Previous articles: On Godliness; On Worldliness Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
In this series, we are coming to an understanding of godliness as a lifestyle demonstrating fear or reverence for God by actions of respect towards men. These ideas are behind our definition:
Godliness is a manner of life dominated by reverence for God displayed in respect for others that is visible to outside observers and is not confused with worldliness.
In our last article, we were working on an understanding of worldly desires (as mentioned in Titus 2.12). Here is how we concluded last time:
Worldly desires are lusts, passions, affections set on worldly things. Let’s recall our definition of ‘worldly’:
Worldly – Something is worldly when it belongs to the affairs of life on this earth, especially as opposed to the life of the spirit or of heaven.
If our hearts are set on the things of this world, to the crowding out of spiritual thinking that is always mindful of heaven and God’s viewpoint of things, we are worldly in our desires. Such a heart-set makes a Christian lifestyle impossible. Our actions flow out of our hearts.
We are going to turn to 2 Jn 2.15-17 and to an examination of the ‘things in the world’ that the passage talks about. As we do, let’s start with a working definition of the ‘worldly lusts’ or ‘worldly desires’ we were talking about last time.
Worldly lusts are desires for worldly things without regard for God or God’s perspective.
If this definition is going to have any value for us, we will need to understand what those worldly things are. This is where 1 John comes in.
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