What Is Worldliness? (John 17:13-19) Part Two

We're answering the question, "What is worldliness?" Our text is John 17:13-19. In this lesson, we're going to learn that Christ followers are to relate to the world as our Lord Jesus did. In order to avoid being worldly, some Christ followers have mistakingly tried to isolate themselves from worldly people. They remind me of the Pharisees during Jesus' time on earth. The Pharisees had the idea that to be holy, you had to avoid all contact with sinners! This is seen by their reaction when our Lord chose a tax-collector named Levi (Matthew) to be one of His apostles (Luke 5:27-28). Then, Jesus went to a dinner party at Levi's house where Levi invited all of his notoriously sinful friends. Luke mentions, "there was a great crowd of tax collectors" (v 29). Luke tells us how the Pharisees and their scribes reacted, (v 30). Another occasion, a Pharisee named Simon invited Jesus for dinner at his home. A well-known sinful woman came in uninvited, anointed Jesus' feet with her tears and some perfume, and then dried His feet with her hair (Luke 7:36-50). Luke calls this woman a "sinner" which means an "immoral" woman. She was a prostitute. Simon was shocked! He said of Jesus, "If this man were a prophet He would know who and what sort of person this woman is who is touching Him, that she is a sinner" (v 39). But our Lord's reason was, "It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick" (Luke 5:31). In other words, what good is a physician who never sees people who are sick? So Matthew tells us that Jesus was known as a friend of sinners (Matthew 11:19). As Christ followers, wanting to be like Jesus, we also need to be in the world, not isolated from sinful people! Here's the issue. I have known Christ followers who have no contact with unbelievers, but they're friends with professing Christ followers who are living in sin, openly defiant to the Word of God! It ought not be so! Apostle Paul says we're not to associate with such a one! Paul said to disassociate with all who said they were Christ followers, but had a consistent pattern of sin (1 Cor. 5:9-11). Where's the balance in all of this? Before we head out to befriend worldly people, a word of God's wisdom is in order. Apostle Paul said, "Do not be deceived: Bad company corrupts good morals" (1 Cor. 15:33). The question becomes, "so how are we to befriend worldly, sinful people without being compromised ourselves? Our answer is found in the next way that Jesus was in the world. We'll continue our teaching in the next part of our lesson. Be encouraged!