The World

by J. Drain | Category: The World | Jan 1960

When Paul wrote concerning Demas that he "forsook me, having loved this present world" (2 Timothy 4.10), he was indicating what experience so definitely confirms, that loyalty to Christ is not an unchallenged attitude. The disciple of the Lord Jesus is not projected into a world in which all deflecting forces cease to operate. Indeed, there are several powerful forces which in their effects have a tendency to impede the progress of the Christian, stunting his growth and retarding his development. It is, of course, also true that there is available power to enable the disciple to overcome and to know the joy and strength of full-growth.

One very strong influence in spiritual experience is found in what is called in the Scriptures "The world." The word world is given as the translation of several Greek words. For example, in Matthew 24 the word world is given as the equivalent of three different Greek words. In verse 14 we read, "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world ..." According to the Revised Version margin, this word means "the inhabited earth." In verse 3 of this chapter we have the question of the disciples, "Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world? " The margin gives the translation "the consummation of the age." Then in verse 21 we read, "For then shall be great tribulation, such as hath not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, nor ever shall be." The word world here is different from the other two and is the translation of a Greek word which means "arrangement, beauty, order." It is the word kosmos.

Hence we may think of the world (oikoumene) (1) as the place where men and women live, the inhabited earth or that part of it known at any time to be inhabited; of the world (kosmos) (2) as "that external framework of things in which man lives and moves, which exists for him and of which he constitutes the moral centre and then the men themselves, the sum total of persons living in the world"; of the world (aion) (3) as signifying the world under aspects of time, not time as the duration of a period, but rather as of those things which are characteristic of a period. The entrance of sin into the world separated and alienated the world from God and made the world hostile to God. Sin dominated the entire course of human affairs and at any time its characteristics are essentially evil and corrupt. In the words of Paul there is "this present evil world (aion, age)."

Dr. Lightfoot in his notes, referring to these words, says, "Kosmos is in itself 'the existing order of things.' So far as there is any difference between the two words, aion (age) would seem ... to refer to the prevailing ideas and feelings of the present life, and kosmos to its gross material character." It may be of interest to read two further extracts. Dr. Trench says, "We speak of' the times, attaching to the word an ethical signification; or, still more to the point, the age, the spirit or genius of the age ... ' All that floating mass of thought, opinions, maxims, speculations, hopes, impulses, aims, aspirations, at any time current in the world, which it may be impossible to seize and accurately define, but which constitute a most real and effective power, being the moral, or immoral, atmosphere which at every moment of our lives we inhale, again inevitably to exhale, all this is included in the aion, which is, as Bengel has expressed it, the subtle informing spirit of the kosmos, or world of men who are living alienated and apart from God."

The other quotation is from an address given by Dr. Charles Malik, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Lebanon, and President of the United Nations General Assembly. He was speaking on the business man and the challenge of communism. Having expressed that the businessman would have to draw both on education and experience, Dr. Malik said, "History and government are of course necessary topics, but in addition the businessman must receive a firm grounding in international relations, in philosophy, in geopolitics and in what might be termed comparative culture. The important thing is so to enlarge and deepen the mind, so to sharpen it in the power of argument, so to furnish it with generic true ideas, as to enable it to confute error and sophistry and to lay hold upon what is true in every situation and relate it to first principles ... General experience takes one into the open spaces of Western free culture into its movies and televisions, its books and magazines, its religious experience, its family traditions, its general moves, its national and social customs, the whole conscious and unconscious totality which constitutes the spirit of an age."

These quotations, from such diverse authorities, may serve to illustrate and emphasize what is involved in the term "this present evil world."

The relationship and attitude of the disciple of the Lord Jesus to the world are matters of great importance. We wish to examine first of all some things about the world which our Lord Himself teaches, and then to notice what is taught by writers of the New Testament.

In John 12.81, we read, "Now is the judgement of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out." This world has for its prince the one who is described as "the dragon, the old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan " (Revelation 20.2). When Adam in Eden chose to accept Satan's lie and to transgress the commandment which carried the authority of the LORD God, Satan moved into a position of rank and authority and influence so far as this world is concerned. It is gloriously true that by the triumphant work of Christ he has been brought to nought and ejected. Judgement has fallen. His destiny is determined. But until this being is finally cast into the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone (Revelation 20.10) he continues to exercise tremendous authority and influence so far as the world is concerned. Bound and imprisoned during the one thousand years of Christ's reign on earth, Satan will be prevented from deceiving the nations. But disciples of the Lord Jesus in this present dispensation should realize that the deceiver is not now bound. Our contact with the world should bear the evidence of the grave caution which must be imposed by the realization that wielding tremendous influence over the world stands Satan, its prince. This influence is always anti-Christ in character. May we feel the drawing influence of the lovely Man who has overthrown the powerful adversary, who now sits in triumphant glory on heaven's throne and who soon will manifest the majesty of One who in all things must have the pre-eminence.

Speaking to the Jews around Him on one occasion, the Lord Jesus said, "Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world " (John 8.28). These words define very clearly the relationship of Christ to the world of which Satan is the prince. He was not of it. It is true that God the Father sent the Son into the world, sent Him to be the Saviour of the world, for "God loved the world of sinners lost and ruined by the Fall." It is true that " Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners" (1 Timothy 1.15). But He was not of the world. Disciple of the Lord Jesus, keep clearly in your outlook that your Saviour and Lord is, not of the world. He did not spring from it. He is not part of it. He does not belong to it.

On another occasion when speaking to the brethren of His family circle men of whom it is written,

"For even His brethren did not believe on Him "the Lord Jesus said, " The world cannot hate you; but Me it hateth, because I testify of it, that its works are evil " (John 7, 5, 7).

Here we see the true attitude of the world to Christ and the reason for that attitude. He exposed the character of the activities of the world. They are evil, they are bad. For this reason the world hated Him. Do we appreciate as we should the meaning of those words, "Me it hateth " ? We profess to love Christ. Do we realize that the world hates Him, hates the One whom we love? How does this affect us ?

In the remarkable prayer of the Lord Jesus which is recorded for us in John 17 we hear Him saying to His Father concerning the disciples, "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world" (John 17.16). The Lord had already told His disciples,

If ye were of the world, the world would love its own : but because ye are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you " (John 15. 19).

These words establish the basic truth that as Christ is not of the world so neither are His disciples. They have been taken out of it. And as the world hates Christ so does it hate His disciples. It loveth its own. It hateth His own. Are we clear about this fundamental teaching relative to ourselves and the world ? We are not of it. We are out of it. May it not be that we have incurred very little active hatred because we have not practically acknowledged our true position?

Whilst disciples of the Lord Jesus are not of the world they are in the world. The Lord prayed to His Father,

"I am no more in the world, and these are in the world, and I come to Thee. Holy Father, keep them in Thy name which Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, even as we are ... I pray not that Thou shouldest take them from (out of) the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil one" (John 17.11, 15).

Why are disciples in the world? The Lord said, "As Thou didst send Me into the world, even so sent I them into the world" (John 17.18). Christ was sent into the world to witness for God and to procure salvation for men. We are sent into the world to bear witness for God so that men and women may hear and believe the word that God has for them.

The clear teaching of the Lord Christ concerning the world must present a strong challenge to the consciences of His disciples. We all may seek to soothe a pained conscience by plausible reasoning. Let us feel the force of what our Lord teaches.

That the apostle Paul very definitely realized the significance and importance of the Lord's teaching is clearly seen in what he says about his own experience and also in what he states in his instructions to the churches of God. His words in Galatians 6.14 are, "Far be it from me to glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world hath been crucified unto me, and I unto the world." We think of Paul as a proud haughty Pharisee. His standing as a man was very high and must have encouraged the arrogance which characterized him before God's grace came into his life. What a change that grace wrought! The natural pride and self-confidence of the man perished. He saw himself a crucified man by reason of his union with the blessed Man who was crucified on Golgotha's cross. The world was crucified unto him. Once his vigorous ambitions scanned the dizzy heights of worldly attainment towards which his strength of character and his mental endowments were surely leading him. Now the world is dead to him. It has lost its attraction. It has lost its drawing power. What was the world to Christ? That it became to Paul. Paul himself was crucified unto the world. He was of no further use to it in the furtherance of its purposes. Perhaps it might have been suggested to him that a man of his character and ability could have filled a useful place in the world and in the advancement of some of its activities. Such advice would not have moved the apostle. He had been crucified unto the world. He could no longer fit into any of its schemes or arrangements. The cross meant the end of his usefulness for the world. "Dead to the world" is a slang expression current today, but the words state the true relationship of the disciple of the Lord Jesus to the world.

J. Drain | Jan 1960
The World