LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
Responding to Present Needs (4)
On the night He was betrayed, the Lord Jesus said to the disciples a disheartening sentence about the world: "If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you" (Jn. 15:19).
The apostle John, writing almost seventy years later, recalls these words and in his First Epistle touches on the subject of the world, too. This is a matter of vital importance for end-time Christians. What is the X-ray he makes of it? In chapter 2:15 to 17 he says: "Love not the world, neither the things that are 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 pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever". However good and attractive the world may seem-at least some things about it-all of it has a sign contrary to God.
John shows us that there is an absolute dissociation between the world and the believer. The believer's love cannot be oriented toward the world and toward the Father at the same time. Everything in the world is contrary to God.
In chapter 3, he touches on the point again, briefly but forcefully: "Do not be surprised, my brethren, if the world hates you" (3:13). It is almost the same thing the Lord had told them that night. Then, speaking of the false prophets, John says that "they are of the world, therefore they speak of the world, and the world hears them" (4:5). Not only is the world an enemy of God, but it is an ally of the false prophets. And in chapter 5, almost at the end, the apostle seems to give us the final blow when he says: "The whole world is under the evil one" (5:19).
The Christian thus finds himself thrown into the world, in a hostile environment that tempts and, to his regret, attracts him. How will he be able to win in this apparently unequal struggle? Chapter 5 of this First Epistle provides a precious key: "For whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith: who is he that overcomes the world, but he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God" (vv. 4-5).
On earth there is an embassy of God, composed of men and women who have a superior life. It is not a doctrine or a religion. Nor is it a technique that, exercised many times, can perfect man to victory. It is a life -born of God- that is heavenly and victorious.
This life has the capacity to conquer, and it is expressed in a definite faith that points to a person: "Jesus is the Son of God". Have you received this overcoming faith, or have you simply believed some ambiguous, powerless and ineffective things about Jesus? The world certainly has many resources to defeat the Christian, but it has none to defeat this precious faith that God has given us about his Son Jesus Christ, the Son of God.