We do not live the lives of Christians!

(William Law, "A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life" 1728)

(You will find it helpful to LISTEN to the Audio, as you READ the text below.)

James 4:4, "You adulterous people! Don't you know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God!"

If our daily life is not a common course of . . .
  humility,
  self-denial,
  renunciation of the world,
  poverty of spirit,
  and heavenly affection,
we do not live the lives of Christians!
It is thus plain that this, and this alone, is Christianity: a uniform practice of all these virtues. Yet it is as plain that there is little or nothing of this to be found, even among those who profess to be the people of God.

You see them often at Church—attentive and pleased with fine preachers. But look into their daily lives, and you see them just the same sort of people as others are, who make no pretenses to godliness whatever. They have . . .
  the same taste for the world;
  the same worldly cares, and fears, and joys;
  the same vain and worldly desires;
  and the same worldly activities.

You see the same fondness for worldly honor,
  you see the same pride and vanity of dress,
    you see the same self-love, and selfish indulgence,
      you see the same foolish friendships, and groundless hatreds,
        you see the same levity of mind, and trifling spirit,
        you see the same fondness for diversions,
      you see the same idle dispositions,
    you see the same vain ways of spending their time and money,
  you see the same vain and worldly desires—
as the rest of the world, who make no pretenses to Christianity!

"Do not love the world or anything in the world.
 If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
 For everything in the world:
   the cravings of sinful man,
   the lust of his eyes and
   the boasting of what he has and does,
 comes not from the Father but from the world!" 1 John 2:15-16