Our goal is to die to this world and live for God, I will quote the New Testament and Saints:
The New Testament:
St. Isaac the Syrian gave an excellent definition of the world:
Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov):
( The Word about Man. From the chapter "Earthly Life" ): "The Lord, having expelled man from paradise to earth, placed him there "directly ( i.e., opposite ) the paradise of sweetness" ( Gen. 3:24 ), so that he, constantly turning his gaze to paradise and at the same time nourished by the hope of returning to paradise, would remain in constant weeping of repentance. The placement directly of the paradise of sweetness shows that Adam was given a living memory of paradise, and the earth itself, with its beauty, preserved to some extent even after its curse, resembled paradise. The earth is designated as a place of repentance for the forefathers and for all mankind descended from them. The earthly life of each person is a time given to him for repentance. All humanity on earth must be immersed in repentance, in inconsolable weeping. It must wander there, not attaching its heart to any of the objects with which this inn is furnished, but constantly thinking of its heavenly homeland and striving with all its might to return to it. Labor and suffering—the indispensable companions of repentance and the parents of the humility that gives birth to repentance—must reign on earth, by God's very decree. Man must constantly remember that the Lord has ordained him to eat not only material but also spiritual bread in the sweat of his brow; man must constantly remember that he is on earth in temporary exile, that he is the earth, and that he must return to the earth from which he was created. Everything on earth constantly reminds him of this. He finds himself in a constant state of varied suffering, struggling with his own malice, struggling with the malice of his neighbors, struggling with the elements, struggling with the earth, cursed for his sake and obeying him only through the shedding of bloody sweat. His brothers, snatched away one after another by inexorable death, constantly remind him of this. He is permitted to use from earth only the most essential things, necessary for our earthly journey, not at all superfluous, or anything that would tear one's thoughts away from eternity. All the righteous of the Old Testament Church, who wandered on earth, beginning with Adam, spent their earthly lives in accordance with the purpose given them by God. They lived on earth as in a land of exile, as in a land of mourning and repentance, nourished by the hope of promised deliverance, gazing with the eye of faith into eternity. "They went about," the Apostle says of them, "in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, sorrowful, afflicted: of whom the world was not worthy, wandering in deserts, and in mountains, and in caves, and in the depths of the earth." “ And these all became obedient by faith” ( Heb. 11:37–39 ). “By faith these all died, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and kissed them, and confessed them, as strangers and pilgrims on the earth” ( Heb. 11:13 ).
These words of the Apostle can be applied to few people; few of them lived their earthly lives in accordance with the purpose given to them by God. The fall of man so deeply damaged him that, rejecting a life of sorrow on earth, he chose a life of pleasure and material success, as if triumphing and celebrating his very fall. Some of Adam's children had already begun to lean toward this life of carnal pleasure and success, which kills life for God, paying little attention to the story of paradise and the spiritual state of man, finding full nourishment and satisfaction in the land of exile in their bestial and animal passions. Adam's grandsons strove even more intensely for the development of material life on earth, oblivious to eternity. Finally, all of his descendants, with the exception of a select few, flocked to this life, considering the tale of paradise a fable, an invention of the superstitious imagination. In vain did death sweep humanity from the face of the earth: they continued to live and act as if eternally upon it. Maintaining one's bodily strength by partaking of the necessary amount of simple food gave way to delicacies and gluttony with exquisite delicacies. Quenching one's thirst gave way to the enjoyment of various beverages and to drunkenness. Covering one's nakedness with leather garments was transformed into adorning oneself with rich clothing and utensils. Modest dwellings for refuge and protection from the elements and beasts that rebelled against man began to be replaced by vast and magnificent mansions. Luxury appeared, with its countless demands, which became an insatiable law among a society of fallen men. The lawful copulation of the sexes for the propagation of the human race was transformed into insatiable fornication, counteracting human reproduction. As if this were not enough: people, inflamed by unbridled desire, completely devoid of proper aspiration, invented unnatural sins. The power of spiritual energy began to overcome the insatiable desires and demands of sin-loving man: quarrels, insults, murders, robbery, plunder, war, and conquest arose. Man's verbal power was entirely devoted to securing dark benefits and advantages, used to further sin: lies, deceit, cunning, and hypocrisy appeared. Thus, immediately after the fall of man, a world hostile to God, from its very inception, began to emerge on earth, and over time, it increasingly developed.
The world is the life of men on earth solely for the earth, solely for the purpose of satisfying their sinful desires, for the purpose of carnal pleasure, for the purpose of material success, a purpose completely opposed to that lofty and all-good purpose for which man was placed on earth by God. "The world is a general name for all passions. The world is carnal life and carnal wisdom. Where the movement and action of the passions ceased, there the world died." Thus philosophizes the great teacher of monasticism, Saint Isaac the Syrian ( Homily 2 ). The Holy Spirit commands His disciples to hate this world and renounce it when He says: "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, 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 thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever” ( 1 John 2:15–17 ). “The whole world lieth in wickedness” ( 1 John 5:19 ). “The love of this world is enmity to God: for whosoever will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God” ( James 4:4 ).
Again: all of human society, combined with their sinful lives, combined with their carnal pleasures, with their material success, with their crowding, is called "the world." This world is hostile to God and His servants. "If the world hates you ," says the God-man to His disciples, " know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own: for indeed, ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world; therefore the world hates you" ( John 15:18-19 ). This world has remained and remains alien to both God the Creator and God the Redeemer: it recognizes the persecution and murder of God's servants as service to righteousness ( John 16:2 ).
The head and commander of this world, hostile to God, is a fallen angel; other fallen angels and men led by them assist and serve him in this senseless and audacious warfare. The earth itself and its creatures, formerly subject to Adam, after Adam's fall, became subject along with him to Satan. Satan himself thus testified to his power over the world: having dared to approach the Son of God to tempt Him, he led Him up a high mountain and, having shown Him all the kingdoms of the universe and their glory, said: "All this power and the glory of them will I give unto thee: for it is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I will give it" ( Luke 4:6 ). Satan calls power over the world not his own, but rather delivered unto himself. Exactly: it is delivered unto him. "The enemy who deceived Adam," says St. Macarius the Great , having thus assumed dominion over him, deprived him of all authority and declared him the prince of this age. God first made man prince of this age and lord of all visible things... When he gave in to the enemy's flattery, he also betrayed his authority to the deceiver. Satan was not content with subjugating man and the earth under his power, holding him captive, arousing various passions in him and shackle them, and leading him to serve himself through the service of sin. The thought that had possessed the angel in heaven did not abandon him even in the realm beneath the heavens, where, as in the antechamber of hell, he was cast down from heaven: the thought of becoming equal to God. He brought this to fruition by introducing idolatry on earth. The human race, gradually multiplying on earth, simultaneously increasingly shifted from satisfying needs to satisfying whims and sinful desires. True knowledge of God and self-knowledge are incompatible with such a life! Humans, drowning in earthly cares and pleasures, having become exclusively flesh, have lost the very concept of the True God. But the feeling of reverence for God is an inseparable feeling from the human heart, innate and natural to it: it was not destroyed by the fall—it lacked correctness. Led by this unconscious feeling, humans rendered divine worship to the inventor and parent of sin—the fallen angel and his host of demons. Man deified the representatives of sin—the demons. He recognized the satisfaction of all passions as divine pleasures. Fornication, drunkenness, theft, and murder were honored. Each passion was represented by its own idol or statue. The idol was a symbol of a demon, completely alien to life, completely dead to spiritual sensations... Idolatry embraced all mankind and the entire earth. Only a few chosen people preserved true knowledge of God and worship.
Man, deprived by his fall of the Divine Light—the Holy Spirit—was forced to content himself with his own meager light—reason. But this natural light led very few to the knowledge of the True God. It focused primarily on providing every possible comfort for earthly life, inventing various sciences and arts that only furthered and continue to further the development of sinful living, sealing and consolidating the fall by adorning it with various illusions of prosperity and triumph. Human science, the fruit of the fall, satisfying man, rendering God's grace and God Himself unnecessary, blaspheming, rejecting, and demeaning the Holy Spirit, has become the most powerful tool and instrument of sin and the devil, sustaining and strengthening the fall. The light of men united with the light of demons and formed human learning (wisdom), hostile to God, corrupting man with devilish pride ( 1 Cor. 3:17-19 ). Overcome by the disease of learning, the wise man of this world subordinates everything to his own reason and serves as an idol to himself, fulfilling Satan's proposal: "You will become like gods, knowing both good and evil ." Learning, left to itself, is self-delusion, is demonic deception, is knowledge filled with lies and places the learned in a false relationship both to himself and to everything ( 1 Cor. 3:19 ). Learning is an abomination and folly before God; it is possession by demons. She proclaims her blindness as the most satisfactory knowledge and vision, and thus makes blindness incurable, and the fall it preserves the inalienable property of the unfortunate scribe and Pharisee ( John 9:41 ). "The mind of the flesh is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither can it be. For to be carnally minded is death" ( Rom. 8:7-6 ). The Holy Spirit commands the rejection of earthly wisdom for one who wants to approach God and become a partaker of spiritual wisdom ( 1 Cor. 3:18 ). The Apostle Paul notes that few of the learned accepted the Christian faith ( 1 Cor. 1:26 ); on the contrary, to these supposed and pompous wise men, spiritual wisdom, which is abundantly and perfectly contained in Christ, seemed foolish ( 1 Cor. 1:23 ). Philosophers and artists were the greatest champions of idolatry and enemies of true knowledge of God. After the Christian faith was established in the world, scholarship gave birth to countless heresies and, through them, sought to overthrow the holy faith. The greatest crime—the murder of the God-man—was committed by scholars in the name of their wisdom and in the name of their law ( John 11:49–50).). In our time, scholarship returns pagans who have accepted Christianity to paganism and, rejecting Christianity, reintroduces idolatry and the service of Satan, changing its forms for the most convenient deception of humanity. Rarely, very rarely, is a scribe instructed in the Kingdom of Heaven and brings forth the new teaching of the Spirit before the company of his brothers, clothing this teaching in the old rags of human learning so that it may be more easily received by those who love the old rather than the new ( Matt. 13:52 ; Luke 5:39 ).
True servants of the true God! Study and understand the situation established for you by Divine Providence during your earthly sojourn. Do not allow fallen spirits to seduce and deceive you when they present you with a tempting, false picture of earthly prosperity and inspire a desire for it, a striving for it, in order to thus steal and rob you of your eternal treasure. Do not expect or seek praise and approval from human society! Do not seek fame and glory! Do not expect or seek a sorrow-free, spacious, and completely comfortable life! This is not your destiny. Do not seek or expect love from people! Seek and demand from yourself love and compassion for others. Be content with the fact that the few true servants of God whom you will occasionally encounter along the path of life will love you, approve of your behavior with love and compassion, and glorify God for you. Such encounters were not common even in the flourishing days of Christianity; in recent times, they have become extremely rare.
The majority of people did not recognize the Savior, and this majority is so great that the Word of God considered it correct to attribute the rejection of the God-man and the persecution of His servants to all of humanity. That there are very few people who live in a way pleasing to God, and very many who indulge their sinful and carnal lusts, the Lord testified: "Small is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many are they that enter therein: but narrow is the gate and strait is the way that leadeth to life, and few are they that find it" ( Matthew 7:13-14 ; Luke 13:24 ). "Wisdom ( of God ) was justified by ( a very few ) of her children" ( Matthew 11:19 ): a few chosen ones recognized her, few gave her due justice.
“While serving the world, it is impossible to serve God, and it does not exist, even if it were to appear to the painful gaze of the slaves of the world, and seemed to exist. It does not exist! And what appears to exist is nothing other than hypocrisy, pretense, deception of oneself and others. A friend of the world inevitably becomes, perhaps unnoticed by himself, the worst enemy of God and his salvation. Love of the world creeps into the soul like a thief, taking advantage of the darkness of the night - negligence and inattention to oneself. Love of the world is capable of committing the greatest lawlessness, the greatest atrocities. We see a terrible example of this in the Jewish clergy, contemporary with the earthly life of the God-man. They fell into love of the world: they became infected with a disposition for honors, for glory, for human praise; they became addicted to the love of money and the love of gain; they fell into lust and debauchery; It gave itself over to robbery and all kinds of untruths, and in order to protect its position among the people, it clothed itself in the guise of the strictest pleasing to God, the most meticulous fulfillment of ritual decrees and the traditions of the elders. What was the consequence of the love of the world? A decisive alienation from God, turning into a blinded and frantic hatred of God... The Gospel ascribes to the lovers of the world all the atrocities committed by people, beginning with Cain's murder of Abel. ( Matthew 23:35 ). The lovers of the world during the earthly life of the God-man completed their atrocities by rejecting Christ and committing deicide ( Matthew 23:32 ), and in the last times of the world they will complete them by accepting the Antichrist and rendering him divine honor ( John 5:43 ). Terrible is the love of the world! It enters a person imperceptibly and gradually, and once it has entered, it becomes his cruel and absolute master. Gradually, people have prepared themselves and acquired a mental disposition capable of deicide; gradually, they are preparing themselves, acquiring a disposition and character capable of accepting the Antichrist ( 2 Thessalonians 2:7 ).
St Macarius the Great:
“Christians have their own world, their own way of life, their own mind, their own word, and their own activity; but the way of life, their own mind, their own word, and their own activity are different among the people of this world. Christians are one thing, and lovers of this world are another; between the two there is a great distance. For the inhabitants of the earth, the children of this age, are like wheat poured into a sieve of this earth, and are sifted amidst the fickle thoughts of this world, in the constant agitation of earthly affairs, desires, and interwoven material concepts. Satan shakes souls, and with a sieve, that is, with earthly deeds, sifts the entire sinful human race. Since the fall, when Adam transgressed the commandment and submitted to the evil prince who took power over him, he has sifted all the sons of this age with incessant, seductive and restless thoughts and brings them into conflict in the earthly sieve. As wheat beats in a sieve of a sifter and is continually thrown about in it, so the prince of evil occupies all people with earthly affairs, shakes them, leads them into confusion and alarm, forces them to adhere to vain thoughts, vile desires, earthly and worldly connections, constantly captivating, confusing, catching the entire sinful race of Adam. And the Lord foretold to the apostles the future rebellion of the evil one against them: “Satan asketh you, that he may sift you like wheat: but I have prayed ( to My Father ), that ( your ) faith fail not ” ( Luke 22:31–32 ). For this word and definition, spoken openly by the Creator to Cain: “groaning and trembling ( in anxiety ) shalt thou be on the earth” ( Gen. 4:12 ), secretly serves as an image and likeness for all sinners; because the race of Adam, having transgressed the commandment and having become sinful, secretly took upon itself this likeness. People are brought into sway by fickle thoughts of fear, anxiety, every kind of confusion, desires, and various pleasures of all kinds. The prince of this world agitates every soul not born of God, and like wheat, constantly turning in a sieve, in various ways disturbs human thoughts, causing everyone to waver and catch them with worldly temptations, carnal pleasures, fears, confusion...
Just as the entire human race spread across the earth from Adam alone, so one kind of passionate corruption penetrated the entire sinful human race, and the prince of evil alone is able to sow everyone with fickle, material, vain, rebellious thoughts. And just as one wind can cause all plants and seeds to sway and spin, and just as one night's darkness spreads over the entire universe, so the prince of evil, being a certain mental darkness of sin and death, a certain hidden and cruel wind, overwhelms and spins the entire human race on earth, catching human hearts with fickle thoughts and worldly desires, filling every soul with the darkness of ignorance, blindness and oblivion, not born again and not transferred in thought and mind to another age, according to what is said: " but our conversation is in heaven" ( Phil. 3:20 ) .
...The visible world, from kings to beggars, is in turmoil, in disarray, in conflict, and none of them knows the cause—that is, this obvious evil that arose as a result of Adam's disobedience, this sting of death. Because sin , as a rational force and the essence of Satan, has sown all evil: it secretly acts on the inner man and on the mind and fights with thoughts. People do not know that they do this, driven by some alien force; on the contrary, they think it is natural and that they do it of their own free will. But those who have the peace of Christ and the illumination of Christ in their own minds know whence all this arises. The world suffers from the disease of vice and does not know it .
...Man, having transgressed the commandment and been expelled from paradise, is bound in two ways and by two kinds of bonds: in this world—by the affairs of this world, by the love of the world, that is, of carnal pleasures and passions, of wealth and glory, of property, of wife, of children, of relatives, of fatherland, of place and clothing—in a word, of everything visible, from which the word of God commands one to renounce of one's own free will (for each one is attached to everything visible of his own free will), so that, having renounced and freed himself from all this, he might become a perfect fulfiller of the commandment. Secretly, however, the spirits of evil entangle, dig in, encircle, and bind the soul with the chains of darkness; therefore, he cannot love the Lord as much as he wishes, nor believe as much as he wishes, nor pray as much as he wishes, because, from the time of the transgression of the first man, resistance, both openly and secretly, has taken possession of us in everything. Therefore, when someone, having heard the word of God, enters into the struggle, casts off worldly affairs and worldly ties, renounces and detaches himself from all carnal pleasures, then, constantly directing his thoughts to the Lord, he can recognize that in the heart there is another struggle, another secret resistance, another warfare of thoughts from evil spirits. But if... he does not forcefully renounce the world, does not renounce earthly desires with all his heart and does not desire to cling completely to the Lord, then he will not recognize the deception of hidden spirits of malice and secret, harmful passions, but remains alien to himself, because his wounds are unknown to him and, having secret passions within him, he is not aware of them . "
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...The holy martyr Sebastian beautifully expounded the vanity of the love the world and its pernicious consequences in a homily to those martyrs whose love for relatives and family wavered in their struggle: "...This present life is fleeting and so fickle and unfaithful that it has never been able to maintain fidelity even to its lovers. It has destroyed all who have trusted in it since the beginning of the world; it has deceived all who desired it; it has mocked all who were proud of it; it has lied to all; it has left no one undeceived in its hopes or shamed in their confidence, but has completely revealed itself to be false. Oh, if only it would deceive, and not lead into cruel errors! The most grievous thing is that it leads its lovers to all manner of iniquities. She delights gluttons with gluttony and drunkenness, and incites the voluptuous to adultery and every kind of defilement. She teaches the thief to steal, the angry to rage, the liar to deceive. She sows separation between husband and wife, enmity between friends, strife between the meek, injustice among the righteous, scandals among brothers. She takes away justice from judges, purity from the chaste, reason from the prudent, and good behavior from the moral. Let us also recall the most terrible crimes to which she leads her lovers. If a brother kills a brother, a son a father, a friend kills a friend, at whose instigation were such iniquities committed? At whose behest? Under what hope and trust? Is it not for the sake of this present life, which men, loving incessantly, hate one another and do evil to one another, each seeking his own most prosperous existence? For what reason does a robber stab a traveler, a rich man rape the poor, a proud man offend the humble, and every one guilty of evil persecute the innocent? Truly, all these evil deeds are committed by those who serve this life and desire to long abide and enjoy its love. It, advising all evil to its zealots and servants, delivers them over to its daughter, born of it, eternal death, into which the first humans fell because, having been created for eternal life, they indulged in love for the temporal, enslaved themselves to gluttony, pleasure, and the lust of the eyes, and from there fell into hell, taking with them none of earthly goods..."
Thus, according to the Holy Fathers, the world is deceitful and cunning. One could go on and on with these excerpts, but the purpose of this collection of patristic sayings is merely to provide an example for our fellow Christians to delve deeply into this or that soul-saving theme and to focus their thoughts and experiences on it. It is essential not to skim the surface of these soul-profiting writings, but to delve as deeply as possible into each type of teaching, bringing them to the heart and evoking deep sympathy and a lasting impression.