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The Blight of Worldly Association

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 13, 1916

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 93, No. 35.

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The Blight of Worldly Association

By I. E. KIMBALL

I. E. KIMBALL
ONE of the baneful causes of decay and unfruitfulness in church life is a bias toward fellowship with a world at enmity with God. Christ's followers are not of the world, even as he was not of the world. “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean.” Those who fraternize with worldlings soon have their senses perverted, and think and feel as do their associates.
A deadly malaria lurks in every port, city, and community of the world. Thought and care for the present exclude Christ and the eternal. The atmosphere of disinterestedness in the things which have to do with Christ and his kingdom, with an earnest concern for temporal things, acts as a deadly miasma.
By association with the world we gradually adopt their standards. We sup from the cup of their pleasures. We are leavened by their worldliness and careless indifference, and our lives become so conformed to the worldly life that in practice there is no difference. We talk and dress and act and think as they do.
Why so belittle the gospel? Why do the candidates for heaven love the things that God detests, and mar all the perfect working of the Spirit? Are we really willing to misrepresent our Lord, and frustrate all the other possibilities of the gospel? Do we not realize that those who would win must strive and fight? Why so fickle, why so little burden to represent the gospel rightly before the world? Our anxiety and care for the present almost exclude the eternal. In working so anxiously to carry our ownburdens, we refuse to take Christ's burdens.
We should realize that lukewarmness is an awful curse, and makes one a stumblingblock to seekers for the kingdom. How terrible the curse which came upon ancient Israel for associating with worldlings, who soon became thorns in their flesh and destroyers of their heritage! The Lord calls such union spiritual adultery. Intermarriage with unbelievers was the sin which caused the flood. It unites the temple of God and the temple of idols, making one house of desolation, and brings back again the reign of Jezebel and the idolatry which stains the heritage of Jehovah.
The church is espoused to Christ. She is his bride, his only beloved, and is soon to be queen in the realms above. She should now be as a “chaste virgin.” The Bridegroom has shown his fidelity in pouring out his soul unto death for her, and she has given her word, her hand, and her heart. And “as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee.” The Bridegroom is ready, and the marriage is soon to take place. Why so much delay?—The bride has not yet “made herself ready.” She has not yet donned her “fine linen, clean and white.”
New York City.