But we need not suppose that this is a new difficulty, or that the temptation is now for the first time appearing in the Church. It was the same in Cowper’s day, as we may gather from his poem:—
‘Renounce the world, the preacher cries.
We do—a multitude replies.
While one as innocent regards
A snug and friendly game at cards;
And one, whatever you may say,
Can see no evil in a play.
Some love a concert, or a race;
And others shooting, or the chase.
Reviled and loved, renounced and followed!
Thus, bit by bit, the world is swallowed.
Each thinks his neighbour makes too free,
Yet likes a slice as well as he.’
But the difficulty reaches much further back than Cowper’s time. It is in fact as old as the human heart, for it is part and parcel of it, so that 1800 years ago the Church of Christ required the same warning that it does now, and the Apostle Paul gave the inspired caution: ‘Be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.’ The word ‘transformed’ is alone sufficient to show the deep-seated character of the evil, for it proves that nothing less than a transformation is required to enable us to overcome it. Let human nature go on unchanged, and the result will be conformity to the world. The world and the love of it are in the natural heart, and, unless there is a change, there is sure to be worldly-mindedness in the life.
THE WORLD.
Before we can understand what is meant by conformity to the world, we must first see clearly what is meant by the world itself.
There seem to be three senses in which the word is employed in Scriptures.
(1.) It is used to express all mankind. I cannot doubt that this is the meaning of our blessed Saviour in those memorable words of His: ‘God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’ I have heard a limitation put on that passage, and seen ‘the world’ explained as meaning only the elect. But such an interpretation I believe to be contrary to Scripture. The expression ‘the world’ is constantly used for those who are not amongst the elect, but never, I believe, for those that are; besides which, the eighteenth verse of the chapter seems to me to prove conclusively that both classes, viz., those who believe, and those who do not, are here included in the one comprehensive term, ‘the world.’ The words are, ‘He that believeth on him is not condemned; but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God:’ showing, as I cannot but think, beyond a possibility of contradiction, that those who perish and those who are saved are included in the world, which God loved in His deep compassion, and for which He gave His only begotten Son.
(2.) The world stands for this earth and all that belongs to this present life, or dispensation.
Thus of the incarnation St. Paul says that our Lord ‘came into the world to save sinners.’ (1 Tim. i. 15.) So our Lord speaks of His lifetime here as a time spent in the world: ‘While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name.’ (John, xvii. 12.) So, ‘When Jesus knew that the hour was come that he should depart out of the world, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.’ (John, xiii. 1.) And this I have no doubt is the meaning of His prayer (John, xvii. 15), ‘I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.’ He did not desire that they should die, or be removed from the scene of life’s labour, but that they should be preserved in it as a holy and consecrated people.
In the same sense St. John says, ‘The world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever’ (1 John, ii. 17); and again, ‘Whoso hath this world’s goods, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?’