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1 John 5:4; Gen. 2:9; 4:14, 16, 20-22; James 4:4; 1 John 2:15-16; 1 Pet. 3:20-21; 1 Cor. 10:1-2; Rom. 8:6
I. The difference between sin and the world
II. The formation of the world
А. Man’s need
B. A godless civilization
C. Satan’s system
III. The definition of the world
IV. The contents of the satanic system
V. Delivered from the world through baptism
VI. The objects of dealing with the world
VII. The basis of dealing with the world
VIII. The extent of dealing with the world
IX. The practice of dealing with the world
А. Not loving the world
B. The regenerated spirit overcoming the world
Knowing and dealing with the world is very important in the initial experience of our Christian life; therefore, we shall study it carefully.
The contamination of sin and of the world differ. [The contamination of sin is savage, rough and ugly, while the contamination of the world is cultured and refined, often appearing beautiful in the sight of man. The contamination of sin is like a splash of mud or black ink on a white shirt. But the contamination of the world is like a colorful pattern printed on the white shirt.] [The world appears better than sin, but when related to purity, both are contaminating and require dealing. The damage caused by sin and the world upon man differ greatly: sin contaminates man, whereas the world both contaminates and possesses man. It is far more serious for man’s life to be possessed by the world than to be contaminated by sin.]
[Sin is the primitive, superficial, and initial step of the fall. The world is the final, serious and last step of the fall. Many people stress only victory over sin, but the Bible stresses even more the overcoming of the world (1 John 5:4). We need even more to overcome the world. If we desire to grow in life and be gained by the Lord, we must make an effort to deal with the world that enslaves us.]
The Bible [divides man’s needs into three main categories: provision, protection, and pleasure. In order to maintain his existence, he needs not only the various provisions, such as clothing, food, etc., but also a means of defense to protect himself from being hurt and a form of amusement for his happiness. Therefore, the entire need for human living is included in these three all-embracing categories.
Prior to the fall, God was responsible for providing for these three needs of man. First, before man was created, God had made provision for all necessities of human life. When Adam was in the garden of Eden, various kinds of fruit and vegetables, water, air, sunshine, and a place for shelter were provided.
Second, protection or defense was also God’s responsibility in the beginning. Today, man needs self-protection and self-defense, but in the beginning God Himself was his defense and protection. When man is under God’s care, he can escape any attack or danger.
Third, pleasure was also God’s responsibility. Some people think that amusement is sinful, but this concept is wrong. Happiness is essential to human life and is found in amusement. “And out of the ground made Jehovah God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food’’ (Gen. 2:9). All the trees in the garden of Eden not only bore fruit for food, but were also pleasing and enjoyable to the eye, making one happy. God not only prepared this happy environment; at the same time He Himself was the joy of man. If man has God as his enjoyment, then man’s joy is fulfilled.
In the beginning these three great needs — supply, defense and amusement — were planned and prepared for by God.]
[Man fell by committing sin and was expelled from the garden of Eden! His relationship with God became abnormal. But God prepared a covering of skins for man’s redemption, enabling him to remain in His presence. As yet, man had not lost God. However, during Cain’s lifetime man fell deeper into sin. Cain said to God, “Thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the ground; and from thy face shall I be hid’’ (Gen. 4:14). “And Cain went out from the presence of Jehovah’’ (v. 16). Thus man left God’s presence completely and lost God.
When he lost God, man naturally lost God’s provision, protection, and pleasure. When man lost God’s care for his livelihood, he first experienced fear; he feared the lack of supply, defense, and happiness. In other words, he feared poverty, danger, and boredom with life. Therefore, in order to meet the necessities of life and survive, man used his own strength and devised means of supply, defense, and amusement. From this time, man created a godless civilization.
Genesis 4 clearly reveals this to us. After the fall of Cain, out of his descendants were produced the founders of man’s own supply for these three great needs of life. These were the three sons of Lamech. Jabal was the father of tent-dwellers and cattlemen. Tents and cattle are for the supply of man’s living and therefore belong to the category of provision. Another son, Jubal, was the father of all that handle the harp and organ. Playing harp and organ is for pleasure; thus it belongs to the category of amusement. The third son, Tubalcain, was the instructor of every artificer in brass and iron instruments. These instruments were formed for the purpose of defense, thus referring to the category of protection. Since these three important inventions originated at that time, humanity found no need of God. Man found within himself the answer to the need of supply, defense, and amusement. This was the civilization produced after the human race lost God — a godless life created by men.]
[When mankind lived a godless life, Satan immediately disguised himself and utilized these avenues as a means to possess man. He caused man to employ his entire effort to seek food and clothing for self-nurture, to invent instruments for self-defense and to design various forms of amusements for self-enjoyment.]
[In the beginning, these various forms of occupations involving man’s livelihood seemed rather trivial, scattered and unsystematized. Later, Satan organized these into a more tangible and systematized world, thus entangling mankind in a tighter web.]
[Therefore, the formation of the world has five steps. First, man lost God. Second, he developed fear and was desperate concerning his needs. Third, he created a godless life. Fourth, Satan disguised himself and utilized man’s needs. Fifth, Satan organized man’s own supply for his needs into a system. At the completion of these five steps the world was finally formed.]
First John 2:15 says, “Do not love the world, neither the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.’’ The Greek word for world, kosmos, has more than one meaning. [In Matthew 25:34; John 17:5; Acts 17:24 Ephesians 1:4; and Revelation 13:8, it denotes the material universe as a system created by God. In John 1:29; 3:16 and Romans 5:12, it denotes the fallen human race corrupted and usurped by Satan as components for his evil world system. In 1 Peter 3:3 it denotes adorning, ornament. Here, as in John 15:19; 17:14 and James 4:4, it denotes an order, a set form, an orderly arrangement, hence, an ordered system (set up by Satan, the adversary of God), not the earth. God created man to live on the earth for the fulfillment of His purpose. But His enemy Satan, in order to usurp the God-created man, has formed an anti-God world system on this earth by systematizing men with religion, culture, education, industry, commerce, entertainment, etc., through men’s fallen nature in their lusts, pleasures, pursuits, and even in their indulgence in living necessities, such as food, clothing, housing, and transportation.]
[We have seen that the world in 1 John 2:15 denotes an evil, satanic, anti-God system that is constituted of the things created by God. Satan has used these things to form his system. However, these things are not the contents of the satanic world system.] What, then are the contents of the satanic system?
[First John 2:16 says, “Because all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the vainglory of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.’’
The contents of this system are the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the vainglory of life. The lust of the flesh is the passionate desire of the body; the lust of the eyes is the passionate desire of the soul through the eyes; the vainglory of life is the empty pride, boast, confidence, assurance, and display of material things of the present life.]
[We may use owning a car as an illustration of the difference between something used by Satan to form his system and the actual contents of this system. How can a car be utilized by the enemy of God to form his evil system? The car itself is not a problem and is not the content of Satan’s system. The problem is with the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and, in particular, with the vainglory of the present life. If it were not for man’s vainglory, a car would not become a problem. However, many people like to buy an expensive car in order to make a display. In their case, the car they drive is used for vainglory. In this country a car is a necessity. The problem, therefore, is not with the car itself; the problem is with the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. When you consider a certain kind of car, you may desire to have it. Some may think about a certain car day and night. The car is not wrong — the persons are wrong. The problem is not with the car they need; the problem is with the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the vainglory of life.]
[Through baptism we are delivered from the world by water. Noah’s family was saved through the flood which destroyed the world and thus was delivered from the corrupted world. The Israelites were saved through the water of the Red Sea which drowned the Egyptian army, and they were thus delivered from the Egyptian world which ruled over them. Baptism is foreshadowed by these two incidents of passing through the waters of death (1 Pet. 3:20-21; 1 Cor. 10:1-2). Baptism by immersion delivers us from the world. Therefore, when a believer is baptized, he has passed through both the flood and the Red Sea. His ascent from the water denotes his separation from the world.]
[The world in our daily living consists of people, activities, and things which usurp the place of God in us. Therefore, these objects are the aim of our dealings.
How do we know what objects are usurping us, and what is the standard of measurement? First, we need to see whether these objects exceed the necessities of our life. We can say that anything that goes beyond our daily necessities is taking the place of God and possessing us; thus, it needs to be dealt with. Our existence depends upon certain people, activities, and things, such as parents, husband, wife, family, clothes, food, housing, transportation, occupation, etc. These are the necessities for our existence. If these necessities contribute to our purpose of living for God, they are not our world. But should these people, activities, or things exceed our daily necessities, they then become our world. For example: clothing as a necessity is not worldly, but if one pays too much attention to apparel and ornaments, or squanders money in order to comply with present-day fashions, he has already exceeded the scope of his daily necessities. Consequently, these excesses have become his world. Another example: glasses to correct defective eyesight are not worldly. But some wear glasses to be fashionable; this then is not their necessity, but the world they love.
What is the standard that regulates our daily necessities in regard to people, activities, and things? In the Bible there is no uniform or specific standard governing these matters.] [Therefore, the standard of our living necessities must be determined by ourselves through prayer and seeking the mind of God. We cannot measure our standard according to that of others nor demand that they agree with our views and feelings. Furthermore, our own dealings before God should also be according to the standard of our daily living before God. We should neither go beyond nor fall short.]
[From the divine viewpoint there is a certain measuring rule regarding the world. This rule is God Himself. As we measure sin by the law of God, so we measure the world by God Himself. The standard of dealing with the world is based upon God. If God is absent, we cannot sense what the world is. God and the world are forever in opposition to each other. Wherever there is the world, there God is not; where there is God, there the world is not.]
[The basis of our dealing with the world is the same as dealing with sin. It is based upon the sense of life obtained during fellowship. God has never asked an individual to separate himself in a moment’s time from all unholiness and all things which usurp him. God wants man to deal with the things which he feels are unholy and usurping. Practically speaking, there may be one hundred unholy things in us, but during our fellowship we become conscious, perhaps, of only ten. Therefore, God holds us responsible for only these ten. Temporarily, we are not responsible for the remaining ninety. Not until we have attained to a greater degree of fellowship in life do we become conscious of the remaining objects and deal with them.]
[There are two factors which greatly influence our inner feeling toward the world: our love for God and our spiritual growth in life. We have said that God is the standard for dealing with the world. If we are far from God, we are not conscious of our worldliness. But once we draw nigh to God, we discover many worldly matters in us. Only those who love God desire to draw nigh unto God. Therefore, if we desire to deal with the world, we should first love God.]
[Our inner feeling towards the world also depends upon our spiritual growth. The more we advance in the spiritual life and knowledge of God, the deeper we will be in knowing the world. This knowledge of the world is the inner feeling we have toward the world and forms the basis of dealing with the world. The degree of our spiritual growth is always in proportion to the degree of our dealing with the world.]
[The extent to which we deal with the world is “life and peace’’ (Rom. 8:6). Whenever we deal with the world which we are conscious of, we should deal with it until we have peace and life within. Since these dealings are based upon the feelings of life which are derived from fellowship, they are experiences of life. Dealing with the world causes us to experience life and sense the freshness, brightness, satisfaction, strength, joy and peace of life. In other words, we should deal with the world to the extent that we have life and peace.]
[In 1 John 2:15 John charges us not to love the world or the things in the world. He tells us that if we love the world, the love of the Father is not in us. Not loving such a world is the ground for overcoming the evil one. Loving it just a little gives the evil one the ground to defeat us and occupy us. Whenever we open ourselves to the world, to Satan’s anti-God system, we lose the battle against him.]
[According to 1 John 5:4, everything that has been begotten of God overcomes the world.] In this verse “everything’’ refers to the human spirit. [Therefore, it is the regenerated human spirit that overcomes the world. Regarding overcoming the world, we should not trust in our own ability or effort. Our spirit is well able to overcome Satan and the world, the evil system. But in ourselves we cannot overcome the world. When we exercise our spirit, stay in our spirit, and walk by our spirit, we shall see that our spirit has the life ability to overcome all negative things. This is why we need to exercise our spirit to have fellowship with the Lord and pray concerning the enjoyment of the Lord. We also need to exercise our spirit to call on the Lord’s name and to pray-read the Word. This exercise stirs up the ability in our spirit to overcome the world.
It is the divine life in our spirit that has the ability to overcome the evil, satanic world. We are surrounded by temptations. What can overcome them? The divine life in our spirit can overcome temptation. We all need to see that our spirit is mingled with the divine life and is the organ that can overcome the world.]
We are created by God, redeemed by Christ and regenerated by the Spirit, therefore, we are for God alone. We belong to God. We need to be occupied by Him alone. Anything of the world that occupies us must be dealt with. We experience life as we are dealing with the world. We grow in life after we have dealt with the world. All the dealings are of the Spirit and by the Spirit for our growth of life unto maturity in life.
