Accommodation – a process of mutual adaptation between persons or social groups, usually achieved by eliminating or reducing hostility.

James 4:4: “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.”

Accommodation isn’t always bad. If I want Mexican cuisine and you want Italian, accommodating your appetite by choosing Olive Garden over Pancho Villa is a gesture of friendship. No harm to either of us, except possible indigestion. Maybe you want to go to a concert and I prefer an action movie. Navigating such differences in preferences is a daily occurrence. Each of us makes choices to accommodate others and create a smoother, more tranquil environment. 

However, if I choose to adapt my beliefs or alter my behavior to accommodate your beliefs, I have rejected my core convictions and given in to appease you or at least to minimize discomfort between us. My sin is that of thinking that it is more important to please you or others or to fit in than to please God. Christians have always felt the tension between being in the world and being of the world. We live and so must function in a world of conflicting opinions, convictions, beliefs, values, priorities, and behaviors. We must find a way to navigate this maze of conflicts without contradicting our core beliefs. We must make some accommodations in this effort, but if we go too far, we fall into a pit of miry clay called “worldliness.” It is the opposite of godliness and puts us at odds with the God we claim to serve, making us his enemies.

Worldliness – the sinful tendency to conform to the world, to be contrasted with the biblical command to maintain contact with the world while avoiding becoming like the world. Believers are called to live in the world, while not being of the world.

1 John 2:15-17: “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.”

2 Corinthians 6:14-17: Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. 

As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”

Therefore, “Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”

And, “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the LORD Almighty.”

Two aspects of worldliness are presented in the previous verses. First, worldliness involves adopting the values, priorities, and goals of the world system. Falling in love with the world keeps us from recognizing, accepting and following God’s way. I saw on the local newscast that a pro-football rookie had decided to give up a lucrative contract to pursue the ministry. People who have adopted an attitude of worldliness fail to understand the magnitude of such a decision. Neither would they understand the decision of Moses to reject being known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter and to endure hardship with God’s people. The author of Hebrews explains it this way:

“He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.” (11:25-26)

Worldly-minded people would consider such choices as foolish and radical. Why couldn’t this rookie take a few years to play ball and then give himself to another pursuit, after he has become financially secure? Why couldn’t Moses stay in Egypt and help the Israelites as a Prince of Egypt rather than reject that life for the wilderness? Worldly people simply don’t get that God has better plan, though, at the time, the plan may seem foolish, even ridiculous, to them. 

I have often said that the difference between faith and foolishness is not how wise or how ridiculous the plan may seem. The difference is whether this is God’s plan or just my hair-brained idea. God’s ways, being higher than our ways, are not understood by worldly people, so they think those ways are foolish, but Spirit-minded people see God’s hand at work and recognize His wisdom. 

Worldliness is an attitude, a mindset, that accommodates the world system, seeking to be a part of it rather than standing against it.

Second, worldliness also involves relationships. We show ourselves to be worldly when we choose to go along with others (with the crowd) rather than choosing NOT to be defiled by the sinful pursuits of the world (see Daniel 1). Daniel “purposes in his heart” not to defile himself by rejecting the lifestyle to which God had called him. He said “no” to the lavish lifestyle of the king’s court and “yes” to God’s commands, thus receiving the blessing of God upon his life. He even said “yes” to God, though it cost him a night in the lion’s den.

We often think that we can reach people and influence them for God by becoming involved with them in their sinful ways. That’s probably what the Corinthian Christians were saying to themselves, as they were going with pagans to offer sacrifices to the pagan’s Gods and joining in their pagan rituals and feasts there in the idol temples. It seems we overestimate our ability to influence others and underestimate sin’s power to tempt us. The Apostle Paul confronts the Corinthians for falling to temptation and submitting to idolatry and sexual immorality. I’m sure that’s not what they started out to accomplish, but evil has a powerful pull on even the strong-minded. 

1 Corinthians 15:33-34 – Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.” Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God—I say this to your shame.

I often give a spiritual inventory to people I counsel which asks a long series of specific and personal questions. Honest answers to those questions yield spiritual fruit. Here is a sample:

1) Do I love what God loves and hate what God hates? Yes or No

2) Am I hurt by things that hurt the Lord? Yes or No 

3) Do I delight and thrill in things that please the Lord? Yes or No

4) Do I value highly things that God values? Yes or No
(Winning lost souls, His Word, prayer, etc.) 

5) Is my value system:
( ) Eternal (“things not seen”) or ( ) Temporal (for getting all I can right now, “things seen”) 

If you immediate shun these questions or begin to mentally make excuses or justifications, you have already begun to walk the worldly path. Once you start down that dark path, it will begin to dominate your life.

So, what do we do when we realize that we have given in to the ways of the world and begun to develop a spirit of worldliness? When I am headed in the wrong direction, my Maps app barks at me, “Make a U-turn!” You need to turn around and head in the right direction…IMMEDIATELY!

The Bible calls that “repentance.”