'Be not Afraid' Men's conference 2026
Oct 3, 2026 · 29 min · 7 segments
This address was given at the 2026 'Be Not Afraid' Men's conference Hosted by Maximus Men's Ministry & The Sydney Centre for Evangelisation - Recorded and produced by…
Oct 3, 2026 · 29 min · 7 segments
This address was given at the 2026 'Be Not Afraid' Men's conference Hosted by Maximus Men's Ministry & The Sydney Centre for Evangelisation - Recorded and produced by…
Anthony FisherHost
Sixteen centuries ago, the great doctor of the church, St. Augustine, made a striking observation about how Christians are to relate to the world.
If we take sacred scripture seriously, he says, it appears that we are at once forbidden and commanded to love the world.
Preaching on the first epistle of St John, Augustine anticipates the cognitive dissidence of his audience.
If everything is created by God, how can we be forbidden to love what he has made, as John claims? It's a fair question.
"'You adulterous people,' James says in his epistle, "'don't you know that friendship with the world means enmity with God?' "'Do not be conformed to this world,' Paul reverberates.
What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his own soul? No one can serve two masters.
The worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word and make it unfruitful, he says.
If you are to be my disciples, you must prefer me to your family, your friends, even your own life.
but I have consecrated you so you no longer belong to this world and so the world hates you.
My life, my grace, my peace, my children and my kingdom are not of this world.
Yet the same St John, who tells us not to love the world, also famously recounted that God so loved the world, he gave his only son.
And the same Jesus who cautioned that the world would hate his followers, sent them out into that world to join him in saving it.
It's right for us to love our relatives, fellow Christians, neighbours, even strangers.
And scripture commands us to make the most of our friendships and all our opportunities, wealth and work.
So as Augustine observed, we seem to be in a bit of a bind about what the Bible means with that slippery term, the world.
Sixteen centuries ago, the great doctor of the church, St. Augustine, made a striking observation about how Christians are to relate to the world.
If we take sacred scripture seriously, he says, it appears that we are at once forbidden and commanded to love the world.
Preaching on the first epistle of St John, Augustine anticipates the cognitive dissidence of his audience.
If everything is created by God, how can we be forbidden to love what he has made, as John claims? It's a fair question.
"'You adulterous people,' James says in his epistle, "'don't you know that friendship with the world means enmity with God?' "'Do not be conformed to this world,' Paul reverberates.
What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his own soul? No one can serve two masters.
The worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word and make it unfruitful, he says.
If you are to be my disciples, you must prefer me to your family, your friends, even your own life.
but I have consecrated you so you no longer belong to this world and so the world hates you.
My life, my grace, my peace, my children and my kingdom are not of this world.
Yet the same St John, who tells us not to love the world, also famously recounted that God so loved the world, he gave his only son.
And the same Jesus who cautioned that the world would hate his followers, sent them out into that world to join him in saving it.
It's right for us to love our relatives, fellow Christians, neighbours, even strangers.
And scripture commands us to make the most of our friendships and all our opportunities, wealth and work.
So as Augustine observed, we seem to be in a bit of a bind about what the Bible means with that slippery term, the world.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.
