How much less unworldly are we than when we were first saved? Could we imagine an angel from heaven taking pleasure in worldly affairs? All such things are perfectly foreign to a heavenly being. And what are Christians? They are a heavenly people—"Our conversation (citizenship) is in heaven: from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ" (Philippians 3:20). They are no more of the world than Christ their Lord. Hence it follows that insofar as we have any fellowship with the world, we are false to Christ—"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him" (1 John 2:15); "Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God" (James 4:4).

However, if we come to the Word with relish and hunger, if we esteem it more than our necessary food, if this Holy Word of God were the first object each day of our lives, worldliness could not lift up its head in a Christian's life and his steps would be pleasing to his Saviour—"Order my steps in Thy Word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me" (Psalm 119:133).

There is not true repentance in its full sense until people judge the whole condition of the world about them: it is all wrong because it does not give Christ His place. God has not only sent His Son to save us from sins and judgment and hell, but to save us from a world that gives Him and Christ no place—"Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father" (Galatians 1:4). A Christian will never take one step in a good sense until he has the world under his feet.

—Philip H. Canner