Austin Bible Church
Worldliness is a mental attitude or a way of thinking. Overt acts may or may not result. Worldliness is thought content in the mind and is anything that excludes divine viewpoint and fails to orient to life based on Bible doctrine.
Worldliness is not determined by where you go or what you do, but by what goes on in your mind. Worldliness is any mental attitude which is contrary to the Word or what you think when your soul is controlled by the old sin nature (carnality). When a believer’s thinking is worldly, thoughts good or bad are either from the area of strength of the old sin nature or the area of weakness in the old sin nature. Worldliness is rejection of the need to confess sins to God the Father and be restored to the filling of the Holy Spirit. Worldliness is also thinking that you have to do something for forgiveness. 1 John 1:9.
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9, NASB)
A statement of worldliness can be found in 1 John 2:15. “Love” is a mental attitude - something you think, an absence of mental attitude sins. In Romans 5:5, “hearts” refers to the right lobe of the soul.
“Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” (1 John 2:15, NASB)
“and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” (Romans 5:5, NASB)
To love the world is called “worldliness” where you have a mental attitude of human viewpoint in your mind. The believer is commanded to not be conformed to the world’s way of thinking, but to be renewed from the inside out by the accumulation of epignosis Bible doctrine in the right lobe of the soul. Rom. 12:2.
“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2, NASB)
There are two mutually exclusive viewpoints described in the Word of God - divine viewpoint and human viewpoint. The love of the Father and the love of the world cannot coexist in your mind. They are mutually exclusive. One drives out the other. Isaiah 55:8-9. See category on Divine Viewpoint vs. Human Viewpoint.
“"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," declares the LORD. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9, NASB)
After salvation the first thing that must be straightened out is not what you do, but what you think! You are what you think! Prov. 23:7.
“For as he thinks within himself, so he is. He says to you, "Eat and drink!" But his heart is not with you.” (Proverbs 23:7, NASB)
Three factors are necessary to eliminate worldliness - the filling of the Holy Spirit, daily intake of Bible doctrine via the grace apparatus for perception, and avoiding emotional revolt of the soul. When you are controlled by the Holy Spirit, with the Holy Spirit teaching the human spirit the Word, this causes the right lobe of the soul to be full of epignosis Bible doctrine, which is the opposite of worldliness.