Conformity To The World

by Andrew Murray

“I beseech you, brethren, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” Romans 12:1, 2.

Do not be conformed to this world. But what is conformity to the world? The opposite of conformity to Jesus, for Jesus and the world stand directly opposed to each other. The world crucified Him. He and His disciples are not of the world. The spirit of this world and the Spirit of God exclude each other. The world cannot receive the Spirit of God, for it does not see Him and does not know Him.

And what is the spirit of this world‘? The spirit of this world is the disposition which encourages mankind to continue in their natural condition, where the Spirit of God has not yet renewed them. The spirit of this world comes from the Evil One-the prince of this world-and has dominion over all who are not renewed by the Spirit of God.

And in what does the spirit of this world, or conformity to it, manifest itself? The Word of God gives the answer, “All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world” (1 John 2:16). The three chief forms of the spirit of the world are: the craving for pleasure or the desire to enjoy the world, the craving for property or the desire to possess the world, and the craving for glory or the desire to be honoured in the world.

And these three are one in root and essence. The spirit of this world is—that man makes himself his own end. He makes himself the central point of the world. All creation, so far as he has power over it, must serve him; he seeks his life in the visible. This is the spirit of the world—to seek one’s self and the visible. And the Spirit of Jesus is—to live not for one’s self and not for the visible, but for God and the things that are invisible.

It is a very terrible and serious thought that one can live a busy, fashionable life--free from obvious sin or unrighteousness and yet remain a friend to the world, and therefore an adversary to God.

The True Church

by John W. Kennedy

In some countries today there is great concern among the large Christian bodies to make the Church popular. Every conceivable scheme is being brought into play in order to attract people to the Church. It is forgotten that the true Church can never be attractive to the world, and was never meant to be. It is something which is completely beyond the world’s understanding. People are brought into the Church through the witness of the Lord’s children who comprise the Church. When the life of Christ is expressed through a spiritual order, believers will maintain a witness that is spiritually effective. Others will be regenerated, and they will be added to the Church, not because they, as worldly people, were attracted to it, but because they have been subject to a divine change which enables them to enter into life on a higher plane. The Church’s mission is not to fit into the world, but to see men changed so that they will fit into the Church.