Worldliness
Worldliness
To elucidate the conception of worldliness in the apostolic writings, we must start from the primary truth that the world is Gods world, His by creation and sustenance, by sovereign purpose and control (see artt. Unity and World). There is in those writings no hint of an absolute dualism and, consequently, none of an absolute principle of asceticism. Nothing is unclean of itself (Rom 14:14). Physical acts and enjoyments neither lie apart from the sphere of the moral life (as in the Gnostic conception of ) nor are they a mere clog and hindrance to it; on the contrary, they have an indispensable part in its development, furnishing occasion in the common daily life for the most effective exercise of the moral nature, in diligence (Eph 4:28) and self-restraint (1Co 9:25), in unselfish consideration for others (1Co 7:3-5; 1Co 8:13, etc.), and in the sense of grateful dependence on God (Rom 14:6, 1Co 10:30-31, Eph 5:20, 1Ti 4:4). Even where St. Pauls utterances, evoked by special emergencies and motives, might plausibly be construed in an opposite sense, his wider ethical doctrine repudiates such interpretation. If in a special situation he seems to deprecate and even disparage marriage and the family-life (1Co 7:1; 1Co 7:7-8; 1Co 7:28; 1Co 7:40), he yet shows unrivalled insight into their ideal significance and their value for spiritual education (Eph 5:22-33; Eph 6:1-9). If he dreads anxious absorption in secular activities as incompatible with single-minded devotion to the Christians spiritual calling (1Co 7:29-31), on the other hand he sees in the earthly calling the sphere within which the spiritual is to be actually accomplished (1Co 7:20, Eph 6:5-9, Col 3:22-25; Col 4:1) and apart from which it cannot (1Th 4:11-12, Eph 4:28, Tit 3:8). He steadily asserts that the Christian must recognize the structure of society as based upon Divine purpose and take his place therein accordingly. While he is bound to exclude from intimacy those who are unsympathetic with his inner life (1Co 5:9), he is by no means to hold aloof from ordinary intercourse with all sorts and conditions of men (1Co 5:10), but here also is to find a field for that exercise of Christian principles and virtues (2Co 1:12, Col 4:5-6) by which he shall shine as a light in the world (Php 2:12; cf. 1Pe 2:15; 1Pe 3:16). And, though St. Paul waxes indignant at those who sued their fellow-Christians before heathen tribunals (1Co 6:1 ff.), he strongly maintains the Christian duty of loyal submission to constituted civil authority (Rom 13:1-7, 1Ti 2:1-3, Tit 3:1; 1Pe 2:13-17). In a higher sense than to other men the world belongs to the Christian (1Co 3:22), as a system of Divinely appointed duties and opportunities, all subservient to the education and development of Christian character-as that apprenticeship in doing the will of God which is most perfectly adapted to his present capabilities and needs (1Co 7:24). This is not merely an end for which the world may be used, but the end for which it exists. All things are of God, but we are unto him (1Co 8:6). It is not as by afterthought or special manipulation that to them that love God all things work together for good, even to them that are called according to his purpose (Rom 8:28; cf. Eph 1:4). Christian character is not a by product of the Cosmos, but its purposed, proper, and eternal end.
But the achievement of this end presupposes devotion to it as the absolute good. It implies that the personality thus environed is dominated by an active faith in God and the spiritual life, by an earnest endeavouring after the new man both for oneself and for others. When these conditions are absent, when life in the world is not inspired by love to God, to the higher self, and to ones neighbour as oneself, it inevitably becomes worldly; and even when these are present, worldliness is a danger still to be guarded against. The terrestrial environment appeals directly not to the spiritual but to the psychical and animal nature, and where, as even in the Christian, life is not entirely emancipated from the bias of sin, whore higher and lower elements mingle and contend, there is necessarily a tendency for the relatively good to displace the absolutely good; and if this tendency is not counteracted and overcome, the uses and enjoyments of the world-innocent in themselves and capable of being elevated to the higher range of values-become the means of chaining life to the lower.
The single passage in the apostolic writings that suggests a psychology of worldliness is 1Jn 2:16, where its constituents are given as the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the vainglory of life. Here it is seen that the world exerts its downward pull upon human nature principally in two ways: by the desire () it excites, and by the false confidence () it inspires.
(a) First, there is the desire of the flesh, the appetite for physical gratification. The vulnerability of human nature on this side is strongly accentuated in the apostolic writings. The sensuality of the pagan world is the subject of unsparing indictment (Rom 1:24 ff., 1Co 6:9-11); but also of degenerate professors of the Christian faith St. Paul writes, even with tears, that their god is their belly (Php 3:19). The Epistles are full of warning against the tyranny of the senses and their attendant appetites (e.g. Rom 13:13, 1Co 6:12-13, Gal 5:19-21, Eph 5:18, Col 3:5, 1Th 4:4-5, 2Ti 2:22; 1Pe 2:11, 2Pe 2:18). But a subtler appeal is to the desire of the eyes, which brings a higher range of material interests into view. The outstanding example is, of course, the lust of possession-covetousness which is idolatry (Col 3:5), a fruitful source of spiritual disaster (1Ti 6:9), a root of all evil (1Ti 6:10), and incompatible with inheritance in the Kingdom of God (Eph 5:5). Less widely destructive, yet harmful, are the lust of vain display in apparel and personal adornment (1Pe 3:3); the lust of idle curiosity, the craving for continual novelty of intellectual sensation (Act 17:21); the lust of pre-eminence (3Jn 1:9) and self-assertion, which produces strife and friction, ambitions and envious rivalry (1Co 1:10-11; 1Co 4:6-7, 2Co 12:20, Gal 5:20, Php 2:3, Jer 3:14; Jer 3:16; Jer 4:1-3).
(b) The second chief element in the worldly temper is what St. John calls the vainglory of life-the delusive satisfaction, the baseless sense of security (atheistic) or of superiority (egoistic) which the attainment of worldly desire engenders. Confidence in the stability of material conditions and circumstances and the security thence begotten take the place of trust in the living God and the peace that passeth all understanding, Men presume upon the prolongation of life, and arrange their future without reference to the Divine will on which moment by moment their being depends (Jam 4:13-15), and thus more readily come to think of their life-work as the doing of their own will rather than Gods. They make riches (1Ti 6:17) their strong tower; they regard the objects of their secular activities as the things that are solid and abiding (1Co 7:29-31, 1Jn 2:18); and thus throw away immortal powers upon what is fugitive and incidental, blind to the truth that the things which are seen and temporal are, in their proper purpose, only the bough that is meant to bear the fruit of things unseen and eternal (2Co 4:18). And no less characteristic of the worldly mind are the uneasiness and distress consequent upon the lack of such sense of security: God-forgetting anxiety, painful and harmful as it is futile (Php 4:6, 1Pe 5:7); repining over worldly losses and disappointments, the sorrow of the world that worketh death (2Co 7:10), reaching its climax in that sense of instability and vanity in all earthly things which, without its counterpoise of faith in spiritual reality, leads directly to the inverted worldliness of pessimism, and by rebound to cynical hedonism-let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die (1Co 15:32).
Again, the vainglory of life exhibits a form which is distinctively egotistical. Successful achievement, the possession of external wealth, or still more of personal gifts and qualities which are an object of desire and envy to others, produce a feeling and attitude of arrogant superiority towards ones fellows, and of self-idolatry in relation to God. The adulation of the populace is fatal to the worldly prince (Act 12:22-23); the rich are tempted to be highminded (1Ti 6:17); the consciousness of superior insight, puffeth up (1Co 8:1) those in whom it is not united with love and a sense of loves responsibilities. Gifts, even of a religious kind (1Co 1:5; 1Co 1:7), unless safeguarded by gratitude, become incitements to arrogance (1Co 4:7-8). And here also, the self-satisfaction which is produced by the sense of possession has its negative counterpart in the no less egotistical discontent and envy which are excited by the consciousness of defect (1Ti 6:4, Tit 3:3, 1Jn 3:15). Finally, this whole view of life, for which spiritual realities are non-existent, finds expression in the wisdom of this world (1Co 1:20, fleshly wisdom, 2Co 1:12), the wisdom whose furthest horizon is that of the present age (1Co 2:6), which moves, however skilfully, only on the plane of material things and interests ( , Php 3:19), and which therefore inspires much self-sufficiency in men (1Co 1:20), to which the Cross of Christ is foolishness (1Co 1:18) but which is itself foolishness with God (1Co 3:19).
As to the general conception, it would be a grave mistake to suppose that worldliness is due simply to the quick responsiveness of human nature to its terrestrial environment. Its sensitiveness to material stimulus is one element in the case; but the determining factor is its insensitiveness to the Divine. The problem of worldliness runs back into the wider and deeper problem of sin. Thus the NT writers see in human worldliness the replica of a type of mind previously existing in the spirit-world, and attribute it, in part at least, to this superhuman source. St. James describes its wisdom as not only earthly and sensuous, but (Jam 3:15). St. Paul identifies the wisdom of the present age with the wisdom of its spirit-rulers, who in their blindness compassed the crucifixion of Christ (1Co 2:6; 1Co 2:8), and ascribes to the god of this aeon the incapacity of men to perceive His Divine glory (2Co 4:4; cf. 1Jn 4:3-6). And this spirit of the world (1Co 2:12), blind to the truth of Christ and antagonistic to His cause, has its social embodiment in that section of mankind which in a more special sense is the world (see art. World). Hence arises a clear and concrete issue. The sincere Christian cannot love the world (1Jn 2:15). It is the home of all opinions, sentiments, and influences which are most inimical to his convictions and aspirations. The programme it lays down for its devotees is wholly incompatible with self-denying love and holy obedience of the followers of Christ (Tit 2:12; 2Pe 1:4, 1Jn 2:15-16). Its friendship is enmity with God (Jam 4:4).
Worldliness, as depicted in the apostolic writings, is not a natural and nave materialism; it is the bondage to the material of a being who is essentially spiritual. Made for fellowship in the life that is Divine and eternal, man craves for satisfactions which the natural use and enjoyment of material good cannot yield; and these he therefore seeks in wanton excess and perversions of nature (Rom 1:21-32). The covetousness of those who have enough, the excesses of sensuality, the unappeasable hunger of vanity and ambition, the unceasing pursuit of excitement, envy, jealousy, the gnawing hatred of others good-all show how the soul, deprived of its proper nutriment, vainly flies to the world for a substitute.
And as the root of the evil is mans unresponsiveness to the higher realities, there must the remedy be applied. The apostolic Epistles abound, indeed, in exhortation to the severance of all correspondences with the lower environment that are unnecessary, or are found in experience to be harmful. But always they find the one effectual antidote to worldliness in the quickening of the spiritual life by faith in Christ crucified, risen and victorious, and in the earnest pursuit of positive Christian ideals (Gal 6:14, Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:13-14, 1Co 10:31, Gal 5:16, Eph 5:1-2; Eph 5:16, Col 3:1-2, 1Ti 6:11, 1Jn 5:4). This is the victory that hath overcome the world, even our faith (1Jn 5:4).
Literature.-H. Bisseker, art. Wordliness In DCG ; A. Ritschl and J. Weiss, art. Welt in PRE 3: A. B. D. Alexander, The Ethics of St. Paul, Glasgow, 1910; R. Law, The Tests of Life3, Edinburgh, 1914, pp. 145 ff., 275 ff.; W. Alexander, The Epistles of St. John, London, 1889, pp. 136 ff., 149 ff.; Phillips Brooks, Sermons. do., 1879, p. 353 ff.; J. Foster. Lectures3, do. 1853, vol. i. p. 11 ff.; J. M, Gibbon, Eternal Life, do., 1890, p. 36 ff.; H. P. Liddon, Easter in St. Pauls, do., 1885, p. 253 ff.; A. Maclaren, After the Resurrection, do., 1902. p. 142 ff., A Years Ministry, 1st ser., do., 1884, p. 85 ff.; J. Martineau, Endeavours after the Christian Life6, do., 1876, p. 439 ff.; J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, new ed., do., 1868, i. 215 ff.; F. W. Robertson, Lectures on St. Pauls Epistles to the Corinthians, new ed., do., 1873, p. 127 ff., Sermons, 3rd ser., new ed., do., 1876, p. 15ff., 169 ff.; T. G. Selby, The Unheeding God, do., 1899, p. 182 ff.; W. L. Watkinson, The Blind Spot, do., 1899, pp. 135 ff., 201 ff.
Robert Law.
Fuente: Dictionary of the Apostolic Church
Worldliness
WORLDLINESS.The teaching of Christianity concerning worldliness forms one of the most important parts of its practical message to mankind. And yet, more or less strongly marked at different periods, a tendency to serious misconception of this doctrine has probably existed in every generation since the days of Christ. The error into which it has led man is that of regarding the material world and whatever strictly pertains to it, as inherently evil and anti-spiritual. Such a misconception, it is true, did not originate in Christian times, but was taken over by Christianity from earlier systems of religious thought. The source from which it sprang, however, does not affect the gravity of its persistent survival; and inasmuch as the attitude of any faith to the present world must always deeply influence mens estimate of its claims, a clear apprehension of Christs own teaching on the subject becomes of more than ordinary importance.
i. To reveal the basis of our Lords doctrine of worldliness, we must review briefly one or two broad outlines of His message.
1. Christs teaching concerning the existence of a spiritual realm.Man has contact with two worlds, (a) Of his communion with the material universe and of the various relationships involved therein, he has by nature a vivid consciousness. This temporal world forms a realm of which, by his birth, he himself has become a part. It has for his possession a special form of life adapted to it. It reveals relationships of its own, as laying their obligation upon himrelationships to a properly constituted authority to be obeyed, and to relatives and friends to be loved. It provides also certain standards of judgment by which the various experiences of its inhabitants are deemed happy or sad, prosperous or unsuccessful, (b) But man has contact also with another worldthe spiritual. Of his communion with this world he has, by nature, but dim and uncertain comprehension. It was to reveal the truth concerning it that Christ came to earth. Its existence and claims form one of the principal themes of His teaching. Of this realm also it is by a birth that a man becomes a part (Joh 3:3-6). This realm also has, adapted to it, a special form of life (Joh 6:33, Joh 17:3) which becomes his upon his entrance into it, and which receives its own spiritual sustenance (Joh 4:14; Joh 4:32; Joh 4:34, Joh 6:35; Joh 6:48-51, Joh 7:37) This realm also imposes certain relationships upon him; for it, no less than the other, has its sanctions of authority (Mar 11:9, Joh 12:13; Joh 18:33-37) and ties of kinship, both of man with God (Joh 1:12, 1Jn 3:2) and of man with men (Mar 3:34-35 || Mat 10:29-30, Joh 19:26-27). Moreover, this realm also possesses standards of its own by means of which its citizens estimate the events and experiences of their lives (Mat 5:3 ff.: for the contrast offered to the standards of the temporal realm, see Mat 5:10-12, and consider the force of in Joh 13:31). The sphere in which these spiritual relationships are acknowledged and their obligations become operative, was named by Christ the Kingdom of God (or, of Heaven), and it formed the theme even of His earliest teaching (e.g. Mar 1:15). This invisible world is as real as the visible. It is clearly marked and self-contained (Joh 3:6). Its citizens possess definite characteristics (Mar 10:15, Luk 18:16-17), and, as it is essentially spiritual in character (Luk 17:20-21, Joh 4:23), a certain fitness is necessary to those who would belong to it (Luk 9:62). Hence it has to be definitely entered (Mat 7:13-14, Mar 10:15; Mar 12:34, Joh 3:3; Joh 3:5).
2. His teaching concerning communion with this spiritual world.Now, just as man has communion with the temporal world and its life, so he may have communion with this spiritual world and its life, (a) Christ Himself, as man, constantly enjoyed such fellowship. The Gospel narratives reveal Him as holding converse with the Father (Mar 1:35 et passim; see art. Communion), with angels (Mar 1:13, cf. Mat 26:53), and with departed spirits of holy men (Mar 9:2 ff.). Indeed, this realization of His communion with the unseen realm formed the basis of His sense of mission (Luk 2:49, Joh 7:16; Joh 8:16 b, Joh 8:29, Joh 16:32) and the source from which He derived His strength in suffering (Joh 18:11). (b) And the fellowship with the spiritual realm which Christ thus exemplified in His own life upon earth, He enjoined upon His followers also (Joh 15:4 ff; cf. Joh 6:53-55 et passim). While they must live before men their outward life in contact with the visible universe and its affairs, they possess also an inner life which must be lived in secretin contact with the unseen (Mat 6:1-18; Mat 10:19-20).
3. The twofold communion.Man, therefore, belongs to two worlds, and may have communion with both. But just as, possessing a twofold nature, carnal and spiritual, he knows that the spiritual is the higher, so, enjoying a twofold communion, he is to learn that the spiritual fellowship must take precedence, its realization being his supreme duty and the end of his creation. Yet, as in the freedom of his will he is able to cultivate the carnal in him at the expense of the spiritual, so too he is free, as the whole appeal of Christs teaching presupposes, to choose for himself with which realm, the temporal or the spiritual, his fellowship shall be the more real and intense.
II. Christs teaching upon worldliness
1. Christ encouraged no indifference to the claims of the temporal world.There is an un worldliness which so emphasizes spiritual realities as to undervalue the material universe and its lawful concerns. This attitude, which, as we have hinted, has found frequent and varied expression among His followers, derives no support from the life or teaching of Christ Himself. The beauty and charm of the visible world appealed to Him (Mat 6:26; Mat 6:28). Its incidents furnished illustrations for His sermons (Mar 4:3, Mat 25:14). He participated in its festivals (Joh 2:1 ff.), and contrasted Himself with one whose asceticism disparaged its good cheer (Mat 11:18-19). Again, the claims of this worlds lawful authorities always received His ready acknowledgment. Respect for them was scrupulously evinced alike in His advice (Mar 12:17) and in His example (Mat 17:27). Further, in His thought, the welfare of men is by no means a merely spiritual matter. On the contrary, the social obligations imposed by His religion form one of His most constant themes. Love towards others is the very test by which His true disciples can be identified (Mat 5:43-48, cf. 1Jn 2:9-11; 1Jn 4:20 etc.), and that love is to find expression not in vapid sentiment, but in whole-hearted service (Mar 10:42 ff., Mat 22:36-39, Luk 10:30 ff.). Indeed, Christ teaches that this love and service to man are the criterion of love and service to God (Mat 25:40; Mat 25:45), while in several suggestive passages He even hints that the earthly life forms in some sense an interpretation of the spiritual life (see Mar 2:5; Mar 2:10-11, Mat 18:10). Christ therefore calls His followers not to neglect the temporal world, much less to despise it, but to recognize that they have a function to fulfil in it by permeating every part of its life with beauty and truth (Mat 5:13-16; Mat 13:33, Joh 17:15). So far, indeed, is He from any underestimation of the present life, that we know of no teacher in any age whose principles, carried into effect, would so ameliorate the material condition of mankind in all its individual aspects and social relationships.
2. Christ uttered no condemnation of worldly possessions.See art. Wealth.
3. A false antithesis.It is clear, therefore, that in one study of the Christian doctrine of worldliness we must eliminate what is now seen to be a false antithesis. In view of the unfortunate ambiguity in meaning both of the Greek and of the English word, it is necessary to define closely the sense in which Christianity sets the world in opposition to its own life and principles. The Christian teacher has to distinguish two forms of contrast. There is the contrast of difference or distinction, and there is the contrast of opposition. It is in the former sense alone, as our Lords own life and words declare, that the material is set by Christianity over against the spiritual. The contrast of opposition established by Christianity is never between the spiritual and the material, but always between the spiritual and the anti-spiritual. The material, it is true, may be made the instrument of the anti-spiritual; but the two are essentially distinct, and confusion between them, signally absent from the Gospel teaching, must never be condoned in its exponents. It is of the utmost significance in this connexion that our Lord deliberately refused to recognize a contrast of opposition between the powers of the heavenly and those of the earthly realm (Mar 12:13-17 || Joh 6:15, cf. Rom 13:7): the antithesis He accepted was that of the Heavenly King and the prince of this world (Joh 12:31; Joh 14:30; Joh 16:11 in each case or ). The world He condemned is not the material world, in which He Himself took delight, or its claims, which He loyally acknowledged, or (in themselves) its possessions, of which He spoke with guarded moderation, but a certain spirit of the world fundamentally antagonistic to mans highest life, and the men in whom that spirit has established its abode (cf. the careful definition in 1Jn 2:16 and that implicit in Joh 12:31). It is between Christs Kingdom and the world in this sense that there is opposition, and in this case the opposition is final and complete (Joh 15:18-19; Joh 16:33note the terms of the contrast, and Joh 17:14, 1Jn 2:15; 1Jn 3:13; 1Jn 4:4-6).
4. The consequent meaning of worldliness.The accurate recognition of Christs attitude to the temporal world at once yields the accurate conception of worldliness. Worldliness will clearly consist in devotion to the world, not in any sense of that ambiguous term, but in the particular sense in which Christ revealed it to be evil. Inasmuch, therefore, as the world, in the only signification in which He condemned it, is the spirit of antagonism (whether expressed as a principle or personified in individuals) to His spiritual kingdom, worldliness must be the possession of this spirit, and the practice of worldliness must be its manifestation. In view of persistent misconception of the teaching of Christianity on this subject, clearness at this point, even at the risk of repetition, is of the utmost importance. Worldliness does not consist in a love of the temporal world and its concerns, for between the Kingdom and the world in this sense Christ acknowledges no necessary opposition, and a man may so use both realms as to fulfil the rightful claims of each without setting them in any inevitable antithesis. Nor does worldliness lie in the performance or nonperformance of any particular actions (Mar 2:18; Mar 2:24; Mar 3:4; Mar 7:5; Mar 7:8; Mar 7:15; Mar 7:21), Luk 11:39-41, Joh 5:10; Joh 7:23-24 et passim); for, since it is the possession of a certain spirit, the most scrupulous punctiliousness in outward conduct may coexist with the deepest unspirituality (Mat 27:6, Joh 12:5-6; Joh 18:28; Joh 19:31; cf. the significant pronouncement in Mat 21:28-31), and the truest unworldliness with apparent indifference to its formal expression (Mat 11:18-19). It is quite true that a love of the temporal world and indulgence in particular actions closely associated with it, may constitute manifestations of worldliness. A realm not evil in itself may easily become the medium of evil, and so, owing to an undue emphasis, mans fellowship with the temporal world may, both by its positive and by its negative influence, prove injurious to his fellowship with the spiritual. Such a misuse of the two realms inevitably turns the contrast of distinction between them into one of opposition. This result, however, is reached not because of any anti-spiritual quality intrinsic in the material realm itself, but through the employment of that realm as a vehicle of the anti-spiritual. The essence of worldliness lies deeper than any particular form in which it may of expressed, and, according to the Christian teaching, its essence is found in the mindin whatever form embodiedwhich leads a man to identify himself with that world which is anti-spiritual in its nature and influence.
5. The manifestation of worldliness.Such a self-identification is revealed in practice by the point at which a man lays the chief emphasis of his life. As our review of Christs teaching has shown, man has communion with two worldsthe temporal and the spiritual. Right and lawful, however, as the first communion may be, there come frequent crises in which its interests are found to be in rivalry to those of the higher fellowship. To cling in such crises to the lower communion, in other words, to sacrifice the spiritual to the temporal, this is to be worldly, for this is to make the temporal world, innocent and good in itself, a vehicle of the anti-spiritual. It is unnecessary, and, in the strict sense, even impossible, to identify particular actions as in themselves involving the anti-spiritual; for, as we have seen, worldliness in practice is the possession of a certain spirit, and there is no action which must necessarily embody that spirit nor any which cannot be made a medium for it. The whole question of worldliness in action is ultimately one of arrangement and precedence. The things of the temporal world are right in their right place, but that is the second place in a mans life. What Christ teaches is that they must never be allowed the first place, for that belongs to God (see Mat 6:33, where both elements are recognized and the true order is laid down; and for a striking illustration in OT, 1Ki 3:4-15). The practice of worldliness, therefore, consists in such an arrangement of these two elements in life as, from the standpoint of God, is false. It is the laying of a disproportionate emphasis upon the temporal, to the impoverishment of the spiritual, elements in life. In some cases this may be recognized by the entire exclusion of the spiritual (Luk 22:15-21); in others by its subjection to the temporal (Mat 8:21; Mat 10:37-38, Mar 5:17, Luk 14:15-24, Joh 3:19). The error, however, always lies not in the cultivation of communion with the temporal world, but in the untrue emphasis laid upon it; in the failure to see that, while many things appear desirable, only one thing is needful (Luk 10:41-42, cf. Mat 13:44-46); in the self-identification with that world which is the direct antithesis of the Kingdom of heaven.
6. The Christians true relation to the temporal world.Our Lords example and teaching, thus briefly reviewed, enable us to infer the Christians true relation to the temporal world, (a) Like his Master, he will be fully cognizant of its charms and fully responsive to its lawful claims. Christianity is a religion calculated to make true lovers of Nature, and to produce good fathers, good husbands, good rulers, good servants, good men of business and men of public spirit. Those who have truly learnt the mind of Christ will never shrink from their obligations to the full-orbed life of the world in which lie has set them. On the contrary, it is their simple duty to see that every sphere of human life, public and private, individual and social, shall be permeated by His spirit (Mat 5:13-14; Mat 13:33). (b) Yet, while the claims of the temporal world will receive their due acknowledgment, the main stress of the Christians life will lie elsewhere. He is in the world; but, like his Master (Joh 8:23), he is not of it (Joh 17:14-18). He will mix freely even in its darker scenes, but without sharing their spirit (Mar 2:16). For he is no longer a slave to that spirit: he has acquired the independence of real freedom (Joh 8:31-36). Indeed, his whole attitude to the temporal world has been changed. He no longer regards himself as a permanent holder, but as a temporary steward, ever awaiting the return of an unseen Lord (Mar 13:35-37). He thus maintains his fellowship with the two realms to which he belongs, but there is no division in his mind ( in Luk 11:29 according to interpretation of Authorized Version and Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 : cf. the supreme submission of Mar 14:36) as to their comparative claims. His real world is the spiritual world. Whether he is giving alms, praying, fasting, or whatever he is doing, his true life is a life lived in secret away from the gaze of men (Mat 6:1-18). (c) And it is the claim of this unseen life that dictates his policy in all his earthly concerns. If it require that he sacrifice his own temporal fame (cf. Joh 3:29-30) or temporal possessions (Mat 9:9), he does so with joy. If, on the contrary, it require that he retain these and employ them for the advancement of the Kingdom, he is equally, but no more, ready to obey While some men make a temporal use of eternal conditions (Mat 21:12 ff. and ||), he makes an eternal use of temporal conditions (Mat 25:40, Luk 16:9-11). While some interpret spiritual facts by the material (Mat 16:23, Joh 6:42; Joh 6:52), he seeks the key to material facts in the spiritual. Like his Lord, he never condemns as inherently evil the things which are temporal and material, but throughout his life he subjects them to what is spiritual and eternal (cf. 2Co 4:18). And herein he has found lifes true interpretation (cf. Joh 6:63).
Literature.Cremer, Lex. s.v. ; Weiss, NT Theol., Index; Beyschlag, NT Theol. ii. 250, 435, 471; F. W. Robert-son, Serm., 2nd ser. xiii; Dale, Laws of Christ, 217; ExpT [Note: xpT Expository Times.] v. [1894] 201; J. Watson, The Inspiration of our Faith, 122; J. H. Jowett, Apostolic Optimism, 47; E. Grubb in Present-Day Papers, i. (1898) 7; J. Rickaby, Oxf. and Camb. Conferences, 2nd ser. (19001) p. 25.
H. Bisseker.
Fuente: A Dictionary Of Christ And The Gospels
Worldliness
General references
1Sa 8:19-20; Job 20:4-29; Job 21:11-15; Psa 49:16-18; Psa 73:2-22; Pro 14:12-13; Pro 15:21; Pro 21:17; Pro 23:20-21; Pro 27:1; Pro 27:7; Ecc 1:8; Ecc 2:1-12; Ecc 6:11-12; Ecc 8:15-17; Ecc 10:19; Ecc 11:9-10; Isa 22:12-13; Isa 24:7-11; Isa 28:4; Isa 32:9-11; Isa 47:7-9; Hos 9:1; Hos 9:11; Hos 9:13; Amo 6:3-7; Amo 8:10; Mic 2:10; Mic 6:14; Hag 1:6; Mat 6:25-34; Mat 10:39; Mat 16:25; Mar 8:35; Luk 17:33; Joh 12:25; Mat 16:26; Mar 8:36-37; Mat 18:1-4; Luk 9:46-48; Mar 9:33-36; Mat 24:38-39; Luk 17:26-29; Luk 8:14; Mat 13:22; Mar 4:19; Luk 12:19; Luk 14:17-24; Mat 22:2-6; Luk 16:1-13; Luk 16:19-25; Luk 21:34; Joh 5:44; Joh 12:43; Joh 15:19; Rom 12:2; 1Co 7:29-31; 1Co 10:6; 1Co 15:32; Phi 3:18-19; Col 3:2; Col 3:5; 1Ti 5:6; 2Ti 2:4; 2Ti 2:22; 2Ti 3:2-7; Tit 2:12; Tit 3:3; Heb 11:24-26; Jas 2:1-4; Jas 4:4; Jas 4:9; Jas 5:5; 1Pe 1:14; 1Pe 1:24; 1Pe 2:11; 1Pe 4:3-4; 2Pe 2:12-15; 2Pe 2:18; 1Jn 2:15-17; Jud 1:11-13; Jud 1:16; Jud 1:19 Covetousness; Pleasure; Riches
Instances of:
– Esau
Gen 25:30-34; Heb 12:16
– Jacob
Gen 25:31-34; Gen 27:36; Gen 30:37-43
– Judah
Gen 37:26-27
– Israelites
Num 11:33-34; Psa 78:18; Psa 78:29-31
– Balaam
2Pe 2:15; Jud 1:11; Num 22
– Eli’s sons
1Sa 2:12-17
– Gehazi
2Ki 5:21-27
– Herod
Mat 14:6-7
– Cretians
Tit 1:12