their following. Next, grow your audience by intentionally ginning up artificial controversy through outlandish and taboo claims, conspiratorial intrigue, and extreme vulgarity to really shock those “Boomer” sensibilities (“épater la bourgeoisie!”).16 Finally, stay relevant by being on the cutting-edge vanguard of each new fad, rushing to be among the first and loudest to adopt it while pretending to have been advocating for it all along.
Christian approach: Jesus clearly never suffered from “audience capture.” At times, His following was large, at other times, quite small. Regardless, He always spoke the truth and let the chips fall where they may (Mark 12:14; John 2:24, 6:60–71; etc.). He cautioned those who would follow Him to make sure that they knew what they were getting into (Matthew 8:18–22). He went out of His way to encourage people not to get the word out about His miraculous deeds (Matthew 8:4, 12:16, 17, 19; Mark 5:43, 7:36; Luke 8:56). There was no “fine print” in His gospel summons.
And yet, without the use of force or military might (Matthew 26:52; John 18:36), like a tiny seed or a small pinch of leaven (Luke 13:18–21) Christ’s kingdom would eventually conquer Rome, spread across the entire globe, and grow from an initial following of about 120 disciples (Acts 1:15) to the largest world religion in history, and all due to the saving power of the Gospel and the Holy Spirit (John 16:7–11; Romans 1:16).
Jesus showed us how to gain “glory, honor, and immortality” (Romans 2:6, 7) God’s way: lose the world, and even your very life, for God’s glory and for His kingdom, and you will never be forgotten (Matthew 6:4, 6, 18, 10:42, 16:25, 26; Mark 8:35, 36, 9:41; Hebrews 6:10; Revelation 22:12, cf. Malachi 3:16). God Himself will honor you (John 12:26).
Worlds apart
As the preceding list should make abundantly clear, the worldly approach to life in this world could not be further apart from the Christian approach. Adam defined the first, earthly race, but Christ, “the last Adam” (1 Corinthians 15:45), redefines all who are found in Him as an entirely new, heavenly people (Romans 5:12–21; 1 Corinthians 15:21, 22, 45). Therefore, just as Christ came from heaven to earth to make all things new (John 3:13, 6:38, 41; Revelation 21:5; etc.), Christians are called to live in this world as those who are from, and destined for, a new and better world, for (1 Corinthians 15:47–49):
“The first man [Adam] was of the dust of the earth; the second man [Christ] is of heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.”
The one thing that makes all the difference in the world between worldly, godless approaches to life and heavenly, godly approaches is simply finding it worthwhile to retain and seek the knowledge of God in our lives (Jeremiah 29:13; Romans 1:28) and to live consistently with such knowledge in all of our thoughts, words, and deeds (e.g., 1 Corinthians 10:31). Doing so allows us to relate to our careers, money, possessions, etc. in their rightful place beneath the Lordship of Christ without making either too much (e.g., idolatry, hedonism, etc.) or too little (e.g., Gnosticism, asceticism, etc.) of them. Failing to do so results in an ever-worsening spiral of ignorance, sin, and judgment (Romans 1:21–23, 28, 29):
“For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. […]
Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity.”
The reality is we live in a wheat and tares world, with Christians and non-Christians, both inside and outside the Church, being stuck with one another until the final judgment (Matthew 13:24–43). However, despite occupying the same planet, in a very real sense believers and unbelievers inhabit different worlds altogether, indeed different universes.
According to the former, all of creation testifies to the manifold wisdom, power, and glory of God (Psalm 19:1, 104:24, etc.), and thus we owe Him everything as both our Creator and Redeemer (1 Corinthians 6:19, 20):
“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.”
According to the latter, all of the order and complexity of creation came together serendipitously on its own out of the chaos and confusion of the Big Bang. Thus, we are ultimately accountable to no one, are destined finally for nowhere, and must salvage our own nihilistic meaning out of nothing (Isaiah 22:13; Ecclesiastes 8:15; 1 Corinthians 15:32): “Let us eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die!”
This is the essence of sin, which one catechism has defined as “rejecting or ignoring God in the world He created, rebelling against Him by living without reference to Him, [and] not being or doing what He requires in His law—resulting in our death and the disintegration of all creation.”17
These are the options before us: give glory to the Creator or tear open a seam in the fabric of creation whose fraying threads, if pulled long enough, will unravel the entire cosmos.
Two final exhortations are appropriate here.
One of the more tragic, but often missed, side stories of the Bible involves Paul and one of his loyal co-laborers, Demas. Once a faithful companion of the Apostle Paul on his various missionary journeys, along with other notable men like Luke and Mark (Philemon 1:23, 24; Colossians 4:14), Paul later informs Timothy that “Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica” (2 Timothy 4:10, emphasis mine).
Though Scripture does not record how Demas’s story ultimately ends, deep down, as his name suggests,18 he seems to have been a man of the popular majority, with his impulse to go along with the crowd overwhelming his call to live as a sojourner and exile in this world (Psalm 39:12; Hebrews 11:13; 1 Peter 2:11; etc.).
Brothers and sisters, don’t be a “Demas.”
As Christians we are pilgrims in this world. Our citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20). Like Abraham, we are “looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:10, cf. Revelation 21:2), “For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come” (Hebrews 13:14).
Do you see the distant gaze in Christian’s eyes in the engraving above based on a famous scene from Pilgrim’s Progress? You can see a similar gaze in the illustration below. Dear Christian, though you too may currently find yourself assaulted on every side by the worldly temptations of Vanity Fair, remember, never lose your heavenward gaze.
Like Stephen, those who belong to this world may hate you for your angelic visage, ever beholding your Father in heaven (Matthew 18:10; Acts 6:15, 7:55, 56). They may say you’re “So heavenly minded you’re no earthly good.” Let them. Indeed, (Matthew 5:12):
“Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
We know the destiny of this world and its lusts. We know the destiny of those who faithfully finish their pilgrimage on the narrow, difficult road to life (Matthew 7:14). Truly, they are worlds apart.
“The world is passing away and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God will live forever.”
—John, 1 John 2:17
Rotting, stinking flesh
We have covered Satan and his lies as well as those of the world. Next, we turn our attention inward to the decaying, spiritual “enemy within,” namely, our fallen flesh. Find out what the flesh is, what it isn’t, and what its main calling cards are in the next installment of the League of Believers.
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Praying for us and the message we are bringing to the Church (2 Thessalonians 3:1).
A phrase used by C. S. Lewis in his “Ransom Trilogy” (aka, “Space Trilogy”) novels to describe Earth (aka, “Thulcandra” in Old Solar) since it was cut off from regular communications with the heavens and its angelic inhabitants (“eldila”) due to its rebellion against the Creator (“Maleldil”). Lewis makes the case in this series of novels that humanity’s untethered lust for supposed “progress,” like “that hideous strength” (a phrase Lewis borrowed from a 1555 poem by Sir David Lyndsay titled “The Monarche”) displayed at the tower of Babel, would, if left unchecked, only further spread our earthly miseries into previously unfallen worlds.
For example, Paul states (1 Corinthians 7:29–31):
“What I mean, brothers and sisters, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they do not; those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.”
Special callings, preparatory seasons, and our Anabaptist brethren aside. Of course, figures like Moses, Elijah, and John the Baptist, not to mention the Israelites as a people, Jesus Christ Himself, and many of His noteworthy followers like Anthony of the Desert, were all called to lengthy, lonely wilderness seasons in their lives. Crucially, however, these seasons of relative isolation were for the sake of their engagement with the world and not in spite of it.
For example, you’ve probably seen the commercial of a man (it’s always a man) contentedly hosing off his truck in his driveway when all of a sudden his neighbor drives up next-door in the latest, greatest truck model to hit the market. Slack-jawed and forlorn, the first man now hangs his head low in shame, mimicking the wilting garden hose in his hand, still rinsing in vain his now useless excuse of a truck.
Covetousness is nothing new, of course (Exodus 20:17), and plays on one of the oldest, most tried-and-true tendencies of fallen human nature (Ecclesiastes 4:4):
“Then I observed that most people are motivated to success because they envy their neighbors. But this, too, is futile—like chasing the wind.”
What is new is the volume, consistency, and phycological and technological sophistication with which we are bombarded with such envy-stoking messaging. As the billions of dollars spent annually on advertising attest, there is big money in the business of covetousness.
In fact, if anything, as C. S. Lewis famously noted in his address “The Weight of Glory”:
“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
Anthony Esolen, “Sexual Being: The Love of Purity Opens Our Minds to a Radiant Mystery,” Touchstone.
Didache: The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles. Chapter I. “The Two Ways.”
The organizing principle of utilitarianism, a philosophy championed by the likes of Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill.
Pensées.
Including performing and visual arts, educational and classic literature and film, outdoor activities, games, etc.
An oft-quoted phrase from Cynthia Heimel’s essay “1980–1989: The Celebrity Decade,” The Village Voice.
Mirroring the so-called “illiberal” (as opposed to classically liberal) or “regressive left” (as opposed to progressive) that rose to prominence on the political left a decade ago.
These scare quotes are warranted since such individuals pervert true Christianity into a dialectical, and even explicitly diabolical, political tool, using their false professions of faith for purely cynical, pragmatic purposes.
Such as IQ points, standardized test scores, college degrees, etc.
Think of all the “but God” verses in Scripture where mere earthly conclusions are completely overturned in light of a God who can do all things (Matthew 19:26): “Jesus looked at them intently and said, ‘Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible.’”
A French saying meaning “to scandalize the respectable middle classes.”
The New City Catechism, Question 16, “What is Sin?”
Demas, a Greek name, means “popular,” “of the people,” or “belonging to the people,” being related to the root word dēmos (δῆμος), meaning “the people,” “country,” or “population,” as in the word “democracy.”