15. Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16. For everything in the world--the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does--comes not from the Father but from the world. 17. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever. (1John 2 15-17)
Every heresy, every neglect or denial of God’s truth, weakens the spiritual life. The rejection of the faith in the divinity of Christ, of the atonement through blood, or justification by faith, or regeneration by the Spirit, endangers the life of the church. But of all heresies the worst, the heresy of heresies is a worldly spirit. It dispossesses the Spirit of God and makes every truth powerless. It brings the church into subjection to the god of this world. If there is one prayer we need it is this: Lord, show us what thou meanest: Not of the world! As we see what it is to have a supernatural life and calling, and what a shame to sacrifice this to a worldly spirit, and are able to judge how far this is done in the church, our whole heart will cry out for revival as the one only thing that can help the church.
