Can Christians live worldly lives?

Can a Christian spend his time and life on things of the world? For example: Sports, TV, Media, Entertainment, Recreation, Arts, Science, Literature, etc.

Or should a Christian rather spend his life and time on the things of Christ? For example: Ministry, Missions, Preaching, Philanthropy, etc.

Must a Christian fully devote his life to Christ, or can he still indulge in the world and have no shame?

I am curious, because part of me, that is, my mind, knows I should give up everything worldly, like video games and cookies. But another part of me, that is, my body, wants to keep these things and enjoy them.

How should a Christian live?

I intend this thread to be very long, so please, share your thoughts, and God bless.
 
That's a complex set of questions, I'll try to express my replies as clearly as possible.
We are called to be seperate from the world, Jesus stated that rather flatly, but that does not mean IMNSHO that
we cannot indulge in innocent worldly things. Especially if we would use those things to further the glory of God.

In food, as long as you have not entertained gluttony or the sin of delicacy, I see no reason not to eat as you please and enjoy your food.
Just remember the God that has provided it for you.

In clothing, modesty should always be observed. However well made and stylish clothes would be a better way to express the advantages
of a Christian life than dressing like a homeless vagabond.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of jewelry or makeup, so I'd limit that as much as feasible, thus - caveat emptor.

Video games, though very enjoyable for some, tend to stress violent or unsavory activities and can bee immense time wasters.
I remember when online RPGs first became popular, people wasted months of their lives playing them.
They didn't call Everquest "Evercrack" for nothing. All in all, if you don't have the will to limit your game time - avoid them.

Sports have become a god in and of itself in the US. Most men I know spend a rediculous amount of time worshiping at the altar
of televised sports. Thankfully, for some reason I never caught the bug. As with video games, don't let devotion to this become an issue.
Distractions only become demons when you make them gods.

To boil it down to a sentence, it's all about perspective "where your heart is, there will your treasure be also".
Where do you want to keep your treasure?
 
At least people who call themselves "Christians" can go to hell...since it is "unbelief" and or rejection of God that places us in a state of condemnation it is not possible for a genuine "Christian" to EVER go to Hell since "faith" (i.e., belief, trust, etc.) is why and how we receive the Spirit in us and when that happens we are no longer a mere human but a beni-Elohim (a child of God...a real actual spirit person after the order of Christ)...this old man is judged and pronounced condemned but the new man is a whole NEW type of creation...its acceptability before God is based on what He did not on what we do or did...
 
At least people who call themselves "Christians" can go to hell...since it is "unbelief" and or rejection of God that places us in a state of condemnation it is not possible for a genuine "Christian" to EVER go to Hell since "faith" (i.e., belief, trust, etc.) is why and how we receive the Spirit in us and when that happens we are no longer a mere human but a beni-Elohim (a child of God...a real actual spirit person after the order of Christ)...this old man is judged and pronounced condemned but the new man is a whole NEW type of creation...its acceptability before God is based on what He did not on what we do or did...
Then why do Jesus and all the NT writers preach to us not to walk in the flesh/world/etc. ? Can we have the blood of Jesus cover us and still walk in these ways?
 
So....
Remember... We are called to be IN the world - which means that we are a part of culture... We interact with culture... We live our lives IN the world..... We are not to be hiding ourselves from the world....

Refer to Galatians... We are not to put ourselves into bondage to Moralism.... Moralism is just as much a path to NOT find God as Hedonism and Narcissism is....

Here's my simplest boiled down definition of Sin....
Sin is setting your WILL against God's Will....
PERIOD!

So... are you setting your will against God or not by doing these actions? Are these specific things highlighted things that are wounding or Scandalizing you personally? Injuring your walk with Christ? Incapacitating you against ministry?

If not... then ignore the Ascetics...
 
It depends on the person's heart. I enjoy cookies and video games during my downtime, but I don't live for those things. I'm not in the mission field but when I get an opportunity to talk about Jesus with a co-worker or with a stranger, I am ready to tell the Good news of the Kingdom. Each person has to be honest with themselves and ask themselves is Jesus a priority in my life. Am I being loving and spreading the good news no matter where I am?
 
Then why do Jesus and all the NT writers preach to us not to walk in the flesh/world/etc. ? Can we have the blood of Jesus cover us and still walk in these ways?

No and yes..it is possible since we have free will to choose to reject God and the knowledge of God but what this shows is that we were not really "saved." Otherwise the gift of eternal life would cease but eternal by definition does not cease. John tells us (and He was taught by Jesus) that if they go out from among us they were never one of us. Remember the parable of the ten virgins? They were appearing to be Christians (inside the bridle chamber) but He says to the five who had never been filled with the Spirit....go from me I NEVER knew you....Tares (Darnel Wheat) look exactly like real wheat until enough time passes then it becomes apparent they were NEVER really wheat in the first place. You shall know them by their fruits.
 
Last edited:
I don't want to be the one Jesus says to on judgement day, "I never knew you, depart from me, you who work lawlessness!"

Then don't be....choose each moment by moment to believe Him and follow Him... striving toward maturity (called perfection) one may occasionally falter or fail but this is not the same as assuming one is saved and living the worldly life (doing whatever is right in ones own eyes and seeking to do those things called sin....(adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulation of worldly people and ways, unresolved wrath, creating strife, practicing sedition, heresy, envy, murder, drunkenness, letting filthy communication spew forth, speaking curses, unforgiveness, stealing, gossip...and so on)
 
I think that Jesus told us to go into the the world, but maybe not like in the Prime of Miss Jean Brodie in which Mary McGregor, played by Jane Carr, goes to fight in the Spanish Civil War with no training or knowledge of the conflict. He must have meant more like in Other People’s Money in which Larry Garfield, played by Danny Devito, does not “take money from widows and orphans.” He makes money for widows and orphans.

I think that Jesus told us to go into the the world, so that is what I’m going to do. For example, today in biology we dissected a fish. Its gooey guts stunk, like the some of the world stinks, like the world I know from media, or the world I read about in the Bible. Some of the students refused to touch the fish, something like Saint Peter refused to eat unclean food, or like Andrew Jorgenson, played by Gregory Peck, in Other People’s Money refused to do the the right thing to save his company. In the fish’s stomach I found a squid. If I had not cut open the fish, I would not have found the squid. Not opening the squid is something like the servent who barried his talent. So, I think that I must let my light shine on the hill or invest my talent in the world, so the world’s squid’s will know I’m a Christian.

Of course, I’m not sure in what from that might take, and some worry that going into the world will expose me to evil like in “The Sisters,” the first chapter of the Dubliners by James Joyce. Frankly I wonder how that matters because the boy in the Dubliners is exposed to evil even though he lives under the priest’s care, and he should be relatively unexposed to sin.
 
Last edited:
Can a Christian spend his time and life on things of the world? For example: Sports, TV, Media, Entertainment, Recreation, Arts, Science, Literature, etc.

Or should a Christian rather spend his life and time on the things of Christ? For example: Ministry, Missions, Preaching, Philanthropy, etc.

Must a Christian fully devote his life to Christ, or can he still indulge in the world and have no shame?

I am curious, because part of me, that is, my mind, knows I should give up everything worldly, like video games and cookies. But another part of me, that is, my body, wants to keep these things and enjoy them.

How should a Christian live?

I intend this thread to be very long, so please, share your thoughts, and God bless.


Complicated. From my own position, I've both tried and been tempted. Somehow I know I don't belong though and over time while I still like "worldly things", they at the same time have a sort of emptiness about them, you may want more of them (eg I'd like a new camera) but you know you are on an endless trail of wanting more and they never really give the long term satisfaction you desire...

I (with one or two problems...) have never really found that solid platform on which the wise man build his house but I want it. Much else IMO is useless really but I still get toys... I can't really explain my "if I could just get free" feelings to anyone but I seem to run from one disaster to another.

On the other hand some Christians do seem to me to be able to do what I might call substituation therapy, eg. swapping commercial chart music for commercial Chhristian music and seem to live in a sort of "parallel worldly" universe I equally don't understand...
 
At least people who call themselves "Christians" can go to hell...since it is "unbelief" and or rejection of God that places us in a state of condemnation it is not possible for a genuine "Christian" to EVER go to Hell since "faith" (i.e., belief, trust, etc.) is why and how we receive the Spirit in us and when that happens we are no longer a mere human but a beni-Elohim (a child of God...a real actual spirit person after the order of Christ)...this old man is judged and pronounced condemned but the new man is a whole NEW type of creation...its acceptability before God is based on what He did not on what we do or did...

Now that is correct IMO.
 
Complicated. From my own position, I've both tried and been tempted. Somehow I know I don't belong though and over time while I still like "worldly things", they at the same time have a sort of emptiness about them, you may want more of them (eg I'd like a new camera) but you know you are on an endless trail of wanting more and they never really give the long term satisfaction you desire...

I (with one or two problems...) have never really found that solid platform on which the wise man build his house but I want it. Much else IMO is useless really but I still get toys... I can't really explain my "if I could just get free" feelings to anyone but I seem to run from one disaster to another.

On the other hand some Christians do seem to me to be able to do what I might call substituation therapy, eg. swapping commercial chart music for commercial Chhristian music and seem to live in a sort of "parallel worldly" universe I equally don't understand...
Spot on! As the English say! Everyone has a God-sized hole in their heart and they try in vain to fill it up. Some buy "stuff" and others eat "stuff" and others drink "stuff" or even use "stuff" to try and fill it. In the end, only the Holy God can fill it. Once you realize it, you'll be richer both spiritually and physically! :D
 
Can a Christian spend his time and life on things of the world? For example: Sports, TV, Media, Entertainment, Recreation, Arts, Science, Literature, etc.

Or should a Christian rather spend his life and time on the things of Christ? For example: Ministry, Missions, Preaching, Philanthropy, etc.

Must a Christian fully devote his life to Christ, or can he still indulge in the world and have no shame?

I am curious, because part of me, that is, my mind, knows I should give up everything worldly, like video games and cookies. But another part of me, that is, my body, wants to keep these things and enjoy them.

How should a Christian live?

I intend this thread to be very long, so please, share your thoughts, and God bless.

The kingdom of God is not about what we may eat and drink, the kingdom of God is within you, it is who we are when we participate in these events considered worldly. In Christ we are in this world, but we are not of it. Christ frees from the stipulations laws for tradition would place on us.
 
Can a Christian spend his time and life on things of the world? For example: Sports, TV, Media, Entertainment, Recreation, Arts, Science, Literature, etc.

Or should a Christian rather spend his life and time on the things of Christ? For example: Ministry, Missions, Preaching, Philanthropy, etc.

Must a Christian fully devote his life to Christ, or can he still indulge in the world and have no shame?

I am curious, because part of me, that is, my mind, knows I should give up everything worldly, like video games and cookies. But another part of me, that is, my body, wants to keep these things and enjoy them.

How should a Christian live?

I intend this thread to be very long, so please, share your thoughts, and God bless.
A really really hard question! This is my opinion.. Whatever we do, must be for glory of God.. That is the key.. A sports person (let's say a tennis player) can bring glory to God by acknowledging that the talent is God given and nothing of his own. Or else he can boast on his abilities. Now the act of being tennis player or playing tennis itself is not a sin. The motives is what is important. So it is not necessary that everything of this world is wrong. For example wealth. Even Lord uses wealth to bless a person..

On the other hand, there are many things of this world which can never bring glory to God! For example, adultery and all those sins which NT condemns. Bible instructs to stay away from such wordly things..

Just think about the converse. A person can be in ministry and still not glorify God! A person can live in a remote forest without anything of this world and still not bring glory to God. So I would always say motive of the heart is what that matters.. And only God knows the depth of human heart
 
Back
Top