The Revolving Door Of Worldliness In Our Homes.

Before we get to today’s article, I just want to mention that am writing from the perspective of a man that has experienced many of the challenges of which I write…. and those spiritual battles continue daily. The articles are implications of what it means to obey the commandment to raise your children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. They require some reflection and are particularly for Christians who, as Peter would say, are diligently seeking to confirm their calling and are making every effort to supplement their faith. Said more succinctly, serious Christians. If you know other believers who desire to walk more faithfully with the Lord, please forward an article to them and tell them to sign up for future articles. Thanks so much!

The Revolving Door Of Worldliness In Our Homes.

For many Christians, the meaning of Jesus’ words to not love the world is clear. There are many places in our world we know we should not attend, many people we should not befriend, and many things we should not see or hear. Why? Because we are spiritually weak and the level of our faithfulness to our savior is not enough to keep us from falling into sin. It is a known fact to any Bible believing Christian even though our ultimate desire is to please God, the flesh is weak. That is, the remaining power of sin, often called the flesh, is still powerfully working within us.

So, even as Christians understand John’s terrible warning, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him (1 John 2:15)”, and we are aware of the weakness of our flesh, we continue to seek out the very things that we have been commanded to avoid. What is happening?

I believe each of us must consider the following possibilities. First, we are blind to what we are ingesting from the world around us. This is a different blindness from what Paul talks about in his second letter to the Corinthians where he says, “The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers.” This applies to the unbelievers, not believers of the gospel, but I believe Christians can choose to remain blind to the ways of the world that inhabited their minds prior to their conversion. These anti-Christian ways may have been taught to them by their parents or picked up through secular education, but the important thing to note is they were taught by others during the most formative time of their life. These “ways of the world” are so ingrained, they can actually bring comfort and joy for a short period of time to the Christian. This is why David, the great king and man after God’s own heart cried, search me and show me! He knew there were things God hated in his life he couldn’t see.

But are these loves for the world excused by God because they were infused into our soul by others? Absolutely not. God demands absolute holiness and makes it clear when He inspired Peter to write, “Do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy (1 Peter 1:14-16).”

Truly, the daily fight for holiness is a brutal war that never relents and taxes our spiritual and mental strength. It is because of this we may be willing to compromise on the battle front and accept losses of spiritual terrain for Christ. In other words, we are prone to tell ourselves we have made enough progress in our goal of becoming like Christ and become satisfied with our present level of sanctification. We can agree with the great lie of the enemy who says things like, nobody’s perfect, or Jesus paid for all of your sins anyway, or you are better than most others, or this or that is really not affecting you. We can believe there is a truce with the great deceiver, all the while he continues to take ground in the battle for our hearts and minds.

Remember the standard and the promise that God would be with you: “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you (Philippians 4:8-9).”

Unfortunately, many Christians express a kind of frustration that they are not growing in their faith, yet they continue to walk in the ways of the world. They don’t see it isn’t another Bible study, or a conference, or more prayer, that will solve their problem (although these are good things), but simple obedience to release their love of certain worldly things.

But if the fight against the world is tough enough for adults, how much tougher for the children? While adults have a level of maturity and wisdom based on life experience, the children have none. When Christian adults need a light to their path, they go to the Word of God, but when children need a light, they depend on their parents.

I am thankful many Christian parents have removed their children from the influence of secular schools and are now homeschooling or using other ways of providing a Christian education for their children. They have come to understand the vital importance of feeding the eyes and ears of their children with teaching aligned with the Bible. Many Christian parents are breathing easier because they believe their children are now in two safe environments- the school and the home.

However, the idea that their children’s minds and hearts are safe is sadly another deception from the one who roams the earth looking to destroy God’s people, even in our homes. How does he get in? He gets in by parents opening the door for him. He glides in on the back of the worldly things the parents love and works to train the children to love the very same things. So, while the parents are praying God will eradicate worldliness from the minds of their children, the parents are allowing their hearts and minds to be trained to love worldly things. It’s like a revolving door- worldliness out while bringing wordiness in- a plan that will never achieve a Christian parents’ goal of creating a foundation for the Holy Spirit to blow the grace of God into their children’s hearts.

So, what are the worldly loves you have? Whatever or whomever they are, do you see your children now love them too? And who are the people they want to be like? Who are they taking their cues from in speech or dress? Who has taught them how to respond to authority? Besides parents as teacher/models, other means from which they learn to think are easy to figure out (anything that connects to the outside world).

And here again, parents can choose to minimize the impact on their children. They can say that a little of this or that will not significantly affect their children, but they will find no words from God’s book supporting the idea of exposing them to the smallest bit of anti-Christian speech or behavior. In fact, just the opposite. Or parents can attempt to minimize the impact by citing the source’s absence of speaking against God’s ways. Unfortunately, we have become so accustomed to following people who never speak for Christ, we think this is meaningless to the King. But this is not true. God demands He be glorified in all things so those who never exalt Him in their speech are not in some kind of neutral position, and our children do not need to learn that kind of neutrality.

Bottom line: Understand the power of worldly influences on your walk with the Lord and how they will affect your home’s battle against the world. With God’s help, be willing to jettison them from your life for the sake of Christ and your children. In doing so, your home will no longer be a revolving door for worldliness but become an exit door for worldliness and an entrance for holiness.