Worldliness the respectable sin.
Genesis 19:1-38
Everyone in this world has a philosophy of life, and while there are thousands of variant philosophies, they can be boiled down to just two: the world's and the Christian's.
The philosophy of the world is: "My life is my own to live as I please." This is a man-centered and self-centered view of existence. The philosophy of the Christian is: "My life is God's to do as he wills." This is a God-centered view of existence. These two philosophies are diametrically opposed and can never be compatible. One is revelation, the other reason; one supernatural-ism, the other naturalism; one theism, the other atheism. It is not two side of a coin but two different currencies altogether. No person will ever understand the Christian philosophy of life until he accepts Christ as his personal Saviour and the Bible as his only standard of authority. The character promoted by the world's system is known as worldliness. Godliness is the one promoted by the Bible.
Also few distinctions are more clearly delineated in Scripture than the one between worldliness and godliness. In no uncertain terms, Scripture indicates that the character promoted by the world is diametrically opposed to the character promoted by God.
This does not stop us from blurring the lines, though.
As Christians, we often swallow, with ravenous enthusiasm, the poisonous lie promulgated by Satan himself that we can have our cake and eat it, too. We delude ourselves into thinking that piety and frivolity are dependent on each other.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Godliness and worldliness are not parallel paths; they are wholly divergent. And so we stand at a crossroads every time we make a decision.
Either we will take the path that leads to life and godliness, or we’ll take the path that leads to death and worldliness. (cf. Deut. 30:15-20; Joshua 24:15)
There is no middle ground. Only life or death. Only hot or cold. God will vomit out of His mouth those who are lukewarm (Revelation 3:16).
When you boil it all down, there is one defining feature that distinguishes the worldly character from the godly one: Motive.
Worldliness, at its core, is selfishness. Godliness, on the other hand, at its core, is selflessness. One looks inward, the other looks outward. One says, “my will be done.” The other says, “Your will be done.”
What in the world then is worldliness? Worldliness is world likeness. Worldliness is a wedge that sin drives into the heart of the Christian, dividing his own will from God's will, making his actions incompatible with his spiritual goal, because he allows selfish interests to usurp the place of God in his life. Therefore, worldliness is sin. Worldliness is conforming to the world. When most Christians think of worldliness, they think in terms of man-made taboos i.e. "I don't smoke, drink, dance and so on". While these things could be a manifestation of worldliness, real worldliness is much more subtle and devastating.
Some have thought that the cure for worldliness is isolation from the world. In the 5th century, Simeon the Stylite tried to escape from worldliness by living for 36 years on a platform on top of a pillar. Thousands flocked to see him perched up there and to listen to his preaching. Then there were others who thought of monasticism as the model to escape worldliness .
On the other side, some Christians have gone to the other extreme and have reacted to separation from the world by becoming so much like the world that there are no noticeable differences. They claim that they’re trying to reach the world for Christ, but all too often their attempts to relate to the world end up compromising biblical absolutes. First John 2:15-17 commands:
"Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Fa-ther is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever."
John doesn’t let us love the world a little bit, while we still claim to love God. He draws the line: either you love God or you love the world. Take your pick, because you can’t have both.
So it’s important then to understand biblically what worldliness is and what it is not. “World” (Greek = cosmos) is a favorite word for John, who uses it 78 times in his Gospel (including 6 times in our text), 24 times in his epistles, and 3 times in Revelation. It’s only used 85 other times in the New Testament, 47 of which are in Paul’s writings (Leon Morris, The Gospel Ac-cording to John [Eerdmans], p. 126).
It originally meant “order,” and it came to refer to the universe as the well-ordered creation of God. It may refer to the physical world (John 1:10) or to the people of the world (John 3:16; 1 John 2:2). In those senses, there is nothing wrong with loving the world. We should enjoy God’s creation and we should love worldly people who need to know the Savior.
But John also uses the word to refer to the evil, organized system under Satan, which operates through unbelieving people who are opposed to God. He writes (1 John 5:19), “We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” Jesus spoke of the world hating both Him and those who follow Him (John 7:7; 15:18-19). The world operates on the basis of ungodly thoughts, attitudes, motives, values, and goals. It does not seek to promote God’s glory or to submit to His lordship. It’s in this sense that we must not love the world.
Here in Jesus’ prayer in John 15: 18-19 we learn that …
Christians are to relate to the world as Jesus did: to be in it, but to be distinct from it.
Let us observe three things:
A. Jesus was in the world, not isolated from worldly people.
The Pharisees of Jesus’ day thought that to be holy, you had to avoid all contact with sinners. So they were shocked when Jesus chose a tax-collector named Levi (Matthew) as one of His apostles and then went to a dinner party where Levi invited all of his notoriously sinful friends (Luke 5:29-32). Another time, a Pharisee named Simon invited Jesus for dinner at his house. A well-known sinful woman came in uninvited, anointed Jesus’ feet with her tears and some per-fume, and dried His feet with her hair (Luke 7:36-50). Simon was horrified . He thought that if Jesus were a true prophet, He wouldn’t let such a woman even touch Him.
But Jesus’ philosophy was (Luke 5:31), “It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick.” What good is a doctor who never sees sick people? So Jesus was known as a friend of sinners (Matt. 11:19). If we want to be like Jesus, we also need to be in the world, not isolated from sinful people.
This refutes the idea of monasticism as the model of unworldliness and the stand taken by Simeon the Stylite. Another problem is that we have often reversed what Paul commanded. The Corinthian church was boasting in their tolerant spirit of accepting a man who was sleeping with his father’s wife. Paul was horrified and wrote to clarify (1 Cor. 5:9-11):
"I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people; I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world. But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one."
But before you head out to befriend worldly people, a word of caution is in order. Paul warned (1 Cor. 15:33): “Do not be deceived: ‘Bad company corrupts good morals.’” So how do we be-friend worldly, sinful people without being corrupted ourselves? The answer lies in the second way that Jesus was in the world:
B. Jesus was in the world with a divine mission.
Jesus came into this world with a clear purpose: to testify to the truth (John 18:37) and to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10). John has repeatedly emphasized this by saying that Jesus was sent into the world (John 17:18): “As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.” The Father had sent His Son into the world with the message of salvation through faith in Him (John 3:16-18). He sends us with the same mission. Jesus’ mission is behind His prayer in verse 19, “For their sake I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.” To sanctify means to set something apart for its God-intended use. In the Old Testament, the sacrificial animals had to be sanctified or set apart before they could be killed and offered to God. In prayer Jesus here is setting Himself apart for the cross. His mission was that as a result of His death, His disciples would be set apart in truth.
So the way to be a friend of sinners without being corrupted by them is to stay focused on your mission. Your aim is not to carouse with them as you may have done in the past, but rather lovingly to warn them of the judgment to come and to tell them the good news of the Savior (1 Pet. 4:1-6). But, don’t expect them to welcome you and your message with open arms. This leads to the third way that Jesus was in the world:
C. Jesus was in the world with a realistic mindset: He expected opposition.
To be in the world and yet distinct from it because you hold to biblical truth will result in hostility from the world. Jesus prays (John 17:14), “I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” God’s word or the Gospel , as Jesus says (John 17:17), is truth. The world will tolerate us if we water down the Gospel and align it with the world's philosophy of life. But even if we say it graciously, if we pro-claim God’s word as the absolute, unbending truth for all people, we’ll catch the world’s hostility. In John 7:7 Jesus said , “The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil.” The minute you say that certain behavior is evil, you will be accused of being intolerant and judgmental. If you are a real follower of Jesus and go into the world expecting to be popular and well-liked, you’ll be in for a rude awakening. By all means, be in the world as Jesus was in it. But go with a realistic attitude: you will not be welcomed by all.
D. To be distinct from the world, you must have a separate origin. Jesus was not of this world because He came from above. We are not of this world because we have been born from above through the Holy Spirit (John 3:1-8). The new birth sets us apart from the world that does not know God. Through the new birth, we have a new nature that desires to please God. We have a new Master, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We have a new power to overcome sin, the Holy Spirit who dwells within us. We have a new purpose in life, to glorify our Savior in all that we do and to tell others the good news of His salvation. We have a new identity as the people of God, members of Christ’s body, the church. We have a new destiny; we will be in heaven with our Lord throughout eternity. (Some of these points are from A. W. Pink, Exposition of the Gospel of John, online at pbministries.org.)
So the crucial question is, have you been born again? Has God changed your heart and your desires? Have you trusted in Jesus Christ and His shed blood as your only hope in life and in death? Apart from the new birth through the Holy Spirit, every attempt to be distinct from the world will be legalism or asceticism, neither of which result in genuine holiness or lasting joy. As Jesus said to the legalistic Nicodemus (John 3:7), “You must be born again.”
E. To be distinct from the world, you must develop a separate mindset that comes from God’s Word. In John 17:14, Jesus prays, “I have given them Your word.” Again in verse 17, He prays, “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” And again in verse 19 He prays “that they themselves may be sanctified in truth.”
In John 5:39, He told the hostile Jewish leaders, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me.” He said (John 7:38) that “the Scripture said” the Holy Spirit would be given to those who believe in Him. He later called the Scriptures “the word of God” and asserted that they cannot be broken (John 10:35). When He predicted Judas’ betrayal, He explained that it was “that the Scripture may be fulfilled” (John 13:18). After His resurrection, He told the disciples (Luke 24:44), “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Luke (24:45) adds, “Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.” Jesus was saturated with the Scriptures.
And here (John 17:17) He calls God’s word “the truth.” He doesn’t say that God’s word contains the truth or that it is one truth among many. Rather, its very essence is truth. It is the absolute, final, and eternal source and standard of truth against which all else is to be measured. God’s truth does not vary from culture to culture or from age to age. All spiritual and moral truth is contained in God’s written word.
Jesus says that God’s word will sanctify us or set us apart from the world for God’s purpose. Whether you are worldly or godly is primarily a matter of how we allow the Holy Spirit to renew our minds . In Romans 12:2, Paul tells us how not to be worldly: “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” Our minds are transformed and renewed as we saturate them in God’s word so that we think biblically about all of life.
Thus to be distinct from this world, realize that it is the path to genuine joy, not the path to depriving you of fun. Make sure that you have been born again. Develop a separate mindset that comes from God’s Word.
F. To be distinct from this world, live in obedience to God’s Word.
Knowing God’s Word is foundational and personal application is always the goal of Bible study. As you read and study the Word, always ask, “So what?” How does this Scripture apply to my life? Do I need to change the way I think? Do I need to change my attitude? Is my speech pleasing to God and edifying to others? Are there sinful habits that I need to destroy? Are there godly character qualities that I need to develop? Do I need to adjust my priorities and change my daily schedule? Do I need to be a better steward of the resources that God has entrusted to me?
Worldliness at heart is nothing less than idolatry. It is exchanging the truth of God for a lie and worshiping and serving created things rather than the Creator (Romans 1:25). The world was created by God and He said it was good (Genesis 1:10). Sin came into the world by the disobedience of Adam and Eve. When men and women love the things of this world more than God they are engaged in the idolatrous sin of worldliness.
Worldliness can take many forms, such as the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, or the pride of life (1 John 2:16). Adam and Eve were guilty of the sin of worldliness when they chose to believe Satan's lie instead of God's truth and ate the forbidden fruit in the garden of Eden (Genesis 3:6). Eve saw what was pleasing to the eye and good for food and chose the fruit over obedience to the Creator. Instead of obeying God's command to subdue and steward the earth, man-kind began to love and worship created things (Romans 1:22–23).
When believers live in conformity to this corrupt world, tragic consequences result. We shall now look into the dangers of worldliness and compromise with the background of the story of Lot from the book of Genesis.
Lot’s downward path began with the choice to take the best land for himself (Gen. 13:1-13). It was a choice based on selfishness and greed, with no regard for Abraham or for the will of God. It resulted in Lot moving his tents near the wicked city of Sodom. In making this move, Lot was acting on the same goals as those in the world: he was trying to get ahead financially, with no concern for furthering God’s purpose.
Lot was a man who compromised, who made his choices based on what looked good (Gen. 13:10). He just went with the flow of the world, rather than making hard choices based on the will of God.
As you continue to read the story of Lot in Genesis 19, the question arises: Was Lot truly saved? If all we had to go on was the Genesis record, I would say no. But, the Apostle Peter, inspired by the Holy Spirit, calls him a righteous man, “oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men,” whose “righteous soul” was “tormented day after day with their lawless deeds” (2 Pet. 2:7, 8). Lot’s life teaches us that ...
The world is thoroughly corrupt.
Sodom shows us the world without God. On one level, it is an ugly, repulsive picture. It was a city where it wasn’t safe to be on the streets after dark, where not only the young men, but even the old (19:4) were living to satisfy their lusts, even if it meant homosexually raping two visitors. But on another level, Sodom had its attractive side. It was sophisticated and prosperous. “She and her daughters had arrogance, abundant food, and careless ease, ...” (Ezek. 16:49). The apostle John says that the world entices us with “the craze for sex, the ambition to buy every-thing that appeals to you, and the pride that comes from wealth and importance” (1 John 2:16, Living Bible). So even though we know from the Bible that the world is corrupt and under God’s judgment, it still has its appeal.
What we need to keep in mind is that though this corrupt world has its enticing side, it is doomed for destruction even as Sodom was. Lot was living in and was conformed to this corrupt world.
Our churches should influence the world but instead we are letting the world influence the churches.
The solution is to recognize the signs of corruption and “don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold, but let God re-mold your minds from within” (Rom. 12:2, Phillips). To recognize and resist the signs of corruption and to be renewed in our minds, we’ve got to saturate ourselves with God’s Word. While there are many marks of conformity to the world, our text reveals six. Someone has said that it is perfectly natural for a ship to be in the water but when the water comes into the ship it becomes dangerous for the ship. You can test yourself, to see how much water you’ve let into your ship, perhaps without even knowing it.
Signs of conformity to the world: Genesis chapter 19.
(1) You’re living for the same goals as the world. Lot moved to Sodom to get ahead financially. He didn’t go there to reach Sodom for God. He went there to get rich just like everyone else. Let us see the "progress" he made.
1. After their shepherds quarreled Abraham told him to chose which way he was going and Lot choose the well watered fields of Jordan and set out towards the East. ......and pitched his tents near Sodom - Genesis 13: 11-12. However he did not see that the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the Lord - Genesis.13:13.
2. In chapter 19:1 we find him sitting in the gateway of the city -showing that he was a person of importance in the town and in 19:3 he had a house in the city.
Paul warned: “Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction (1 Tim. 6:9). Lot had the wrong goals.
Each of us needs to ask, “How are my goals in life different than those of the guy next door who doesn’t know Jesus Christ?” The Lord said that unbelievers eagerly seek for material prosperity, but His followers are to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matt. 6:31-33).
So check out your goals. If, like everybody else in the world, you’re just living to become financially secure, to make a comfortable living, you’re being conformed to the world. If you’re living for the world’s goals, sooner or later you’ll be tainted by the world’s moral corruption.
(2) You’re expedient in morals. At first, it looks as if Lot has avoided the moral pollution of Sodom. When the men of the city try to force the two visitors outside, Lot goes out and says, “Please, my brothers, do not act wickedly” (19:7). But what he says next is unbelievable: He offers them his two virgin daughters to rape as they please (19:8) He was trying to prevent one awful sin by suggesting another. His daughters learned from him (19:31-38); once they saw their situation in the cave as an emergency, then getting their father drunk and getting pregnant by him was not a moral problem. We will see more of this in (3) below.
(3) You’re more concerned for your status than for your family. Lot was willing to sacrifice his daughters to save his guests because there was a strong social custom which said that you had to protect those who came under your roof as guests. And in Sodom, there wasn’t much social stigma connected with sexual immorality. So to protect his status in the community, Lot tried to protect his guests at the expense of his daughters.
I’m sure none of us would do what Lot did, but we often do other things to protect our status at the expense of our families. We work long hours to try to succeed financially, even though it means neglecting the family. Why do we do that? We want the status that comes from success. What do you think of when you hear that someone is successful? That he raised his family to fear the Lord or that he made it financially? Success with our family just doesn’t carry the same weight in our culture as financial success. When we buy into that view of status, we’re being conformed to the world.
(4) You’re not respected by the world for your beliefs. In all these years that Lot had lived in Sodom, there may have been a few times when he had tried to tell them about God. But now when he weakly tries to tell the Sodomites they’re wrong, they don’t respect him (19:9). He doesn’t even have any credibility with his future sons-in-law, who think he’s joking about God judging Sodom (19:14). The reason they didn’t believe him was that it was so out of character for him to get alarmed about spiritual matters. For years he had lived quietly in Sodom, pursuing the same goals as everyone else. So when he “gets religion,” nobody believes him.
Of course, there always will be mockers in the world. No committed Christian will win a popularity contest. But there’s a difference between being liked and being respected. When the world doesn’t respect you for your Christian stand, it may be because you’ve lived like them for so long that it seems out of character for you to suddenly be so concerned about God and morality. The world may not like your viewpoint, but if you live consistently before them, usually they will respect you.
(5) You’re not sure you want to give up the world, even when it’s going to cost you your life. Lot had to flee so that he wouldn’t be destroyed with that wicked city. And yet he hesitated (19:15- 16). He couldn’t have saved anything if he had remained behind. He would have lost even his own life; and yet he hesitated.
Why did Lot hesitate? Because, as Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matt. 6:21). Your heart always follows your treasure. If your treasure is in your things, then you won’t want to give them up, even if it costs you your life to hang on to them. That’s a sign of conformity to the world.
(6) You attempt to keep a little bit of sin in your life, even when God is dealing severely with you. Lot and his wife and two daughters were reluctant leave Sodom, they had to be dragged out by the two angels. The angels urgently tell him to flee for his life, and incredibly, Lot wants to barter with them to keep a bit of his old way of life intact. He thanks them for their mercy in saving him, but then he protests that he can’t flee to the mountains as they tell him to do. That would be just a bit too much. Instead, he wants permission to go to a small town nearby, the implication being that since the town was small (Zoar means “small”), its sins won’t be too bad. Note that God didn’t prevent him. The Lord will let you hang onto your sinful way if you insist on it.
It’s easy to do as Lot did. You become a Christian, and God begins to confront you with things in your life that have to go if you want to follow Him. You can find yourself scrambling to preserve as much of the old life as possible, even while God is in the process of stripping you of it: “Lord, I’ll go to church on Sunday morning; just let me spend the rest of my week as I choose. I’ll even give 10 percent, just so I can spend 90 percent as I please. I’ll be outwardly moral; just let me indulge in my mental sins. I’ll give up Sodom; just let me move to Zoar.”
What happens when believers live like the world?
When believers live in conformity with the world, it takes a terrible toll.
Who can say what would have happened if Lot had moved to Sodom with a missionary mind-set instead of with a monetary mind-set? Perhaps God would have worked a revival and many in Sodom could have been saved (Matt. 11:23). But as it was, Sodom was destroyed. Lot lost everything he had been working for--his house, his flocks, and his wealth all was destroyed in an instant. Not only that, he lost his wife. She lingered behind, her heart not ready to let go of the good life in Sodom. Overcome by the fumes, she was instantly encrusted with the mineral de-posits that fell from the sky, much like the people of Pompeii were entombed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
The two daughters who were dragged out by the angels had been irreparably tainted by Sodom’s moral corruption, as seen by their incestuous degradation with their father.
The influence of Sodom was still very much in the hearts of Lot's daughters, even though the city itself had been destroyed.
No doubt, they, along with their father, had seen and heard the filthy conduct of the wicked, and its influence had rubbed off on them - 2 Pet. 2:7-8. Instead of committing fornication with their father, they could have gone back to be with Abraham and his household and there found men to marry. Sadly, they had been so influenced by Sodom that fornication was no longer all that evil.
Lot’s daughters dishonor their father by making him drunk and then add the sin of immorality through incest. It wasn’t accidental; they carefully planned their strategy. And it wasn’t enough that one would sin in this manner; they collaborated together and both committed this terrible sin. But note how they not only justify their sin (19:31-32), but they repeat their reason before the second sister commits her sin (19:34), to convince themselves that it’s okay.
First they create a false crisis, a worst case scenario: “There aren’t any men on earth we can marry!” It shouldn’t have been all that difficult to match the caliber of the men in Sodom. Then they add a noble reason to make it sound spiritual: “We need to preserve our family line.” But they’re just rationalizing gross sin.
Of course they had learned that trick from their father. He had engaged his daughters to men of Sodom. “Where else will I find husbands for them?” he probably asked. He was ready to give his daughters to be raped by the evil Sodomites to spare his guests from the same fate. It was a noble cause, and besides, what else could he do? He disobeyed God by bartering with the an-gels to stay in Zoar with the excuse that he would die if he fled to the mountains. Never mind that God said he would be safe there. And besides, Zoar was just a little town; its sins wouldn’t be too bad. Lot had a pattern of rationalizing his sin. His daughters had learned well.
It never occurred to them that they could pray and wait on God to provide them the husbands they desired. They never mention the Lord. They had never seen their father seek the Lord for anything. They had never seen him wait on God in prayer. He hadn’t sought the Lord about the decision to move to Sodom or, more recently, to the mountains. He never sought the Lord for any decisions in his life. So his daughters learned from him how to make up excuses for doing what you want to do, and to make it sound spiritual in the process.
Lot’s sin spread to his daughters. So did his fears. He feared staying in Zoar; they feared that they wouldn’t find husbands.
But isn’t it interesting neither that Lot or his daughters feared the Lord, in spite of what they had just witnessed with regard to Sodom!
Lot’s daughters succeeded all too well in “preserving their family” through their father. They not only preserved their father’s family, but also their father’s sins!
In similar fashion, one cannot compromise with the standards of this world without consequences. "When one lies down with dogs, he will rise up with fleas."
So Lot, who tried to gain it all, lost it all. By the grace of God and by the skin of his teeth, Lot was saved. But his life and his family’s lives were wasted from an eternal point of view.
This section of the story ends with a poignant scene. Abraham returns to the place where he had pled with the Lord. He looks down and silently gazes on the smoke rising from Sodom’s destruction. We aren’t told what he thought as he looked. Except for the fact that the story of Lot is in the Bible, we don’t know whether Abraham ever found out whether his prayers for his way-ward nephew were answered, so that Lot was rescued before destruction fell. But as Abraham stood there and looked at this once prosperous city laid waste by the just judgment of God, he must have thought, “What a waste”- Genesis 19:27-28.
It is important to realise that the Lord had a meal and a conversation about His plans for Sodom with Abraham. But He did not visit Lot and his home.
For the Christian, the choice is clear. To avoid worldliness, we must mature in the faith, growing up in all things in Christ so that we are no longer spiritual infants, tossed about by the lies of the world (Ephesians 4:14-15). We must come to know the difference between the wisdom of God and the foolishness of worldly wisdom, and that is only achieved by careful and diligent study of the Word, seeking God’s wisdom in prayer (James 1:5), and enjoying the fellowship of other mature believers who can encourage us to reject worldliness and embrace godliness.
I believe that one reason why the church of God at this present time has so little influence over the world is because the world has so much influence over the church.”
I looked for the church and I found it in the world;
I looked for the world and I found it in the church.
Horatius Bonar