“The question today is not so much one of sinfulness as of worldliness. Who would dare to say you do wrong to eat and drink? Who would dare to disapprove of marrying and giving in marriage? Who would question your right to buy and sell? These things are not in themselves wrong; the wrong lies in the spiritual force behind them, which, through their medium, presses relentlessly upon us…
“Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap” (Luke 21:34). Note the term “life” in Jesus’ words. In the Greek New Testament three words are commonly used for life: zoe, spiritual life; psuche, psychological life; and bios, biological life. The last is the word used here, appearing in its adjectival form, biotikos, “of this life.”
The Lord is warning us to beware lest we be unduly pressed with this life’s cares, that is to say, with anxieties regarding quite ordinary matters such as food and dress which belong to our present existence on the earth…
For it is always a matter of where the heart is. We are exhorted not to let our hearts be overcharged or laden with these things to our loss. That is to say, we are not to carry a burden regarding them that would weigh us down. We are to be in a true sense detached in spirit from our goods in the house or in the field (Luke 17:31)…
There was a time when the Church rejected the world’s ways. Now she not only uses them; she abuses them…”
Watchman Nee (1903-1972) in Love Not the World: A Prophetic Call to Holy Living (Fort Washington: CLC, 1968) 76-77. Here’s where you can find the PDF of the book. I commend it to you, hoping that together we will live detached lives because worldliness hinders our fruitfulness for the kingdom.