How do we measure our discipleship? How do we know if our spiritual practices are hitting the target? What do you do to assess this on a daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly basis, as an individual or as a group?
Let me include some things Haithabu said in that thread as food for thought.
haithabu wrote:I think of worldliness as the state of society in which its collective values and workings are governed by the effect of the flesh at work in its individual members - ie, when they are governed by their individual needs and desires as described in I John 2:15,16.
When we walk according to the flesh, we naturally tend toward worldliness and so we are drawn toward worldly entertainment and practices, because they serve the flesh. When people chase after power, money or status in any form, that is another form of worldliness, because the flesh also wants those things. And how much is society shaped by these pursuits - even among Christians! When church leaders engage in political machinations to bring through certain agendas, that also is a form of worldliness and the world has entered the church.Do not love the world nor 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 lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.
The collective effect of people walking by the flesh as described in Galatians 5:16-25 and James 3:14-16 is a poisoned social order. But to the extent that believers walk by the Spirit, society is preserved. I believe it is in this way that we are called to be salt in the earth.For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men? For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not mere men? I Corinthians 3:3,4