Worldliness and the Friendship of God

If you’re a faithful follower of Jesus today, try this experiment: Imagine that in five years you have completely walked away from Jesus.

You’re not questioning or struggling or arguing anymore. You’re not wrestling with whether to stay or leave the church. You never open the Bible. You have almost no impulse to pray. You’re shutting out anyone and everyone who wants to talk about God. You’re just gone. All the way gone.

I hope it feels horrible, even unimaginable. I’m not exaggerating when I say nothing worse could happen to you (Revelation 14:11).

If you’re honest in this hypothetical horror, what do you suspect might have led you away? What could have possibly drowned your once-strong love for Jesus?

You might immediately assume some stubborn sin, or an especially painful relationship, or something in the Bible that never sat right with you. Sadly, souls discard Jesus every day for all kinds of awful reasons.

If you forced yourself to list a dozen serious threats to your faith, would you think to list the risk of worldliness? Do you ever fear that you would love this world too much to keep loving Jesus? Too few of us fear enough.

Could You Be Demas?

We know how dangerous worldliness can be because God gave us Demas. He inspired the apostle Paul to report, “Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me” (2 Timothy 4:10). Demas once seemed to be an unusually strong, devoted, and fruitful lover of Jesus (Colossians 4:14) — a bold and effective minister of the gospel! — but he kept nibbling at the wrong buffets. And as he nibbled, an unholy hunger grew and grew until he spat Jesus out of his mouth. Paul watched his once-close friend die by short-lived pleasure.

Worldliness is loving what the world loves at the expense of what God loves. Sometimes, worldliness is a love for something bad — drunkenness, gossip, violence, pornography. Often, it’s a distorted and disproportionate love for something good — family, food, career, sex. The unbelieving world loves those things, but in ways that defy God and deface all he loves — his word, his Son, his church. Do you love any calling, hobby, or relationship in such a way that it has started to erode the most important loves? Do you see hints of Demas’s descent anywhere in your life?

• Do you find your thought life being devoured by work?
• Do you spend hours and hours with your family and rarely talk about Jesus?
• Do you never miss your favorite show, but you struggle to find time to pray?
• Do you drag your feet to get to church and rush home to catch the game?

“Worldliness is loving what the world loves at the expense of what God loves.”

Jesus warns us about the seed that falls among the thorns of worldliness: “They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful” (Mark 4:18–19). He’s describing soul suffocation — the sharp tentacles of worldliness slowly wrapping themselves around a heart and strangling out hope, joy, and love. It’s horrifying. Why would anyone ever let that happen?

Because Satan knows all too well how to make worldly anxieties seem bigger than God (Matthew 4:2–3), and he schemes to make earthly pleasures seem sweeter than God (Genesis 3:4–5). “This world is all that really matters,” he whispers. And if we believe him, we end up wanting the world God made — but hold the God, please.

Four Dangers of Worldliness

When this temptation comes — and it will come — will we cave and run like Demas, or will we fight for the only love that will truly satisfy? God arms us to face the deadly thorns:

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 of life — is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. (1 John 2:15–17)

Do not love the world. Worldliness, these verses teach us, deceives us, defiles us, disappoints us, and eventually destroys us.

1. Worldliness will deceive us.

Do not love the world or the things in the world. . . . For all that is in the world — the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life — is not from the Father but is from the world. (1 John 2:15–16)

When John says world here, he’s not talking about the world as God made it, but the world in rebellion against him. Don’t love the world’s way of living in this world, the world’s way of taking what is good, twisting it, and subtracting God from it.

Through worldliness, our enemy weaves the subtle lie that because God made all this (whatever “this” is vying for our devotion), of course it’s spiritually good for us. John warns, though, “All that is in the world . . . is not from the Father but is from the world” (verse 16). Some people leach joy from God’s world in ways he didn’t intend — in ways that belittle him. They take something glorious God made, melt it down, and then form it into an ugly, lifeless god meant to replace him. Whatever that is, it’s not from the Father.

2. Worldliness will defile us.

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. (1 John 2:15)

Those who love the world lose the Father’s love. As we believe and indulge in the lies, worldliness corrupts us. “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other” (Matthew 6:24). The human soul doesn’t have room for both the Spirit of God and any competing master — Buddha or approval, Brahma or shopping, Allah or sex. A devotion to any other master is an invitation to all manner of evil. Whatever masters you shapes you, for better or worse — and if it’s anyone or anything other than God, it’s emphatically worse.

3. Worldliness will disappoint us.

The world is passing away along with its desires. (1 John 2:17)

The world may satisfy you for a moment, but however good it feels in that moment, the satisfaction will not last. It’s true that the pleasures in the meal, the show, and the sexual experience are all painfully short, always leaving you starving (Ecclesiastes 2:1–2). John’s point here is bigger, though: The whole world is passing away. If you put your chips in this planet, you’re going to be terribly disappointed. It’s all going away — and soon. Everything good in this world is pleading with you to look for satisfaction elsewhere: in the one who made this world.

4. Worldliness will destroy us.

But whoever does the will of God abides forever. (1 John 2:17)

Look at the contrast: “The world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” The world that’s passing away isn’t just stuff — it’s people. It includes whoever doesn’t do the will of God. Not everyone abides forever. Many, many souls are perishing, and they will perish forever with no relief or end. That’s what the short-lived pleasure of worldliness costs.

Better to Lose the World

The apostle James adds his voice to those of Jesus and John: “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4). And with that severe warning, we receive an invitation: instead of befriending the world and its love, befriend God and his promises. Worship him, and everything he has made becomes another ray of his light and an invitation to enjoy more of him.

Where the world twists and deceives, God never lies. Where the world defiles, God redeems and purifies. Where all those competing masters disappoint, God satisfies — fully and forever: “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11). And where the world destroys, God renews and offers eternal life.

Do not love the world or things of this world. Don’t give in to unholy anxiety or gratification that slowly waters down your faith and joy. Seek first the kingdom of God and his friendship, and you’ll gain so much more than the world has ever known.