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{The Application
Application for the Godly
Directions for Carrying On a Constant Holy Course of Life
Put Yourselves in Upright Condition
Beware of the World}
If you are Christians, Christ has gotten the better of the world, has gotten the preeminence in you, and has subdued the world in your life. If this is so, beware that the world does not regain its dominance in your life. In order that you may be protected from the snares of the world, and that you may best overcome the world as Christians living in it, take these following directions:
Direction: Never Exchange Christ or Anything of Christ
{The Application
Application for the Godly
Directions for Carrying On a Constant Holy Course of Life
Put Yourselves in Upright Condition
Beware of the World
Never Exchange Christ or Anything of Christ}
Never exchange Christ or anything of Christ for the world or anything that is of the world. Never purchase anything of the world at so dear a rate as the loss of anything of Christ. Do not lose any degree of grace in order to gain this world’s goods. Do not lose a spiritual duty to attend to worldly business. Do not enrich your bodies to the impoverishment of your souls.
Whatever possessions or use of this world you may be able to obtain without hurting your spiritual state, enjoy them and be thankful, but beware that the business and advantages of the world do not cause your souls to suffer loss. Take heed that you will never have occasion to say regarding anything you have done or obtained: This has cost me my peace. This has cost me my spiritual comfort. This has cost me a Sabbath, sacrament, or prayer. I have lost a Sabbath. I have lost my communion with God in prayer. I have degraded the life, vigor, and exercise of my grace, and all I have to show for it is some addition to my outward state. I have more of Earth, but that much less of Heaven. I have more gold, but less grace. I have more of this mammon, but that much less manna, and more of the cistern, but that much less of the spring. Beloved, it was never the intent of the Gospel to strip you of this world’s goods, but only to protect you from the mischief of them. But be so watchful, fearful, wise, and wary while managing your worldly business and obtaining or preserving your worldly estates that you do not thereby incur spiritual loss. Live so that you may have these things in addition to, not at the expense of, Christ and Christ will never begrudge them or blame you for them.
Direction: Do Not Let Christ and the World Change Places
{The Application
Application for the Godly
Directions for Carrying On a Constant Holy Course of Life
Put Yourselves in Upright Condition
Beware of the World
Do Not Let Christ and the World Change Places}
Do not let Christ and the world change places or ownership again. If Christ has your hearts, do not let Him be again thrown under your feet.329 If you have gotten the world underfoot, do not let it get up on the throne again. Let it be your servant if you want, but never again let it be your god. Let Christ be your chief. Let Him have your highest esteem. Let Christ be your dearest, the greatest in your affections, and have the greatest command of your life. Let the Word of Christ have more power over you and influence you more than all the gains and glory of the world. Do not let this be your rule: to follow Christ and holiness so far as possible without any harm to your worldly affairs. Rather, let this be your rule: to follow the world only so far as you can do so without being false or unfaithful to Christ. Venture on in holiness to the greatest hazard to your estate, but do not venture after your estate to the least hazard to your Christianity. Resolve to be Christians whether you are rich or poor. But do not endeavor to be rich, except on such terms that you will never be less Christians. Especially take heed that the prosperity of the world does not steal away your hearts. “If riches increase, do not set your heart on them” (Psalm 62:10 NKJV). It is hard to prosper in the world and not prostitute our hearts to it. Temptations of prosperity are the world’s courting, complementing, and wooing of our love. A suitor is more likely to prevail when he puts on his best array and trims up himself in his richest and most enticing clothing.330 Prosperity is the world in its glory. Whenever it presents itself to you in this way, take heed lest you forget God and prove to be adulterers and adulteresses from Christ (James 4:4).
Direction: Do Not Deny the Lord Anything You Have
{The Application
Application for the Godly
Directions for Carrying On a Constant Holy Course of Life
Put Yourselves in Upright Condition
Beware of the World
Do Not Deny the Lord Anything You Have}
Do not deny to the Lord anything that you have. There is nothing you have about which, at one time or another, it may be said to you, “The Lord has need of it.” In which case, let it go. If the Lord says, “I have need of it,” do not say, “I cannot spare it.” Desire to have something only in order to use it, and what you already have, be willing to use it and use it well. Nothing is well used except what is used for God. That which is bestowed on yourselves or your children is misused if it is not bestowed to them for the Lord. Grant God the ownership of all that you have. Write His name upon all of it and give him the title. It is His wool, flax, corn, silver, and gold; use it for Him.
If your lusts, pride, gluttony, envy, sports, pleasures, or sinful companions demand anything to be spent on them or given to them, let your answer be, “It is not mine to give.” When David sent to Nabal asking him for provisions for himself and his followers, Nabal replied, “Who is David? And who is the son of Jesse? … Shall I then take my bread and my water and my meat that I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men whose origin I do not know?” (1 Samuel 25:10–11 NASB). We must answer likewise. What are these lusts? What is this pride? What are these pleasures? Shall I take these good things that the Lord has given me and bestow them on such vile things as these (Ezekiel 16:17–22)? Were these things given me to feed my enemies and the enemies of God, and to feed snakes, adders, vipers, and scorpions? Was the purpose for which God has made me greater than others331 that I might be more wicked than others? Has God made me so that I might be a drunkard or adulterer or so that I might maintain my pride, pomp, and brutish pleasures? Has God made me a rich man so that I might make myself a beast?
Beloved, the Lord has lent to you, not fully given to you, what you have. You are only stewards of His many gifts that He has put into your hands. You must give an account to God for all your receipts and disbursements. Your account will be a lame account if you show any expenditure that is not spent for God. Do not let the cause of God or Christianity lack anything you have. Do not let the poor saints or any of the poor or afflicted of the Lord’s people go without their portions. Do not let it be said of any of you, “They might as well have been beggars rather than rich men for all the good they have done.” This is one who may be numbered among those who have overcome the world: he who has gotten such power over all he has in the world that he can freely dispose of it to its proper use. He is in less danger of finding it to be a temptation and a snare to him.
Direction: Be Content with Unmet Need
{The Application
Application for the Godly
Directions for Carrying On a Constant Holy Course of Life
Put Yourselves in Upright Condition
Beware of the World
Be Content with Unmet Need}
Be able to be content with unmet need. To be content with unmet earthly need is a greater honor and comfort than to possess and enjoy the world. I do not know which is more difficult: to be able to use the world well or to be content with unmet earthly needs. But ordinarily, he who can do one can do both. He who can carry himself as a Christian in his plenty will also be able to carry himself as a Christian in his penury. The apostle tells us that he had learned how to do both: “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:11–13 ESV).332 Worldly people can do neither. They do not know how to be rich or how to be poor. They do not know how to be in esteem or how to be in disgrace. They can bear neither wealth nor poverty. That is, they do not know how to be what they should be in either state. If they are rich and in esteem, they are proud, wanton, riotous, and luxurious. If they are poor and in disgrace, they murmur and are impatient, discontented, and envious of those whose ways do prosper. If they are full, they forget God. If they are empty, they set themselves against the Lord. To be able to suffer lack or to abound is the same as to be able to live as a Christian and to carry oneself as becomes a Christian in both states. It is to be able to stay in a Christian course without being hindered or turned aside by the one or the other. It is to be able to be holy with the world or without it. On the one side, it is to be able to be high and yet humble, honorable and yet honest, and rich in worldly goods and yet rich in good works. It is to be able to bear the burden of wealth without without either sinking spiritually or slackening one’s pace heavenwards. On the other side, it is to be able to be poor and yet patient, afflicted and yet cheerful, tranquil, and contented. It is to be, in the lack of all things, constantly serving the Lord just as others do in the fullness of all things. It is to be able to live by faith even though one never has much else on which to live. It is even to be able to live by faith when one has nothing else.
Christians, if you can be content in need, you will have enough. One who is able to spare that which he lacks has enough. If you can contentedly lack the world, the devil will then lack a temptation. He will be unable to either entice you from or discourage you in your holy course of life. You may then be Christians in spite of all the world.
Direction: Take Heed that You Are Free from the World
{The Application
Application for the Godly
Directions for Carrying On a Constant Holy Course of Life
Put Yourselves in Upright Condition
Beware of the World
Take Heed That You Are Free from the World}
Above all, take heed that you have indeed gotten clear of the world, from under its dominion. People may go far in Christianity, and yet may perish by the world at last. It is dreadful to consider how many sad instances there are among professors of Christianity who have seemed to have much love for Christ and think they love Him sincerely—yet their hearts are secretly chained to the world through spiritual blindness. There have been many professors of Christianity who have made a fair show and given great hopes. Some have risen, both in their own and other’s opinions, even to the highest rank of saints. They are persuaded in their consciences that they are upright with God. And yet, their blind hearts secretly cling more strongly to the world than to Christ. Thus they may perish everlastingly. There may be hidden pride that people may be guilty of and not know it. There is hidden hypocrisy, reigning hypocrisy, that people may be guilty of. Likewise, there is hidden reigning covetousness that people may live, die, and be damned in—and they never suspected it. I fear that this is a more common case than is supposed. Sometimes we see people embracing the Gospel, setting up private and family worship, praying like saints, speaking like angels, melted into tears, raised in joys, separated from the world, fellowshipping with, and in many things holding pace with the best of saints. But we also see them—and are there not such to be seen?—excessively greedy, industriously driving on after the world, constantly busy in joining house to house and field to field, and possessed with worldly cares. They are extremely penny-pinching, stingy, hard-hearted, and tight-fisted toward those who are in need, even many times hiding themselves from their own blood relations. Their worldliness is apparently too hard for their Christianity; Christian duties must generally give place to their worldly business. Their affection to Christ does not diminish their earthly appetite and worldly cares, but their affection to Christ is generally diminished by them. Whenever they have worldly business to do, they can say to duty, “Stand aside,” and to prayer, “Stand aside.” They say to hearing sermons or to meditation, “Give way.” But seldom or never can they say, “Stand aside, world, stand aside, oxen, sheep, trades, and livings. I have a God and soul to look after.” Rather, when they have nothing else to do, they content themselves with using their little leisure time for spiritual duties. Yet nonetheless, because there is something of Christianity kept going, and at times even some strong emotions that way, they thus comfort their blind hearts and conclude that all is well. They may be very plainly dealt with and warned to beware and look to themselves lest they be found lovers of this world and strangers from Christ. Yet, they cannot see it or be persuaded that their hearts are not sincere. What can be thought of such people except that they are likely to die forever by their hidden adultery against God. They will scarcely be persuaded to suspect themselves guilty of this adultery. Look to it that this is not your case.333 Be sure that you have gotten clear of the world and that Christ has the preeminence in your life. The devil will allow you to have some respect for Christ and some affection for Christianity; he will allow your profession, duties, and good company; he thinks: let them pray, hear sermons, and associate with the saints—because so long as the world governs their hearts they are, sure enough, the devil’s captives. Some indeed, who entirely mind earthly things, he holds as close prisoners.334 The devil could wish that all of his captives were in such a case, without the least show or sense of Christianity. Yet those whom he cannot keep under such great restraint, he is content to hold, as prisoners at large.335 Any liberty to pray, hear sermons, and so on, that they may take—and still be prisoners—this the devil allows to them. It may be that you are not close prisoners and the devil allows you to walk abroad now and then, so to speak. He allows you to exercise yourselves in Christian duties, to refresh yourselves with the delights of Christianity, and to feed yourselves with its hope. But even if you are not close prisoners, are you not still prisoners? Oh, do not be contented with being prisoners at large. Oh, let nothing content you short of your complete release out of prison, so that you are no longer prisoners to the world, but Christ’s free people.336
329As gross and blasphemous as this sounds, such sin is far worse.
330The context here includes clothing that is indicative of rank, position, and wealth in society.
331This need not refer only to worldly wealth. All Christians God “raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6 ESV).
332The editor takes this opportunity and liberty to recommend Jeremiah Burroughs’s The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment. Philippians 4:11–13 is Burroughs’s theme passage.
333Here we see how unrepented or secret sins, even just one, are both a serious warning symptom and a cause of spiritual danger. Judas was a thief before he was a traitor.
334Under Roman jurisprudence, some prisoners would be held as close prisoners, that is the equivalent of our modern prisons where the prisoner is never allowed out. See below for more details and the contrast.
335Under Roman law, sometimes those of high rank were delivered to a senator or other person of high standing who would promise to deliver the accused to his trial and was responsible for him. The accused had considerable liberty, or custody at liberty in most cases. This would be somewhat similar to suspects being released on their “own recognizance” under American law. Prisoners held in close custody were in a dungeon, typically chained, as was Paul in the Philippian jail (Acts 16:23ff.). There was also military custody, in which a prisoner was chained to a soldier responsible for the prisoner, as was the case for Paul in Acts 28:16, 30.
336Those who have been long with Christ should take special heed. For whatever reason, a surprising number of visible apostates fall away in old age.
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