WORLDLINESS. # 5.

(Editor's note: In our study on worldliness yesterday, we began to notice the need for discrimination in our use of the God-given drives and lawful desires; to keep them from becoming tools of the Devil to use upon our lust. We were using an article on the subject by brother D. Ellis Walker. We now will continue where we left off and conclude this series).

Now for a glance at the emotions. For example, let us consider anger. WE are born with emotion. For instance, stand over a small baby and press his arms straight down by his sides and watch him turn red adn soon he will bellow his rage. This natural emotion must be properly controlled and directed. To demonstrate the idea I am trying to present I offer the following illustration: I once read a story of a peg-legged man who, in crossing a street, knocked a child down, deliberately stepped on it with his wooden leg, and then went on his way without even looking back. A person would have to be terribly calloused not to be angered at a sight such as that. What would you have wished to have done to the man with the wooden leg? Would you have desired to kill him? If so, that would have been lust -- unlawful desire. However great our anger may be, we must so control it that our desires will conform to the Lord's will. Paul says, "Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath." Eph. 4:26.

We need to be careful of our conduct so that we will neither be guilty of unlawful desire nor the cause of it in others. Of course, it is possible for us to be guilty of unlawful desire when there is nothing to provoke it. Peter recognized that there is a class of people who have "eyes full of adultery." 2 Pet. 2:14. Their hearts are so corrupt that the presence of the most modest and innocent person may excite them to thoughts of adultery. However, each one of us should be careful of his speech, dress, and conduct, lest he be the cause of an unlawful desire passing through someone's heart.

IS THERE ANY ESCAPE? How may we keep from loving the world and the things of the world? We must begin with a thorough education in the word of God. Without it we cannot discriminate between godliness and worldliness. Here is the best statement of this matter that I have ever read: "And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and all discernment; so that ye may approve the things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and void of offence unto the day of Christ; being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are through Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God." Phil. 1:9-11.

This thorough education must be coupled with the resolution to put "on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof." Rom. 13:14. The resolution demands that no provision may be made for the expression of a single unlawful desire and at the same time it requires that Christ's will be expressed in one's life. The denial of the flesh's desire is declared to be a crucifixion of it? "And they that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts thereof." Gal. 5:24. Furthermore, the Christian's life is to be so full of spiritual activity that flesh will be unable to express itself: "Walk by the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh." Gal. 5:16.

Let none deceive himself about countenancing anything that will stir up unlawful desire, for lust will surely be seduced by temptation, sin will be conceived and brought forth, and death will follow as the consequence. Therefore all literature, conversation, and associations that stir up unlawful desires must be avoided, for, in the words of James, "Each man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed. Then the lust, when it hath conceived, beareth sin: and the sin, when it is fullgrown, bringeth forth death." Jas. 1:14,15. An unlawful desire in the heart, like the germ of life in a fertile egg, will "hatch out" into the very act of sin, whenever the proper conditions are present.

REMEMBER. Remember: the world with all of its pleasures, treasures, glory, fame, glitter, glamour, etc., will soon pass away. Paul says in 1 Cor. 7:31, "The fashion of this world passeth away." We are temporary residents in this world; or stay in this world is very brief. No wonder that Peter entreats us, saying, "Beloved, I beseech you as sojourners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war agains the soul." 1 Pet. 2:11. The Bible teaches that the person who lives according to the will of God will survive this world and live forever: "And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." 1 Jno. 2:17. Since the world and its lust pass away, "what is a man profitted, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" Matt. 16:26.

Of Moses it is said, "He chose to suffer ill treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasure of sin for a season." Heb. 11:25. He could see the fickleness of sin. Sin is deceptive. Moses knew that it was only for a time that sin could be enjoyed and that then he must pay the wages of sin, death. AWAKE! AWAKE! my brethren. ----Jim W. Sasser.

Lesson One
Lesson Two
Lesson Three
Lesson Four

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