Most of us have an idea in our minds of what “worldliness” does or doesn’t look like. But, worldliness comes in many forms and has many faces. Worldliness is life without God. It is when He is not part of our thinking, our calculations, or our moment by moment life orientations. It can come in the form of self indulgent paganism or it can come in the form of self righteous phariseeism. It is when we are living life on a horizontal plane rather than on a vertical plane – one that is God—focused.
We are challenged more than ever before to live with that vertical focus. Even technology seems to pull us down to a constant barrage of messages that preoccupy us with the horizontal view. We lose touch with a right view of God and the ability to respond to that right view. And we become worldly… even when are “doing God’s work.”
Last week I challenged our students with how Christ has rescued and continues to rescue us from this present evil age. If you have time, you can listen to it here. And if you haven’t taken a look at the small book, Worldliness, by C.J. Mahaney, I would recommend you pick that up as well.