It is no coincidence that the men whom God uses powerfully in the work of
His kingdom always have one thing in common. This is true with the early
church fathers-men like Irenaeus, Origen, and Polycarp. And this one thing
in common is also found with men of a more modern era, whether they be
Martin Luther, John Calvin, or Phillip Melanchthon of the sixteenth century;
John Owen, Thomas Goodwin, or Joseph Alleine of the seventeenth century;
Jonathan Edwards, John Wesley, or George Whitefield of the eighteenth
century, Robert Murray M'Cheyne, Daniel Baker, or Charles Spurgeon of the
nineteenth century, or A.W. Tozer, Oswald Chambers, or Martyn Lloyd-Jones of
the twentieth century. And what is that one common thing? All these men had
a holy hatred of worldliness.
Consider the words of Robert Murray M'Cheyne in a sermon on 1 Peter 1:14-19,
preached in 1838, "My dear friends, if you wish to obey the word of God here
laid before you, flee from all circumstances, from all places or companies,
where you know you may be tempted to sin . . . do you know a company where
holy things are slighted, where things are spoken that should not be named,
where late, unholy hours are kept, where you have already been tempted to
sin? Then, child of God, I charge you not to cross that threshold again, no,
not once. I charge you, flee temptation, pass the time of your sojourning
here in fear . . . I fear, young persons, a holy provocation, after the
holiest exercises, plunging into the unholiest companies, praying in the
house of God, or in a class for religious instruction one hour, and entering
into ungodly company the very next." [1] M'Cheyne hated anything that drew
his people away from God. So should we!
The Apostle John commands us in his epistle not to love the world or the
things of the world. As Martyn Lloyd-Jones so ably puts it [2], John is not
referring to mountains or rivers, nor is he writing generally of life in the
world of family, business, or state. Instead by world John means living
independently of God. It is an outlook, a mindset that ignores God and His
word. John further explains what he means by the world, calling it the lusts
of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life. Simon
Kistemaker [3] calls the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eye sinful
desires while the boastful pride of life refers to sinful behavior.
Lloyd-Jones suggests that the lust of the flesh deals with physical bodies,
living for sensual gratification. The lust of the eye refers to living for
the ungodly values of outward show. And the boastful pride of life means
self-glorification. So by this John is saying that living for the world
means living independently from God, and thus taking and owning the temporal
and sensual values of the unredeemed world.

Paul commands us to put on the Lord Jesus Christ and to make no provision
for the flesh in regard to its lusts (Romans 13:14). We all battle the
debilitating effects of indwelling sin, a strong craving to do the very
things we are commanded not to do. As believers we, at the same time, have a
regenerate heart that loves God and hates sin, giving us a desire to obey
God. So we can say we have within us a pig (indwelling sin) that loves to
eat anything, including garbage; and we have a lion (the Lion of the Tribe
of Judah, the Lord Jesus) which lives within us by the Holy Spirit. The lion
is a carnivore, as it were, which lives off the meat of the word of God. So,
if we feed the pig with garbage then he gets bigger and the lion gets
smaller. On the other hand, if we feed the lion the meat of God's word then
he gets stronger and the pig gets weaker. Holiness comes through a
strengthened lion and a weakened pig. So in order to see progress in
holiness we must limit the garbage we take into our eye and ear gates; and
we must increase the quality and quantity of the meat of the word of God.
And herein lays our problem. Even if we are careful not to take into our eye
and ear gates ungodly music, DVD's, or television programming; even if we
don't read books, magazines, or internet sites saturated with an ungodly
worldview; the simple truth is that we daily battle the lusts of the flesh,
the lusts of the eye, and the boastful pride of life. We are not called to
be hermits. We live in the world. However, after a hard and stressful day of
work, when you finally make it home at night, you may decide to watch a
little television to see your favorite team, or catch a couple of hours of
news commentary before going to bed. Now, I am not saying we should never
watch television, but I am reminding you that television is an amusement (a
means "no" and muse means "to think", that is no thinking), a totally
passive exercise. Neil Postman brilliantly put forth this thesis years ago
in Amusing Ourselves to Death. [4] Just watch your children when they watch
television. What are they doing? Nothing! When you read to them you see in
their eyes their little minds brimming with imagination, and that is a very
good thing.

So here's my proposal-should we not consider a new kind of fasting, a
fasting from anything that feeds the pig and starves the lion! Consider this
analogy-most of us today must be intentional about physical exercise. We pay
money for gym or health club memberships, we join running or cycling clubs,
or we find friends with whom we can walk daily or several times per week.
Coming up with exercise programs was unheard of one hundred years ago.
That's because most people engaged in some form of physical labor or they
walked to work. Today, of course our work and life styles are very
different. We are sedentary and must find ways to maintain or improve our
physical health.

Likewise, due to the incessant exposure to worldliness, perhaps we should
consider cutting back on our television and movie time? We struggle with
progress in holiness because worldly distractions suck the life out of us.
We have far too many options. One hundred years ago there was no television
so people read at night or they talked with one another. Many of us now sit
like zombies in front of the screen for hours. These worldly amusements feed
the pig and starve the lion. Why not fast for a month from television and
other things that feed the pig within you? Should you not at least consider
cutting it way back from present levels, and spend that time in reading,
holy contemplation, or edifying conversation? You will feed the lion and
growth in holiness will surely result.