We live in a world where success in life is determined by the jobs we have, the cars we drive, the clothes we wear, the homes we live in and how popular we are. The world gives us its definition of success every single day through the various forms of media and if we’re not careful, we end up bringing the world’s ways into the churches.

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
(1 John 2:15-17 – ESV)

Do we really realize how much God’s way is contrary to the world’s way? And what should we take away from those 3 verses above?  Let’s break down these verses.

We as believers in Jesus are not to become attached to and have a love for the ways and the things of the world that is equal to or surpasses the love and attachment that we are to have towards God. When it comes to our loyalty to God, there is to be no competition of people or things that we allow to get in the way of our closeness to Him.  When there is, it leads to idolatry and apostasy.

Now let’s ponder the next phrase in the 3 scriptures about the desires of the flesh, desires of the eyes and pride in possessions. The Bible says that these things are not from the Father, meaning not from God. If this is the case, then why are many churches so mesmerized by the things of the world? Because in churchianity, a church’s success is determined by how large its campus is, how many people attend services every week, how famous the leader(s) is and a whole bunch of other nonsense that isn’t Biblical.

Pay attention to verse 17. These things that many churches are holding to as proof that their ministry is thriving are the same things that will pass away and mean nothing in the end. That’s not to say that God can’t make a ministry thrive in an outward way. But the end of verse 17 should make us focus on the key point. The success of a true Christian church is that the church (the Christians) are obeying God. That’s one of the differences between Christianity and Churchianity. One is about simply obeying God, the other is about showing off in the name of God.

“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?
(Luke 6:46 – ESV)

But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”
(Luke 11:28 – ESV)

Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”  Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?”  Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
(John 14:21-23 – ESV)

We should see a pattern here in these verses. Loving Jesus means to obey Him and do what He says. We can not claim to love the Lord and yet do what is contrary to what He says. The Bible makes it clear for us.

When we look at the unbiblical institutional church system and the worldliness that characterizes a lot (not all) of the churches, then we need to ask the question of “why?” There is a lot of exploitation, deception and apostasy within the churches today and there is no way this can be the result of people truly following Jesus Christ. The opposite must be true.

And Samuel said,

“Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
as in obeying the voice of the Lord?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
and to listen than the fat of rams.
(1 Samuel 15:22 – ESV)

Based on the context of this scripture, this is when Samuel comes to Saul and tells him that God is going to take away the kingdom of Israel from him because of his disobedience. Now the reason why Saul was in trouble was because Samuel (speaking on behalf of God as a prophet) told Saul to wipe out Amalek and everything there. Very simple instructions.

But Saul though it would be good to the glory of God that he keep some things for himself, including animals that he was supposedly going to sacrifice to God. Samuel then came and rebuke Saul because he did not obey the Lord.

What can we learn from this example here? Number one, it doesn’t matter what great ideas we may seem to have to advance God’s kingdom, we need to simply do what God says. Sometimes, we can come to a place where we lose faith in God’s ability to accomplish His will and think that we can do it better than Him. But the consequences of such an attitude will always be disastrous to us brothers and sisters.

If we were to follow the Bible, would churches be paying on a building debt that is in the hundreds of thousands per month? If we were to follow God, would we allow worldliness in the church to attract unbelievers or would we simply love one another as Christians and speak the truth? If we were to follow Jesus Christ, would we only emphasize the positive sounding part of the gospel instead of declaring the full council of God’s truth? If we were to follow the Lord, would we try to conquer the world “for Christ” instead of simply living out Christ’s life in us? And the list goes on and on.

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