In this “Investigating a Legalist” series I have not surfaced an obvious question that I’d like to put forth now. The fundamental question that needs to be asked is Where is worldliness found?
Is it in the world? Or is it somewhere else?
This is a huge question and how you answer it will determine your Christian worldview: how you view and practice life as a Christian. Your “system” of Christian practice will flow from how you answer this question. How you evangelize, interact with your culture, lead your wife, parent your kids, pray to God, read your Bible, confess your sins, relate to your local church and more will be affected by where you place worldliness in your system.
I’ve hinted at my answer in an earlier post by looking at the Gnostic’s answer to the worldliness question. The Gnostic and Legalist have a similar worldview. They both would see the world as bad and the spiritual as good. Therefore, they both separate from the world and encourage others to do similarly.
I propose to you that worldliness is not primarily external, in the world itself, if at all. Once upon a time I thought it was in the world and the logical outworking of my belief and practice was to draw lines between me and my culture, separation from my culture. I did not learn this from my observations of Christ. However, this was what I was taught and I lived my Christian life accordingly. I was taught the contrived doctrine of separation, which led me to separate from my world. I knew that Jesus embedded himself in his culture, but that mattered little to me.
And it worked for me except for those points where I had to interact with my world because I could not realistically and completely separate myself from my world. Needless to say I had a tenuous relationship with my world. By tenuous I mean I was a Christian with a bad (Read: self-righteous) attitude toward my world. “I might live here, but I don’t have to like it.” It was joyless.
One may ask, “Should I draw lines between me and worldliness? Should I separate?” Yes! Absolutely! I think I should separate from worldliness. The question then becomes, where should I draw the line or where is worldliness?
The answer to that question has changed for me over the years. Where I used to draw a line between me and my culture I now draw between me and my heart. Over the years I have relocated my understanding of worldliness. I’m less likely to embrace the Gnostic approach of seeing worldliness in my culture, but rather I now see it in my heart. I get this from my re-understanding of worldliness according to 1 John 2:15-16. John, the beloved Christian, seems to locate worldliness not in the world, but in the heart or as he defines worldliness, i.e. desires, lust and pride. John said,
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 desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions–is not from the Father but is from the world. -1 Jn. 2:15-16
Desires (or lusts) and pride in the Bible are synonyms for sinful heart attitudes, not external sins. Pride and lust are inward. John describes this as worldliness. John places worldliness inside the person. John tells us not to love the world or the things in the world. And then he sets out to describe what is in the world. He does this by talking about pride, lusts, desires and sinful heart attitudes. For John, this is worldliness. This is how worldliness is described and/or defined for him.
John is not teaching in this text that I should draw a line primarily between me and my world. It’s not necessarily about where I go, what I wear, who I hang with, what I say, what I eat or what I drink. The danger of drawing the line in these external areas is that I could unnecessarily alienate my world from me, which is not only unnecessary but anti-Gospel: Christ came to/into/penetrated the world to save sinners. I was one of those sinners he needed to reach.
In This Series
- Investigating Legalism – Pt 1
- Investigating Legalism – Pt 2
- Investigating Legalism – Pt 3
- Investigating Legalism – Pt 4
- Investigating Legalism – Pt 5
- Investigating Legalism – Pt 6
- Investigating Legalism – Pt 7
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