The final 'respectable sin' covered in this book is 'worldliness'. Bridges writes:
"I define worldliness as being attached to, engrossed in, or preoccupied with the things of this temporal life. The things of this temporal life may or may not be sinful in themselves. What makes our attitude toward things that are not sinful worldliness is the high value we put upon them.”
...Worldliness means accepting the values, mores, and practices of the nice, but unbelieving, society around us without discerning whether or not those values, mores, and practices are biblical. Worldliness is just going along with the culture around us as long as that culture is not obviously sinful.” (p.166)
Bridges looks at three areas - money, immorality and idolatry - in illustrating the ways in which Christians can be worldly. As I read this chapter, one of the things I kept thinking about is the way that I feel the pull of the world in relation to my kids. There's so much pressure for them to be like everyone else - to do and be interested in all the same things, to own the same toys and wear the same clothes. It's so tempting to just give in and help them 'fit in' - especially when the line between worldliness and practicality is so blurry sometimes.
I loved the way that he concluded the chapter by suggesting that the remedy to worldliness is to decide to be godly - not just to decide not to be worldly. He refers to the famous sermon by Thomas Chalmers - The expulsive power of a new affection, the main point of which was that 'the best way of casting out an impure affection is to admit a pure one'. (The whole thing is worth a read by the way!). Bridges argues that "we need an increased affection for God that will expel from our hearts our affections for the things of this world.” A good point to end the book.
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