Worldliness is a terrible hindrance to the saint. We have the threefold opposition: the world, the flesh, and the devil. The world is opposed to the Father, as the flesh opposes the Spirit, and the devil opposes Christ.

The difficulty lies in not maintaining nearness to Christ, which the world would come in and hinder. Then I am open to all sorts of error, for I shall not take the trouble to be right if I am not near Christ. It is very troublesome and disagreeable sometimes to have to do even with saints: one will not give up this thing, and another that. If we are at a distance from Christ, we shall be ready to give them up, and shall not take the pains to get them right when they are wrong. So Moses said, when in a wrong spirit, “Did I conceive all these people? Did I beget them, that You should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom’?” (Num. 11:12).

Paul says, “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.” You Galatians have got off the right ground, and I must have you, as it were, born again. I am laboring over again for you, that you may be right, because you belong to Christ. When Paul looked at them in confusion, as they were, away from Christ, he could only say, “I have doubts about you” (Gal. 4:20); but when he looked at them as in Christ, he could say, “I have confidence in you, in the Lord” (5:10).

Faith not only sees Christ in the glory, but sees also the connection between the glory of Christ and the saints, the link and tie between God and His people, and it is that which enables one to get on. So Moses said of Israel, not only God was their God, but they are “Your people.” The real hindrance is the world.