Who exactly is "worldly?"

Believers, the bible shows us that committing acts of sin is not what makes people sinners. See Romans 5:19 -

"For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous."

People are made sinners because of the sin nature that was inherited from Adam and not because they broke the law. Acts of sin are simply products of having this sin nature. To be "worldly" is to have this old/sin nature that was passed down from Adam. One has this sin nature if he believes that it is his own obedience to the law that makes him right with God and not Christ’s obedience, as it is written in Romans 5:19 above.

This sin nature or "worldiness" is not a feature that is stamped on people's foreheads. It is not defined by purple hair or by prostitution. It is like HIV. Many people who have the virus (like the sin nature) do not exhibit any of its symptoms (like those with no visible acts of sin.) No one discriminates against such. People even praise them for being perfectly healthy (sinless and righteous.) But they are not. Others have full-blown AIDS (sinning outwardly and copiously) and many ignorant people shun or condemn them. These represent the people that we deem to be "worldly" because they are sinning outwardly; but they share the same virus (sin nature) that is in those with no symptoms. The virus makes them the same.

Now imagine a doctor giving an HIV-positive person a clean bill of health because he has no AIDS symptoms, when he can easily infect others with the virus! Imagine him telling his patient with full-blown AIDS: "Just treat your tuberculosis and skin rash and you will be okay." Very silly, we think. We know that the cough and rash are mere symptoms of the HIV within.

But many doctors (pastors) are doing this in many places of worship. We hear things like: "Obey the Ten Commandments or else God will punish you." "How can you enter the kingdom of God when your skirt is so short and your wig so long?" There was even a heated debate on giving tithes as a means of getting God's blessing. Wonderful as these things are, paying tithes, trying to obey the Ten Commandments or doing evangelism IN ORDER TO enjoy God's blessings of salvation, health, wealth and wholeness is as useless as an HIV/AIDS patient trying to make himself whole by treating only his symptoms. As it is with AIDS symptoms, acts of sin, the curse, depression, sickness, ageing and death are mere symptoms of the sin nature within.

For the sufferer to be made whole, the virus (that old nature that all mankind inherited from Adam) has to be removed. Once this is done, health will return to the body. Christ came to get rid of this sin nature and to give us His life. Telling people to obey the law or do certain things by their own power in order to be made right with God and thus saved will only worsen their case: sin will multiply. See this in Romans 7:5-

"When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death."

The very law that people are trying to keep causes them to sin more. This ties in with Romans 6:14 "For sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under Law but under Grace." Sin HAS dominion over those who are trying to keep the law in a bid to be right with God.

Those who believe that it is their law-keeping that makes them right with God have the Adamic sin nature. Christ gave Himself to redeem us from this old/worldly/sin nature. In Him, we are dead to sin. And this is the result: Romans 7:5-

"So, my dear brothers and sisters, this is the point: You died to the power of the law when you died with Christ. And now you are united with the One who was raised from the dead. As a result, we can produce a harvest of good deeds for God."

Remember "For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous." The sin nature from Adam is like HIV. Everyone descended from Adam was born with it. When activated by the law that many are trying to keep, it produces "a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death." Death here covers guilt, condemnation, fear (of judgment for sins committed,) worry and anxiety, stress, silly mistakes, unproductiveness, sickness, lack, poverty, depression, fast-tracked ageing, physical death and the second death.

Christ died this death for us and as us. Because of His finished work, we no longer have to try to keep the law to get right with God or make it to heaven. He made us right with God. We are made righteous by His obedience and not our own useless efforts at keeping the Ten Commandments. W are united with Christ who was raised from the dead. Alive. No longer under law but under grace. The Lord is our Righteousness.

In Him, we get to "produce a harvest of good deeds for God." In Him, we get to be free from the process of death that we were doomed to face as a result of Adam's disobedience. Instead of this death, we get to reign in life (Romans 5:17 NKJV.) We get to live in triumph over sin and death (the entire process of death) as it is written in Romans 5:17-

"For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one Man, Jesus Christ."

Beloved of God, trying to keep the law in order to get right with God or curry His favour is to be "worldly" and to reject the gift of righteousness that Christ died that we might have. This has dire consequences. Galatians 5:4- "For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace." By God's grace, let's not be found here.

With Christ, He gives us all things FREELY. (Romans 8:32.)

Believe Right and you will Live Right.