"The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life [this world] and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful." {Mt 13:22}
"You are of this world; I am not of this world." {John 8:23}
"The world cannot accept Him [Holy Spirit], because it neither sees Him nor knows Him." {John 14:17}
"If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated Me first." {John 15:18}
"If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you." {John 15:19}
"In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." {John 16:33}
"They are not of the world, even as I am not of it." {John 17:16}
I make no comment on
those texts. They speak for themselves. If any one can read them
carefully, and fail to see that "the world" is an enemy to the
Christian’s soul, and that there is an utter opposition between the
friendship of the world and the friendship of Christ, he is past the
reach of argument, and it is a waste of time to reason with him. To my
eyes they contain a lesson as clear as the sun at
I turn from Scriptures to matters of fact and experience. I appeal to
any old Christian who keeps his eyes open, and knows what is going on
in the Churches. I ask him whether it is not true that nothing damages
the cause of Christianity so much as "the world?" It is not open sin,
or open unbelief, which robs Christ of His professing servants, so much
as the love of the world, the fear of the world, the cares of the
world, the business of the world, the money of the world, the pleasures
of the world, and the desire to keep in with the world. This is the
great rock on which thousands of young people are continually being
crushed against and destroyed. They don’t object to any of the truths
of the Christian faith. They do not deliberately choose evil, and
openly rebel against God. They hope somehow to get to heaven in the
end; and they think it is proper to have some religion. But they cannot
give up their idol: they must have the world. And so after running well
and longing for heaven while boys and girls, they turn aside when they
become men and women, and go down the broad way which leads to
destruction. They begin with Abraham and Moses, and end with Demas and
The last day alone will prove how many souls "the world" has slain. Hundreds will be found to have been trained in Christian homes, and to have known the Gospel from their very childhood, and yet missed heaven. They left the harbor of home with bright prospects, and launched forth on the ocean of life with a father’s blessing and a mother’s prayers, and then turned from the right course through the seductions of the world, and ended their voyage on the reef and in misery. It is a sorrowful story to tell; but it is all too common! I can clearly see why Paul says, “Come out from them and be separate.”
