There is no greater contradiction imaginable than between "the world" and "the kingdom" of the Lord Jesus. But what then do you run into as a follower of our Lord in this world we live in?
Has the world changed over time? Looks, of course, but not her principles. For the principles on which the world – the secular and religious world without God – is built are the same from the beginning, and John articulates them with the utmost succinctness and recognisability. But someone who belongs to Christ has nothing at all with this world.
Here's a little exploration.
The world
In biblical terms, 'the world' has not changed since the fall. It is the world under the rule of Satan, God's adversary, who is called the “prince of this world” (eg John 14:30; 16:11). This world has the following moral characteristics according to 1 John 2:16
- The lust of the flesh; that is the desire and striving to do what you want; highest priority is always the desire to meet one's own needs – physical or not. What I want and what I need is always at the center of life and the only thing worth pursuing.
- The desire of the eyes; the 'eyes' represent our senses with which we perceive reality; it also includes perceiving the invisible world and the desire to experience this reality[1]. You could also say in general: the desire of the eyes is the desire to experience (see) what you are not allowed to experience (see about 'the hidden things' Deuteronomy 29:29 and here).
- The pride of life; that is the unabashed confidence in one's own power and ability to live without God[2]. You can't raise children constantly telling them they can't do things, but always "You can do it!" calling is the other extreme. “Yes, we can!” was Obama's magic word. But it was the same with which the people of Babel collectively built the tower and with which they thought they could take the place of God (see Genesis 11).
With these three characteristics Johannes has formulated in an excellent way and very concisely what the principles of the world are. From the beginning until now in 2021 they were and are valid and it comes down to this: in the world it is about what I want, about the things that I can experience (that is what matters and therefore is true) and with that I myself through life, not needing God.
These have been the drivers from the beginning that drove the world and on which the whole society is built. It is good to realize that these are the characteristics of a world without God. It always has been, from the Fall, it is now, and it will be until Christ reigns.
Whatever time or culture you look at, these are always the principles on which people have built their society. It applies to Cain, in the time of Noah but also in the time of Babylon. Whether in Ur of the Chaldees or in Egypt, they were always the same driving principles. The same also applies to the cultures at the time of Christ walking around the earth: the Jewish culture[3], Greek or Roman culture. And all cultures and societies after that.
It has always been built upon the willful self-exaltation and idolatry of the people. The relationship with the 'gods' from the invisible world has always been a very important element. It still is and even increasingly so.
God's earthly people
This is the world of which Satan is the 'prince' (John 12:29; 14:29; 16:9). But in that world God calls people; “Adam where are you” sounded in the beginning and that actually still sounds.
Out of the world, say quietly the heathen world of idolatrous Ur of the Chaldeans, God calls Abraham to make him a nation; God's people here on earth. But idolatry remains a constant problem. They have not yet left Egypt or they are already making an idol because they want to be able to see and experience something of God. On the way to the promised land, they continue to serve their idols (see, for example, Amos 5:25,26), despite the fact that the Lord had given them the tabernacle to dwell with them. When they are in the promised land, despite the warnings in the book of Deuteronomy, the idolatry continues. Sometimes there is a king or judge who restores the service to the Lord, but after a while it goes wrong again. What an incredibly sad history. The Lord has constantly warned them that He would eventually drive them out of the land and scatter them among the nations. Just read all the prophets of the Old Testament: they all talk about it. That's how it went.
aside: it is God's great faithfulness that now at the end of the days - after 2000 years - He has resumed history with Israel and will fulfill His promises to the people. Through the judgments the kingdom of Christ will come!
God becomes man
Finally, when nothing seems to help and man can no longer be saved from the clutches of the devil, God does the unthinkable: He, the Son of God, becomes man Himself. He is born like any other, not to live but to die. He wanted to accomplish the work that the Father has given Him to do.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God sent not his Son into the world that he should condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.” ()
John 3:16,17
But how bizarre it really is: He was rejected by God's own people – 'Crucify Him, Crucify Him – and hanged on a cross by the Gentiles – the Romans, along with two rebels. The Lord Jesus himself says it:the world has not known me” (John[4] 1:10). There, between heaven and earth, in the three hours of deep darkness, He accomplished the work of reconciliation. So that whoever believes in Him will receive eternal life!
My kingdom
The Gospel of John shows us the Lord Jesus as the Son of God, but also shows the relationship with 'the world'. In this Gospel comes the word 'world' most frequently. It is worth going through and pondering the gospel thereon. We take just a few aspects here to see how the world relates to us who believe in Him.
- We no longer belong to the world, but have been given to His Son by God the Father; we belong to Him and are His property.
- “I have revealed Your name to those whom You call Me given out of the world have. They were Yours, and You gave them to Me, and they kept Your word.” (John 17:6)
- “Holy Father, keep them that you gave me have (…)Those whom You have given MeI have kept, and none of them is lost.” (John 17:11,12)
- We no longer belong to the world that hates and oppresses us for that reason.
- “18 if the world hates youknow that she hated Me before you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own, but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” (John 15:18,19)
- “In the world you will affliction but be of good cheer: I have overcome the world.(John 16:33)
- “I have given them Your word, and the world hated thembecause they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.” (John 17:14)
- We are in the world, but we don't belong to it. We are sanctified (= set apart) for the Lord Jesus.
- "(…) because she not of the world be, as I am not of the world. 15 I do not pray that You take them out of the world, but that You keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the worldas I am not of the world.” (John 17:14-16)
- “(…) that they too sanctified are in the truth.” (John 18:19)
- We have been transferred out of this world into the kingdom of the Son of God's love, which is not of this world.
- “36 Jesus replied: My Kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would have fought, that I should not be delivered up to the Jews, but now is My kingdom not from here.(John 18:36)
- "(…) the father (…) He has pulled us out of the power of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of the Son of His love.” (Colossians 1:13)
A heavenly people
These characteristics of His church mentioned by the Lord Jesus Himself are extremely important. It is a community with a heavenly character and with a place in heaven, not here on earth. We belong to Him who is in heaven. Paul writes to the Ephesians that God has quickened us with Christ and “raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:4-6). In Philippi 3:20 he says it in a different way”Our citizenship, however, is in heaven . . .”.
Of course we are in the world, but we are not of the world, we do not belong and we are not governed by the same drives. To begin with, this is an important starting point for our position in the world when it comes to responsibility.
“The world passes with its desire” says John (1 John 2:17) and we know how the world will turn out when we read Revelation 18. God's judgment will come upon her.
Therefore, the church of Christ has no place in the government of this world to try to get it in a better direction or to 'improve' it. The Lord Jesus has shown no political ambitions here and made it clear to His disciples that they do not belong here below, but rather belong to a heavenly kingdom.
Also nowhere in the New Testament do the apostles give an order to 'rule' here on earth. On the contrary, we must persevere in following the Lord Jesus, so that soon as Christ reigns in His kingdom, we will reign with Him (see 2 Timothy 2:12). There is no instruction anywhere that we should establish a “kingdom of God” here on earth. Christ Himself establishes His kingdom when He visibly returns to the Mount of Olives to judge His enemies and then establish His kingdom.
For the Christian there is not a single indication in the New Testament that indicates that they bear (joint) responsibility for this world.
The Lord Jesus was here on earth to do the will of God and to die on the cross of Calvary. He did not become king here, nor did he accept an 'administrative function', but was rejected by the world.
John puts it succinctly:For as He is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17)
The love of the Father
The motives and motives of the world are 'not from the Father' (1 John 2:16). It is the 'love of the Father' Which 'we are called children of God' (1 John 3:1) and that means for us, as children of God, that the love of God, of the Father, drives and motivates us. That's the big difference with the world!
A person who has turned to God and accepted the Lord Jesus as his Savior and Lord receives the indwelling Holy Ghost, who then pours out the love of God into his heart (Romans 5:5). We have elsewhere already described that you then love the Lord Jesus, love the Father, love God's Word and also all who are born of God. That is the work of the Holy Spirit in us and as Moody once said, "...there is no room for the world and no room for yourself"
Victory over the world
Victory is one of the 'minor' themes in the 1th letter from Johannes[5] and in the last chapter it says:
“4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world: our faith. 5 Who else is it that overcomes the world but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”
1 John 5:4,5
Characteristic of a victory is that the victor takes the armor of the adversary so that he cannot continue the battle (see Luke 11:22). Now we cannot conquer the world by ourselves, but it says that 'our faith' can. Then the world in which we live is no longer a threat and its motives and motives are weapons for which we have become 'immune', as it were.
It says in the perfect tense: 'the faith has conquered the world' and that indicates that it is a victory that has already happened and that you don't have to fight anymore. When we came to faith and were born again, at that moment 'the world has been conquered' for us. Faith has separated us from the world.
The 5th chapter of 1 John takes a closer look at that 'conquering faith'.
- “Anyone who believe that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God (…)” (5:1)
- “(...) for this is the testimony of God which he hath testified of his Son. 10 Who believes in the Son of God, has the testimony in itself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony which God has borne of His Son. 11 And this is the testimony, that God hath given us eternal life; and this life is in His Son. 12 He who has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. 13 I wrote these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may believe in the name of the Son of God.” (5:9 -13)
From this it may well appear that the 'conquering faith' has to do directly with the faith in what God has testified about His Son; Who He is and what He has done. Then we are born of God and have 'eternal life'. Our mission is to believe that and hold on to it: “(…) that you may believe in the name of the Son of God.”
Footnotes
[1] The eyes, as the image of all our senses with which we can 'experience' (see) things, including the invisible world. The sin of idolatry is an important theme in the 1th letter from John.
[2] Strong G0212 – 1) empty, boastful talk; 2) an insolent and empty certainty, relying on its own power and means, and shamefully despising and violating the divine laws and human rights; 3) a wicked and empty presumption, relying on the stability of earthly things
[3] That these three principles - and idolatry in particular - were also important in Jewish culture I have not researched, but this (https://goddienen.nu/2020/11/10/judas-iskariot-en-het-verraadsel/) points in that direction.
[4] The Gospel of John is the book of the Bible where the word 'world' (cosmos) occurs most often. The Lord Jesus uses it almost constantly in opposition to (the 'world' of) His Father.
[5] 1 John 2:13,14;4:4; 5:4,5
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