In the world, but not of it (John 17 :11-14).
It is safe to say that there is nothing more ensnaring and ruinous to the Christian's testimony than world-bordering. In view of the importance of the subject, let us search the Scriptures of truth as to it, for there alone can we hope to find certainty as to what the world is, and what is the Christian's relation to it.
It is unquestionably little understood, even by many Christians, that the world is at enmity with God; so much so, that "whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God " (Jas. 4:4). The origin of this breach is not hard to find. Man, in the very beginning of his history, thought by harkening to Satan he would himself become as God (Gen. 3:5, 6). Instead, he found himself Satan's dupe and slave. Then began a condition of things which is called the world, of which Satan, the usurper, the liar and murderer, became the god and the prince, demanding both its worship and its submission. Man is therefore expelled from paradise as a rebel under sentence of death, and as such becomes father of the whole human race who, born of him and like him, are " by nature children of wrath " (Eph. 2:3). Man, therefore, is by nature an enemy of God, needing to be reconciled to God before any happy intercourse can exist between them. Deferring the execution of the sentence, God has in sovereign grace been bearing with the heirs of wrath; but that mercy is their only hope surely ought to be plain; and the fact that men have been so many centuries in learning their need of mercy is additional proof of their utter alienation from God, on the one hand, and of the riches of God's mercy the other. But if man needs mercy-feels his need of it-mercy he will surely find, and abundantly.
As we take up scriptures which refer to the world, somewhat consecutively, we shall see exactly what the world is, and what is the Christian's attitude towards it.
In the beginning of Matthew's Gospel we see the devil in full possession of his usurped domain, and the use he makes of it. "Again, the devil taketh Him up into an exceeding high mountain, and showeth Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them ; and saith unto Him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me " (Matt. 4 :8, 9). He holds out the world as a bait to draw worship to himself. He covets what belongs to God alone.
"Ye are the light of the world "(Matt. 5 :14). Here we see clearly that the world is darkness; Christians (real ones) are its light. The contrast between the world and Christianity could not be more strongly stated, but if Christians are hiding' their light by assimilating with the world, what becomes of the light? "What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" (Matt. 16 :26). An unanswerable question. But what a paltry thing the world must be in God's sight if one could have it all and still be the loser -infinitely the loser!
"Woe unto the world because of offences!" (Matt. 18:7). Offences must need come, and they will come from the world, but woe unto the world because of them. How solemn to think of some of God's people sharing, in any measure, in this woe!
"All these things do the nations of the world seek after ; and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things" (Luke 12 :30). It is perfectly natural for the world to seek after present things, things which bring ease and pleasure now; this is its one object. The Father knows what His children need; how blessed then to lie in His arms, trusting Him for all, making His interests their one pursuit!
" The True Light was that which, coming into the world, lighteth every man ; He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not" (John i :9, 10). There is no greater contrast than that between the world and Christ. So thoroughly alienated is the natural man from God, that he does not know his own Creator, even when presented to Him " by many infallible proofs." Even His own people (the Jews), to whom He came in strict accord with, and in fulfilment of, the prophetic Scriptures they had in their hands, did not receive Him. This does not refer to the ignorant rabble merely, but to the leaders of the people, the chief priests and scribes, the leaders of religious thought; these were foremost in their rejection of the Messiah. But the alienation was on man's side, not on God's; " For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life " (John 3:16). So pronounced is this alienation, that when light came, they refused it, loving darkness rather than light, since in the darkness they could go on in their sins (ver. 19). The true nature of the breach between God and man is apparent in chap. 6:51:"The bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." Life is what is needed by the world, and this agrees with the sentence pronounced upon man in the very beginning (Gen. 2:17).
"The world cannot hate you; but Me it hateth, because I testify of it that the works thereof are evil" (chap. 7:7). One must indeed be blind not to see the awful danger of being linked in any way with that which hates Christ. The world will not hate Christians so long as they affiliate with it, but if they walk in separation from it, in the spirit of 2 Cor. 6:16, 17, and in loyalty to their Master, they will find the hatred of the world. (See John 15:18-21.) The reason for this is abundantly plain in chap. 8 :23:"Ye are from beneath ; I am from above :ye are of this world :I am not of this world."
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal" (chap. 12:24, 25). Such is the dreadful break between God and the world, that death alone can meet the need. Life really can be had only as identified with Jesus on the other side of death-His death. To seek it on the human side is to lose it, since that would be to seek life in the domain of him who is judged, and soon to be cast out (ver. 31). Incorrigible indeed is the world, since it cannot receive the Spirit of truth (chap. 14:17), and how awfully serious must be the condition of a Christian who is seeking his pleasure in this world! See 2 Tim. 3:4, 5 :"Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof:from such turn away."
In chap. 14:30 the prince of this world conies to the Lord only to find nothing for him to act upon
-no door open to him. With us, alas, how often Satan finds easy access! The way to keep the door effectually barred against him is to be like the bride in the Song of Solomon, chap. 2:3:"I sat down under His shadow with great delight, and His fruit was sweet to my taste;" or, as the margin gives it more literally, " I delighted and sat down." Herein lies the grand secret of keeping out the wily foe-to have the heart satisfied with Christ.
Chap. 16:8 states that the Spirit of God now in the world shows that the world stands convicted of the murder of the Son of God. Jesus was here as God's representative, and the world cast Him out. God has received Him back into heaven, in proof of which He has sent the Holy Spirit to be with and indwell those who have received Christ. In chap. 16:20 believers weep and lament while the world rejoices over the absence of Christ; but what a shame for a Christian to be sharing in the joy of those who have rejected his Saviour! Verse 33 tells us the world is the scene of our tribulation, not of our rest; a scene in which we are to be overcomers -not affiliated with it; and for our encouragement we are assured it has been already overcome by our Forerunner.
In chap. 17 we find the most pronounced contrasts between the world and Christians; it may be called the holy of holies of John's Gospel. In verse 6 we learn the blessed truth that Christians are given by the Father to Christ out of the world; but what a pang to the heart of Christ to find His own affiliating with the world out of which He has taken them! He was not of the world, consequently His own are not (ver. 16). He was sent into it from a higher sphere, and in the same way Christians are sent into it, to be the light of it (ver. 18)-sent into it in grace to carry on the ministry of reconciliation which the world sought to stop when it crucified the Saviour. (See 2 Cor. 5:19, 20.) What an honor thus to stand between the living and the dead; but what a shame to be truckling to the enemy!
Christ's kingdom is composed of those who have been "born from above," brought out from darkness to light, and from Satan's kingdom to God (18:36), while the whole world lies under the power of the wicked one (i John 5:19). It may have its wisdom, but it is foolishness with God, for "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Prov. 9:10), and the world with all its wisdom does not know God.
How incorrigibly astray must the world be, for God to be the One to do the beseeching, while man refuses to hear His voice (2 Cor. 5 :19, 20). It is man who is alienated from God by his evil heart and deeds; so much so, that he could crucify the One who came to reconcile him to God; Christ, being in Himself the expression of God's love seeking man, and which is still carried on through Christ's servants who proclaim this ministry of reconciliation by the gospel.
In what a dreadful condition is the world in God's sight! Beginning with the head of the race surrendering to Satan under the notion that in so doing he was himself becoming as God; then filling the earth with violence and corruption in Noah's time, so that God must purge the scene with a flood; then Sodom and Gomorrah give us a glimpse of what was going on after the flood ; later, God's judgment had to fall upon Egypt; then the inhabitants of Canaan in Joshua's time had to be swept away; later still, there was Nineveh, Babylon, and all the nations which have figured in history; and the culmination of it all was-the rejection of the Son of God when He came among men, not imputing their trespasses unto them, but, as God, reconciling the world unto Himself! Such is the course of this world, and we all were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. This sweeping arraignment of Eph. 2:2, 3, includes every child of Adam, however civilized, however refined, cultured and religious, who is not born anew by the power of the Holy Spirit. God's worthies have found little beside persecution in this world; the world had no place for them, though it was not worthy of them (Heb. u :38), but God had a place for them, though they had to wait in patience for it.
Much is said now-a-days about religion, but how many desire the genuine thing? "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction,
and to keep himself unspotted from the world " (Jas. i:27). This is quite in contrast with chap. 4:4; "Ye adulteresses,* know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God ? *So read the best manuscripts. It points to that unfaithfulness to Christ represented by the term "adulteresses."* Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." This dalliance with the world, which so many professed Christians are ensnared with, is in God's word called spiritual adultery, i John 2:15 is very similar:" Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." Let this search the heart of every one who professes the name of Christ. "The world passeth away . . . but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever" (vers. 16,17). But blessed if "unknown" by the world it is because of our identification with Christ.
If we walk in the enjoyment of our privileges in Christ, and in the current of His thoughts, we shall look upon the world with true compassion, and seek to pull precious souls as it were out of the fire.
Faith gives present victory over the world, and to such the Lord says:" Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out:and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God-new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God:and my new name " (Rev. 3:12). Reader, are you an overcomer ? J. B. J.