Have you ever heard any of these statements, or ones like them? Have you ever said them? These sayings are ones that I have heard many times in my life, often from people who I otherwise consider to be exceptionally strong and faithful Christians. I have even had older brethren tell me that they are glad that they will not have to be around to deal with the problems in the world that I will have to deal with as I get older. For most of my life, it has seemed like the prevailing feelings about the state of the world are not only that things are bad right now, but that they will continue to get even worse in the future.

These statements and this attitude are problematic. I think that most brethren saying these things to younger Christians intend them to be an encouragement to prepare them for the future, or at least to show sympathy with trials, but in reality these statements can be some of the most discouraging ones we give. It tells us to discard any good things that happen as exceptions, and that our work to spread the gospel and help those around us is ultimately doomed.

These feelings that the world is getting worse than ever and that times used to be better are reflective of a kind of spiritual pessimism. This pessimistic attitude can be damaging to our own mental health and discouraging to the people around us. It causes us to focus on only the bad things going on in our lives, and to forget what we are supposed to be accomplishing in our labors. Most of all, this attitude is one that the Bible tells us is not reflective of reality.

The Nature of the World

We often feel like we are seeing increasingly more terrible things on the news, or seeing more worldly behavior in our friends or family members. In fact, it may be true that there are some things now that are worse than they were decades ago. I could point to many individual changes in law or culture that have turned towards the worse. However, it is important for us to understand that the nature of the world has always been sinful, and that fact has not changed since Jesus and his apostles told us as much two thousand years ago.

John 15:18-20 (ESV) “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.”

1 John 2:15-17 (ESV) “Do not love the world or the things 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 desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”

Even Solomon in the Old Testament could see that there is nothing truly new in the apparent changes of the world.

Ecclesiastes 1:8-10 (ESV) “All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. Is there a thing of which it is said, ‘See, this is new’? It has been already in the ages before us.”

Some of these feelings that the world is getting worse are ones of our own creation. We put on rose-tinted glasses and look back on our memories without seeing that there have always been problems. We might not remember the things that used to be even worse in the past and that have since gotten better. We might be looking back at times in our lives where we personally had things easier, and thinking that means the whole world was the same way. Perhaps, if we truly are growing as faithful Christians, we have become more Christ-like in our lives and the world now looks worse in comparison to our own spiritual improvement.

Other times, we are deceived by the world into thinking that it is closer to us than it actually is. If you feel like the world used to be more friendly to Christians, or that it used to be more moral and righteous, that was probably only true on a surface level. We need to remember that the friendship offered by the world is one that is shallow at best, and dangerous at worst. One of the tactics of our adversary–one which we see him using as far back as the Garden of Eden–is to convince us to join with the world by pretending that it is not as bad as God tells us it is. We cannot be friends with the world, even and especially when the world feels like it is a friendly place.

James 4:4 (ESV) “You adulterous people! Do you not 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.”

Philippians 2:14-16 (ESV) “Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.”

Living Optimistically

So how are we supposed to be living? The Bible tells us that we are supposed to be filled with a great hope for our future, and people who are filled with hope are not pessimists about their lives. Christians who carry this attitude are telling the people around them that they are not filled with hope. It pushes people away and harms our credibility when we are trying to convince others to be saved. Our attitude should be one that makes us the lights in the world that Jesus desires us to be.

This does not mean that it is wrong to talk about trials or difficulties, or to identify and call out where the world is acting sinfully. The Bible is full of examples of faithful people who lamented their tribulations and shared their sorrows with both each other and with God. However, it does mean that we need to temper these statements with optimism for the future. Not just an optimism that comes from positive thinking, but an optimism that comes from our faith and trust in God.

Every generation is going to deal with different obstacles and is going to have unique opportunities. People around my own age, who are entering into the beginning of adulthood, are going to have different problems in our lives than the generation of children who are being born now. My generation is going to have a lot of valuable advice and teaching for those children once they grow up, just as I received valuable advice and teaching from those who are older than I am. However, that teaching needs to be teaching that is encouraging and uplifting, not teaching that discourages us into despair.

The world is always going to give us problems, and it will probably always feel like things are worse now than they used to be. It is our duty to one another as brothers and sisters to be encouraging one another so that these feelings do not prevent us from serving God and from spreading the gospel to the world. Whatever difficulties we are facing, whether common to the world or unique to our lives, we are always able to trust in the power of God who is standing with us.

Matthew 6:25-33 (ESV) “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”