A Warning Against World Conformity (1)

Although this admonition of the Apostle Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, was addressed to the congre gation at Rome, it is also necessary for us. In the first place, this admonition was addressed to those who no longer served the world, for the apostle wrote to the beloved of God and the called saints.

That cannot be said of all people, not even of all confessors of the truth. Among the great masses of people, it is only a small number in whose heart the love of God has been poured out. The Truth speaks of two of a family and one out of a city.

As it concerns the called saints, the Lord Jesus has declared, “Thine they were, and Thou gavest them Me.” God’s elect were given unto the Son by the Father in all eternity, who has given Himself to pay for their sins so that He can draw them out of this present-day evil world according to the will of their God and Father (Galatians 1:4).

In the day of His good pleasure, they are drawn out of the world with the cords of God’s eternal love. For them the world has lost its allurement, and this is a fruit of the regenerating grace of the Holy Spirit. They have said farewell to the world. For them the drawbridge has been pulled up, and they can nevermore return to the world. “For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.” They have given their heart and their hands unto the Lord, and they say with David, “Thou seekest my heart, my eyes remain fixed on Thee.”

They have fled from the world and are walking in the paths of righteousness. Their heart and their eyes are drawn to above, and their walk is in heaven. Because they are not of the world, the world hates them. For them there has come a separation, an eternal separation. God does a complete and perfect work in the heart of His people, yet it appears that the admonition also for them is not superfluous. In the way of uncovering, they become aware that they carry the world inside of them; that the world so often still has such a large place in their heart. The language of David is not strange to them: “My soul cleaveth unto the dust” (Psalm 119:25).

How does the world—when the life with God wanes in the soul—have the overhand. It is a benefit that the Lord Jesus prayed in John 17:15, “I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil.” If those people, who are initially delivered by God, are not kept by the power of God, they would sink back into the world to be buried there forever, but God keeps them, and in His power they remain standing. They are ready to halt and stumble at any moment.

God’s children lie susceptible to all kinds of temptations, and, in addition to that, they have a heart which leads them astray. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” How deeply are the cords of the world embedded. Will they rise above sin here below? Alas, no. It is to their sorrow that they must experience that no good lives in their flesh. How quickly they are taken in by sin, and they are drawn into the world which lies engulfed in evil. They are sold unto sin, and, at times, they are swept along before they are aware of it.

There are times that they may live as though they are above the dust. There are times that God’s favorites may be with the Lord Jesus upon the mount, that they may be in His immediate presence and taste of His dear good pleasure. When the love of God is poured out in their heart and they are filled with a childlike fear, then the world loses its allurement, and they have an aversion to the same. However, when the life of God departs from their heart, then the world soon occupies it. To see how far they can backslide, look only at the old judge Eli. How far did Solomon not stray? Even the godly King Jehoshaphat made a covenant with the wicked Ahab. Hezekiah became world-conformed when he showed his treasures to the princes of Babylon.

The Lord Jesus in His walking about on earth has continuously warned his hearers not to be swept away with the world. Going along with the world is so soul-destroying that it robs us of the inward experiencing of God’s favor. It strengthens the world, and it is to God’s dishonor.

Not to be conformed to the world means to not become the same as the world; do not find your pleasure therein. It is a woeful situation when there is no longer a difference between the world and the Church. Lot had gone a long way with the world, and although he vexed his righteous soul in Sodom, even after the destruction of Sodom, the sad results became visible.

It is not having grace in itself but the fear of the Lord which keeps us from sin. Calvin wrote, “The world will claim that the works which they have done are good.” Paul calls out that judgment must be made according to God’s commandments as to what is good and right. The world praises itself in its own imagination and lives on happily. Paul, however, confirms that God does not desire anything but what He has commanded. It should be our continual sighing that by means of God’s grace, we may die to self and also to the world with all of her desirability. We need a continual desire to be kept by God so as not to stray either to the right or to the left. How blessed is the soul who may say and experience with Paul, “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world” (Galatians 6:14).

The close and immediate union with Christ will cause us not only to die to the world but also to live unto God and to be conformed to Christ. That the exercises may frequently be the portion of our soul, we would, in the power of Christ, use this world, not misuse it, and by means of the leading of the Spirit, be followers of Christ. He did walk with His feet upon earth, but His heart was in heaven.

(To be continued)

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