“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
From the very beginning God has always desired the desire of man. He never wanted pretense or trifling religion. He was not after false worship nor legal, robotic, rule following. God 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 outward and into the inward. Christ did not come to take you out of the world, but to keep you from the evil of the world.
In the Old Testament the Jews were instructed to marry inside their faith. They were a peculiar (separate) people to God and this statute was implemented in an effort for them to remain that way. Marriage is one of the most intimate human relationships; to 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 faith and cause the people to stray. The scripture also uses marriage as an analogy when discussing worldliness. James writes: “ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that a friendship with the world is an enmity with God.” A man or woman who is intimate with someone other than their spouse is an adulterer. They break the marriage vow for their own selfishness. Furthermore, they abase the covenant of marriage and destroy the home. The same is true when it comes to 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. However, according to John worldliness will always stand on three pillars: lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Worldliness is the marriage of your desires to something in this world, and John says all that is in the world is these three things: lust of flesh, eyes, and pride of life. These are “not of the Father but of the world.” When you bring anything of the world into your life, and it results in an unholy intimacy that forces the Lord Jesus Christ out, it is worldly. Worldliness pollutes your faith, hinders your prayers, sterilizes evangelism, causes you to lose focus, helps the devil, and brings lasting harm to the Kingdom of God. We are consistently and constantly being courted by the world because we live in the world. Every day of our pilgrimage the natural calls to us to live for this life and forget the next. It tenderly beckons us to strive for the seen and leave off the unseen. An intimacy with the world is a danger to our spiritual life because it wars against the will of God on the most important battlefield. The heart of man. When you court the world, it is only a matter of time until you fall in love with it; and you cannot love the world and love God. This is a Biblical truth that is profitable for all of God’s children. Yes, that means you, and it means me as well
To those who would think laying aside the things of this world is legalistic. Or refuse to examine your life in prayer, and through scripture. When you stop and consider what Christ did for you. How he left heaven, took on the form of man, suffered and died on a cruel cross; to save you and me from all sin. When you stop and imagine 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? Would it be just to give less than Christ? Furthermore, what could be so attractive out there, that is better than what God has for you? He who gave you so much, can we not trust Him with our time so that he might give more abundantly? Should we not spend some time in reading, in praying, to ask God to search us, and to prune us? He is still calling for us to be “peculiar people, zealous of good works.” He stills longs for our heart, and wants our heart to 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. Simply put, worldliness is not worth the price of admission; but heaven is worth all the pressing here below.
