The world is a perpetual caricature of itself; at every moment it is the mockery and the contradiction of what it is pretending to be. But as it nevertheless intends all the time to be something dignified, at the next moment it corrects and checks and tries to cover up the absurd thing it was; so that a conventional world, a world of masks, is superimposed on the reality, and passes in every sphere of human interest for the reality itself. Humor is the perception of this illusion, whilst the convention continues to be maintained, as if we had not observed its absurdity.
-- George Santayana
Some argue that the term “world” here simply has neutral connotations—the created human world. But the characteristic use of “the world” (ho kosmos) elsewhere in the narrative is with negative overtones—the world in its alienation from and hostility to its creator’s purposes. It makes better sense in a soteriological context to see the latter notion as in view. God loves that which has become hostile to God. The force is not, then, that the world is so vast that it takes a great deal of love to embrace it, but rather that the world has become so alienated from God that it takes an exceedingly great kind of love to love it at all.
-A. Lincoln, The Gospel According to St. John (Henrickson 2005), 154.
| Title |
Notes |
Quotes on Worldliness  |
from Grace Gems |
The World Passeth Away  |
Horatius Bonar |
A Kingdom Which Cannot be Shaken  |
Martyn Lloyd-Jones |
Worldly Affections Destructive of Love to God  |
Edward Manning |
Worldliness  |
Iain Murray |
Dueling with Dualism  |
Nancy Scott |
Seven Subtle Snares of Worldliness  |
J. Hampton Keathley III |
The New Heavens and the New Hebrews 12:26-29  |
Charles G. Dennison |
THE WORLD  |
J.C. Ryle |
What is Worldliness?  |
Christopher Alexion |
The Deadly Dangers of Moralism  |
John MacArthur |
Worldliness  |
Faith Presbyterian Church |
The Second Comning: Be Watchful Against Worldliness  |
P.G. Matthew |
Do Not Love the World  |
John Piper |
Do Not Be Conformed to This World  |
John Piper |
Mercy to the Nations  |
John Piper |
Quotes on Worldliness  |
Bible Bulletin Board |
How Do You Know You're a Christian  |
John MacArthur, Jr. |
The Love God Hates (Part 1)  |
John MacArthur, Jr. |
The Love God Hates (Part 2)  |
John MacArthur, Jr. |
The Love God Hates (Part 3)  |
John MacArthur, Jr. |
Securities Against a Hostile World  |
John MacArthur, Jr. |
The Christian's Duty in a Hostile World (Part 1)  |
John MacArthur, Jr. |
The Christian's Duty in a Hostile World (Part 2)  |
John MacArthur, Jr. |
The Christian's Duty in a Hostile World (Part 3)  |
John MacArthur, Jr. |
The Fiery Trial (Part 1)  |
John MacArthur, Jr. |
The Fiery Trial (Part 2)  |
John MacArthur, Jr. |
On Distorting the Love of God  |
D.A. Carson |
Directions Against Covetousness, or Love of Riches, and Against Worldly Cares  |
Richard Baxter |
The Folly and Danger of parting with Christ for the Pleasures and Profits of Life  |
George Whitefield |
Having the Spirit  |
J.C. Ryle |
Expelling Worldliness with a New Affection  |
Sinclair Ferguson |
Modesty: God, My Heart, and Clothes (pt. 1)  |
C. J. Mahaney - Sovereign Grace Blog |
Modesty: The Attitude of the Modest Woman (pt. 2)  |
C. J. Mahaney - Sovereign Grace Blog |
Modesty: The Appearance of the Modest Woman (pt. 3)  |
C. J. Mahaney - Sovereign Grace Blog |
Modesty: A Pastors Concern (pt. 4)  |
C. J. Mahaney - Sovereign Grace Blog |
Modesty: A Word to Fathers (pt. 5)  |
C. J. Mahaney - Sovereign Grace Blog |
Modesty: The Right Adornment (pt. 6)  |
C. J. Mahaney - Sovereign Grace Blog |
Modesty: The Modest Woman's Allegiance (pt. 7)  |
C. J. Mahaney - Sovereign Grace Blog |
Modesty Discussion Questions  |
C. J. Mahaney - Sovereign Grace Blog |
Fashionable Amusements  |
D. R. Thomason, 1831 |
Unchanging Word and contemporary world (MP3)  |
David Jackman - At The Castle |
This World is My Home (.pdf)  |
Thomas N. Smith |
Creation-An Instrument Of The Divine Will (.pdf)  |
Scott Souza, Reformation & Revival 7.3 (Summer 1998): 49-54. |
Training Disciples For Discernment In The World (.pdf)  |
Denis D. Haack, Reformation & Revival 7.3 (Summer 1998): 55-66. |