Heart of Worldliness

“Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.” – Deuteronomy 7:3

“In those days also saw I Jews that had married wives of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab: And their children spake half in the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak in the Jews' language, but according to the language of each people.” – Nehemiah 13:23-24

From the very beginning God has always desired the desire of man.  He never wanted pretense, he is not after false worship or legal, robotic, rule following.  He wants your heart.  The Law told you not to murder, but Christ told us not to hate.  The Law told you not to commit adultery; Christ said not to lust.  He wanted to reach past the hand and into the heart; not to take you out of the world, but take the world out of you.

In the book of Deuteronomy the Jews were instructed NOT to marry outside their faith. The Jews were a peculiar people to God and this statute was implemented in an effort to keep them that way.  Marriage is arguably the most intimate human relationship; to marry, and bring in those who were not of their faith would inevitably bring in values and principles that were not consistent with the faith.  This in turn would pollute the people and the Kingdom of God would suffer for it.  By the time we get to the book of Nehemiah, the Jews were so intermingled with the nations of the world that the children spoke in the speech of the world and could not speak the Jew’s language.  The people of God were so in love with the world, so intermingled with the world, that they exemplified no distinction to the next generation.  Furthermore, it robbed them of their heritage. This is symbolic of the subject of worldliness.  Worldliness is the cousin of idolatry; they are both found in the heart of man and no list can quantify the innate desires of an unholy heart.  Worldliness is the marriage of your desires to something of this world.  You bring it into your life and it results in an unholy intimacy that forces Christ out, pollutes the people, ultimately harming the Kingdom.  We are always being courted by the world; we live in the world.  Every day of our pilgrimage the natural calls to us to live for this life and forget the next, strive for the seen and leave off the unseen.  An intimacy with the world is a danger to our spiritual life and it demands our examination in prayer. We have a glorious church, a holy gospel that calls us to be a holy people.  If our hearts love the world, and if we want the world in our lives; it not only will rob us of our joy and inheritance, but it will show no distinction to the next generation, and they will be robbed as well. 

             When you stop and consider what Christ did for you...how he left heaven, took on the form of man, suffered and died; to save you and me from our sins.  When you think, for just a few minutes, where you would be without Jesus; is it too much for God to ask of us that our heart be wholly devoted to him?  Does he not deserve our all?   Can we not spend some time in reading, in praying, to ask God to search us and see if we are in fact…..worldly.  He is still calling for us to be a “peculiar people, zealous of good works.”  He stills longs for our heart, and wants our heart long for Him, and Him alone.  Let us “lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us.”  Let us love God above all else.  Let us let God examine the heart of worldliness.