"I try to live in the real world."

"Yeah, I want my children to grow up in the real world."

"I certainly don't want to shelter my kids from the real world."

Sound familiar?  It's common sentiment, often from the mouths of Christians.  It probably means different things to different people.  However, the context of some of these sentiments seems to contradict what God wants for us in Romans 12:2:

"And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." 

AND DO NOT BE CONFORMED TO THIS "WORLD...."

In fact, God has a great deal to say about this present world system - and none of it is especially good.  Let's evesdrop: 

 "Love not the world, neither the things of the world.  If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

"For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

"And the world passeth away, and the lust of it; but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever."  (I John 2:15-17).

For certain Christians need to live with a strong sense of reality (I Peter 5:8).   Of course, that reality must be grounded in the Word of God. Almost certainly, when Christians speak of "the real world," they are aware of the following:

1.  Jesus Christ is the Light of the world.  (Jn. 8:12;9:5)

2.  The world cannot receive the Spirit  of truth; only those called out of the world do so. (Jn. 14:17; I Jn. 3:1; 4:4-6)

3.  Christians are not of the world but have been called to be separate from it, i.e., from its moral and spiritual attributes.  (Jn. 15:18; 17:14,16; I Cor. 5:10-13; 2 Cor. 6:17; James 1:27; I John 3:1).

4.  The friendship of the world is enmity with God.  (James 4:4)

5.  Satan is "the god of this world" (2 Cor. 4:4) and he has blinded the spiritual eyes of them that do not believe on Christ. (2 Thess. 2:9-12).

6.  The present world is going to vanish away in destruction and eternal judgment (2 Peter 3:7-11; I John 2:17; Rev. 3:10)

May I say to you that we need to be careful how we use that term, "the real world," remembering that we must NOT be conformed to this world (Romans 12:1). 

The "real world" for the child of God is described in the following verses, and my friend, I hope this is the world to which you aspire today:

"Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, in which dwelleth righteousness.  Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, blameless.  (2 Peter 3:13,14)

"For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ...."  (Philippians 3:20)

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EXPLANATIONS:  The term world  is used in the King James Bible (KJV) in several ways:

(1)  the natural or created world (Greek kosmos) - perfect in creation but tainted by the fall and resulting curse (Gen. 3:15-19)

(2)  the world of humanity, the world's population, the known world (Greek oikoumrne) - usually with no negative moral connotation

(3) an "age" (Greek aion) as in Mt. 28:20; Eph. 3:21, etc.)

(4)  the present socio-political system under which Satan has organized the world of unbelieving mankind "upon his cosmic principles of force, greed, selfishness, ambition and pleasure."  (New Scofield Reference Bible, Oxford University Press, pg. 1365).  It is to this connotation that the term world  is connected in a negative moral and spiritual sense.   (2 Cor. 4:4)