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| Section: Basic Christian Living:
courses for new Christians |
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Growing in God |
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9. Enemy Territory: |
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Facing Up to 'The World' |
1
John 2:15-17 'Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone
loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything
in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his
eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not
from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires
pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives for ever.'
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| 'Do
not love the world'
The phrase 'the world' is common
in the New Testament. You need to know that it can mean three
quite different things:
1. Planet Earth, the world
of nature.
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| In spite of the harmful effects of the Fall, this remains a beautiful
place and speaks to us of God's creative power (Romans 1:20).
You can therefore love it—though not worship it.
2. Humanity,
the world of people.
This is what John means when he says, 'God so loved the world
that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him
shall not perish but have eternal life' (John 3:16). You can
love the world in this sense, too, reaching out to needy people
with the message of the gospel.
3. The world-system that's
opposed to God.
This is what we, as Christians, are forbidden to love, because
it is Satan's domain: 'The whole world is under the control of
the evil one' (1 John 5:19). Its entire way of thinking and acting
is anti-God. It crucified Jesus because he exposed its evil (John
7:7), and it will hate you, too, because you're on his side (John
15:18-19).
It's 'the world' in this third
sense that we're considering in this lesson.
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Satan's
setup
1. The world's
master
The world is masterminded by
Satan, the devil, who is called 'the prince of this world'
(John 12:31). It seems he was originally one of God's top-ranking
angelic servants, but when he became proud and rebellious God
threw him out of heaven (Luke 10:18). He now operates on earth,
ruining human society and drawing people away from God.
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| Satan does not work alone.
He has an army of demonic spirit-beings at his service.
These help him in the business of ruining lives and filling the
world with bitterness, cruelty, suffering and death.
At worst they
can take over a person completely—as they did with the man
called Legion (see Mark 5:1-20)—so that the person can be
described as 'demonised' or 'demon-possessed'. This cannot happen
to a genuine Christian because Jesus 'keeps him safe, and the
evil one cannot harm him' (1 John 5:18).
2. The world's
attitudes
Satan is intent on making people
think in ways that ignore God, and this is normal in human society.
Most people assume, for instance, that 'looking after Number
1' is priority; that death is the end of everything; that God
doesn't exist; that pleasure is the main purpose of life; that
survival of the fittest is inevitable; that 'might is right';
that there's no absolute right and wrong; that the human mind
is its own master; and that life is cheap.
It is such thinking that, as
a Christian, you reject and replace with godly thinking as you
undergo 'the renewing of your mind' (Romans 12:2).
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3.
The world's institutions
Ephesians
6:11-12
'Put on the full armour of God so that you can take your stand
against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against
flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities,
against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual
forces of evil in the heavenly realms.'
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| Notice the words
'rulers… authorities… powers'
in this verse. There are many groups of words like this in the
New Testament. They refer partly to demonic spirits, but they
can also refer to religious traditions and cultural
norms in society. These include government, economics, science,
art, law, ideologies, education and the family.
All these institutions were originally given by God for the good of the
human race, to be exercised under his rule. But with the Fall they became
open to corruption and manipulation by evil forces. So now, for instance:
 | The God-given authority of governments can be
corrupted to support the systematic oppression of sub-groups within
society.
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| The God-ordained structure of the family can be
misused to abuse children.
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| The God-given powers of the mind and creativity can be
misdirected to produce philosophy and art that are evil and destructive. |
'Aliens
and strangers' here |
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John
17:14-16
'I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for
they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My
prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you
protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even
as I am not of it.'
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| This prayer of Jesus reminds
us that, though we live in this world, as Christians we are not
'of' it, that is, we don't belong to it. We're misfits here,
the people of God in a worldly society, 'aliens and strangers
in the world' (1 Peter 2:11). That's why,
now that you're a Christian, you don't seem to fit into the world's
ways as comfortably as you did before. You're like a member of
the French Resistance during World War II, living under Nazi
rule and feeling like a stranger in their own country.
So why didn't the Lord solve
the problem by taking you straight to heaven when you became
a Christian? Because he has good reasons for leaving you here
for a while:
1. To shape
your character
The conflict-situation in which
you live here is designed to shape your character and make you
what God wants you to be. Standing firm for Christ in the face
of ungodly standards and unrighteousness can make you strong.
But there's always the temptation to give up that stand and lapse
into the world's own ways to avoid the conflict. Paul said:
Romans
12:2 'Do
not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but
be transformed by the renewing of your mind.'
These are the twin options:
you either give up the conflict and conform, letting the
world squeeze you into its mould, or you stand strong and let
the conflict transform you into greater strength of Christian
character. You know which is the right one!
2. To be
Christ's ambassador
The Bible talks about two kingdoms.
One is the kingdom of this world, under Satan's rule. The other
is the kingdom of God, under Christ's rule. By new birth you
are a citizen of God's kingdom but you live here on earth, surrounded
by Satan's kingdom. You're an ambassador for Christ, representing
him here, telling Satan's slaves that there's a takeover on the
way and appealing to them to change sides now in readiness for
it:
2 Corinthians
5:20 'We
are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were
making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf:
Be reconciled to God.'
3.
To demonstrate a new society
You 'advertise' God's kingdom
to the world's citizens by your individual witness and
godliness. But you also help to do it at a corporate level
by being part of a local church. The church is a society within
society, shaped by love and forgiveness, honesty and compassion,
and sometimes it is this, rather than the witness of individual
Christians, that makes an impact on non-Christians.
If we let those
standards slip, of course, our corporate witness becomes ineffective.
This is what happened at Corinth. Paul said to the 'worldly'
Christians there:
1 Corinthians
3:3
'You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarrelling
among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere
men?'
Note what it was that made
them worldly: 'jealousy and quarrelling'. In other words, bad
relationships. The new society of the church is to demonstrate
good relationships.
4. To introduce
God's standards here
People need Jesus, and they
only change at root-level when they come to know him. That's
the aim of your being among them: to lead them to Christ.
But change is also possible
at a more superficial level, and non-Christians benefit to the
degree that they accept the standards of God's kingdom. One reason
God has put you in the world is to influence society so that
it falls more into line with God's ways.
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For example, suppose you work in an office
where everybody is grumpy, dishonest and gossipy, so that the atmosphere is
terrible. Don't let yourself get pulled down into it. Instead, quietly begin
to talk more positively, give praise where it's due, refuse to gossip,
maintain a cheerful demeanour and be scrupulously honest.
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Gradually, after a period of strong
resistance and resentment, you'll begin to see a change take place in the
atmosphere. That way, you'll
be 'salt' (a preservative in biblical days) and 'light' in a
decaying, dark world (Matthew 5:13-16).
Conquering
'the world'
Scripture commands us not to
'love' the world (1 John 2:15), not to be its friend (James 4:4)
and not to be conformed to its ways (Romans 12:2). How can you
do this? How can you conquer the world?
| Not by rules and
regulations, like wearing a hat to church, carrying a Bible
everywhere or not eating pork. This is the legalistic approach
of the Pharisees, who tithed even the leaves of the herbs in
their gardens but overlooked major issues like righteousness
and love (Luke 11:42).
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| Not by dealing with
the externals; you have to go to the root of issues. If you've
slipped into stealing office envelopes and notepaper it's no
good saying 'Amen' more loudly in the meetings.
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| Not by escaping from
the world. Becoming a monk or nun and living in a cloistered
setting is no answer to conquering the world. Jesus wants you
in the world, sinful though it is, not out of it. He prayed,
'My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that
you protect them from the evil one' (John 17:15). |
How, then, can you find victory
over the world?
1. By a
growing, active faith
1 John
5:4-5
'Everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory
that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it
that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is
the Son of God.'
Hold fast to Jesus, the Son
of God, by prayer and meditation on his Word. Remember that you're
'born of God'—you're in God's family. Move forward in faith.
2. By leaning
hard on the Spirit of God within you
1 John
4:4
'You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because
the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the
world.'
3. By viewing
the world from the cross
We looked at this in Lesson
6. Consider yourself dead to the world and its ways and face
them in the power of resurrection life, like Paul, who said:
Galatians
6:14
'May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the
world.'
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