If worldliness isn’t smoking, drinking, dancing, and playing cards, what is it? If it is a way of thinking, what is a worldly "worldview"? This is something we need to approach in a variety of ways, since there is no single word that is perfectly descriptive of how the world thinks. On the other hand, if there is a word that describes the world’s way of thinking more than others, it is secularism. Secularism is an umbrella term that covers a number of other "isms," like humanism, relativism, pragmatism, pluralism, hedonism, and materialism. But it, more than any other single word, aptly describes the mental framework and value structure of the people of our time.
There are some verses in the Bible that are enriched when we read them in other translations. Romans 12:2 is one of them. In the New International Version the first part of Romans 12:2 says, "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world." This verse has two key words: "world," which is actually "age" (the Greek word ain, meaning, "this present age" in contrast to "the age to come"), and "conform," which is a compound having at its root the word "scheme." So the verse means, do not let the age in which you live force you into its scheme of thinking and behaving.
In the final analysis, only that which is spiritual will last. Everything else, everything we see and touch and handle and sometimes even covet here, will pass away. Jesus said, "Heaven and earth will pass away" (Matt. 24:35). If that is true of the heavens and the earth, it is certainly true of the small perishable things you and I give so much of our lives for. On the other hand, although "the world and its desires pass away," we are also told that the one who "does the will of God lives forever" (1 John 2:17). And so do his works!
Today I want to continue to list answers to yesterday's question: Why is it reasonable to serve God sacrificially? It is reasonable because such service is God's will for us, and his is a good, pleasing, and perfect will. Christians often get greatly hung up on the idea of discovering "what God's specific will is" for their lives. In my judgment, there clearly are specific plans for our lives that God has determined in advance, because he has predetermined all things. The difficulty is that he has not revealed these to us. But although these specific details are not made known, general but very important things are, and the most important of these general things is that God wants us to be like Jesus Christ.
Yesterday I mentioned the night the angel came and wrestled with Jacob to bring him to the point of personal submission. But let's not wait for the angel to wrestle with us. Let's deal with this matter of sacrificial service to God now. Why is such demanding service so reasonable?
