The Christian and the World

By WordExplain

Introduction

The Greek word kosmos means first of all an ordered arrangement. We derive our English words cosmetic and cosmetologist from this Greek word. But in certain contexts, kosmos came to have a specific meaning, referring to the pleasing arrangement of the natural, physical world. 

When God created the world, it was good and under His control. He created man, as the crown of His creation, to rule and subdue the earth in a benevolent manner. Once man yielded to temptation and sinned, he lost the ability to be fully good. Satan (whose name means Adversary) became, by his corruption of man, the ruler, the god of this world. 

Ever since, people have been born as sinners and have been seduced by Satan’s false values and philosophy. The world has become a system of thought and values and people who are inimical and antithetical to God. Because Satan is the ultimate deceiver, the people of the world are blinded and trapped and largely oblivious to the fact. As a result of Satan’s potent manipulation, the people of the world do not know God or Jesus or believers, and they hate and despise all three. 

There follows a partial, but substantial examination of the  word world in the New Testament based upon the Greek word kosmos as it is used in the Greek New Testament.

A.      The world is inimical to God.

            1.          The world does not know God or Jesus.

                         a.         The world did not know Jesus when He came (John 1:10).

                         b.         The world does not know God (John 17:25).

                         c.         The world does not know the children of God because the world never knew God (1 John 3:1).

            2.         The world is hostile toward God, Christ, and Christians.

                         a.         The world is inimical to God.

                                      1)         The world in Noah’s day was inimical to the values of God. That is why Noah condemned it and was saved out of God’s judgment of the world because of his faith (Heb. 11:7).

                                      2)         “... Friendship with the world is hostility toward God. Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God (James 4:4).”

                         b.         The world hates Jesus.

                                      1)         The world hates Jesus because he speaks against its evil deeds (John 7:7).

                                      2)         The world rejoiced at Jesus’ death (John 16:19-20).

                                      3)        The world loves its own, but hates Jesus (John 15:18-20; 17:14).

                         c.         The world is anti-Christian and is motivated by the spirit of the Antichrist.

                                      1)         The world does not know Christians. The world does not know the children of God because the world never knew God (1 John 3:1).

                                      2)         The world hates Christians.

                                                   a)        The world loves its own, but hates the followers of Jesus (John 15:18-20; 17:14).

                                                   b)        Christians are not to be surprised that the world hates them (1 John 3:13)!

                                      3)        The world is empowered and motivated by the spirit of the Antichrist.

                                                   a)        The spirit of the Antichrist presently exists in the world (1 John 4:3).

                                                   b)        Many deceivers have gone out into the world, and they deny that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. These people are motivated and empowered by the deceiver, the Antichrist (2 John 1:7).

B.      The world has a corrosive, defiling effect on mankind.

            1.          Pure religion includes keeping oneself unstained from the world (James 1:27).

            2.         The world corrupts people by means of strong desires and impulses (lusts) (2 Peter 1:4).

            3.         The world has a defiling influence on mankind (2 Pet. 2:20).

C.      The world has no real or lasting value. Allegiance to the world is an eternally fatal mistake.

            1.          There is no profit in gaining the whole world but losing one’s own soul (Matt. 16:26).

            2.         The world can give no one any peace. Only Jesus can give His followers peace (John 14:27).

            3.         People who are of this world will die in their sins unless they believe that Jesus is the great I AM (John 8:22-24).

            4.         The world is passing away, along with all its strong, lustful desires. He who practices the will of God, however, remains into the ages (1 John 2:17)!

D.      The world has a view point that is hostile to God. It is based on a selfish, me-first philosophy that gives its followers the sense of being very wise, but is in reality based on lustful self-gratification.

1.         The world has its own wisdom (1 Cor. 1:20), which automatically precludes it from knowing God (1 Cor. 1:21).

2.         The world has its own system of thought by which it operates – it’s own philosophy, empty deception, human tradition, and principles – by which it ensnares people (Col. 2:8).

3.        All that is in the world consists of the strong desires of the flesh and the strong desires of the eyes and the boastful self-confidence of life. These powerful temptations are not from the Father, but are from the world (1 John 2:16).

4.        There are spokesmen who promote the viewpoint of the world by deceiving people.

            a.          There are many false prophets who have gone out into the world (1 John 4:1).

            b.         False prophets originate from the world; they speak from the world, and the world listens to them (1 John 4:5)

            c.         The speakers are deceivers and anti Christ. Many deceivers have gone out into the world, and they deny that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. These people are motivated and empowered by the deceiver, the Antichrist (2 John 1:7).

E.       The world lies in the power of Satan.

            1.          Jesus called Satan “the ruler of the world” (John 14:30; John 16:11).

            2.         Satan is the present ruler of this world, although Jesus struck him a mortal blow when He endured crucifixion and was resurrected (John 12:31). Satan’s expulsion from power will bring judgment upon the world.

            3.         We Christians know intuitively that we are of God, as we also know that the whole world lies under the power of the Evil One (1 John 5:19).

F.       People are trapped in the world.

            1.          All unbelievers conduct their lives according to the course of this world (Eph. 2:2). As such, they are separate from Christ, excluded from God’s chosen nation, Israel, deprived of all the promises God made to Jewish national heroes like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David, absent any hope, and without God in the world (Eph. 2:12).

            2.         The world has its own system of thought by which it operates – it’s own philosophy, empty deception, human tradition, and principles by which it ensnares people. (Col. 2:8).

G.      Christians must keep a safe distance between themselves and the world. In the Bible, God provides believers with exhortations and enablements to escape defilement from the world.

            1.          Believers are in the world (John 13:1), but they are not of the world, for they have been chosen out of the world (John 15:19; 17:6).

            2.         Christians are forbidden to love the world or anything in it.

                         a.         If anyone loves the world, he does not have the love originating from the Father within Him (1 John 2:15).

                         b.         Loving the world is incompatible with loving God.

                                      1)         Christians are not to love the world nor anything in it (1 John 2:15).

                                      2)         “... Friendship with the world is hostility toward God. Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God (James 4:4).”

            3.         Believers will have trouble in the world, but Jesus has already conquered the world (John 16:33).

            4.         Knowing Jesus enables believers to escape the defiling influence of the world (2 Pet. 2:20).

            5.         Christians must learn to detect the deceitful messages of the world, even when they come from religious leaders!

                         a.         False prophets originate from the world; they speak from the world, and the world listens to them (1 John 4:1, 5).

                         b.         Christians are commanded not to believe every spirit (behind every communicator), but are commanded to test the spirits to see whether or not they come from God. This is true because there are many false prophets who have gone out into the world (1 John 4:1).

                         c.         We who are God’s children have conquered the spirits of the false prophets (1 John 4:1), because the Holy Spirit within us is greater than the spirit in the world (1 John 4:4).

            6.         Christians must keep themselves unstained from the world.

                         a.         In the world, believers are to conduct themselves in holiness, sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God (2 Cor. 1:12).

                         b.         Pure religion includes keeping oneself unstained from the world (James 1:27).

                         c.         Absorbing and using God’s promises in the Bible helps the believer escape the corruption of the world that comes through man’s sinful tendency to lust after what the world offers (2 Pet. 1:4).

            7.         By being related to God through faith in Jesus, believers have a defense against the world.

                         a.         Through Christ, the believer has been crucified to the world and the world to the believer (Gal. 6:14).

                         b.         We who are God’s children have conquered the spirits of the false prophets (1 John 4:1), because the Holy Spirit within us is greater than the spirit in the world (1 John 4:4).

            8.         Christians, those who place their faith in Jesus and are thus born of God, have the power to conquer the world and they do, indeed conquer the world.

                         a.         God gives certain people to Jesus out of the world (John 17:6).

                         b.         Every person who believes that Jesus is the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament has been born of God (1 John 5:1).

                         c.         Whatever has been born of God conquers the world. The conquest that conquers the world is our faith (1 John 5:4).

                         d.         Moreover, the one conquering the world is none other than the one believing that Jesus is the Son of God (1 John 5:5).

            9.         God’s Word helps to give believers the resources to escape the world’s corrosive influence. Absorbing and using God’s promises in the Bible helps the believer escape the corruption of the world that comes through man’s sinful tendency to lust after what the world offers (2 Pet. 1:4).

            10.       Believers are kept safe in the hostile world and safe from Satan through Jesus’ prayers and the sanctifying influence of God’s Word, the Bible (John 17:14-17).

            11.        Believers must remain unified in the world (John 17:11).

H.      God fights an ongoing battle against the world.

            1.          Jesus’ kingdom does not originate from the world (John 18:36).

            2.         With Jesus’ death the ruler of this world was cast out (John 12:31).

            3.         The Holy Spirit, when He came into this world at Pentecost, began to convict the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:8-11).

            4.         God has exposed the world’s wisdom to be the foolishness that it is (1 Cor. 1:20; 1 Cor. 3:19).

            5.         God, in his great wisdom, has chosen to save us who believe in Jesus through what the world believes is a foolish message – Jesus the Messiah, crucified on a cross (1 Cor. 1:21-23).

            6.         God uses things that the world considers to be foolish and weak, base and despised, in order to shame the “wise” and “powerful” of the world so no one can boast in God’s presence (1 Cor. 1:26-29).

            7.         Saints will one day judge the world (1 Cor. 6:2)!

I.     Yet God loves the people of the world and seeks to rescue them.

            1.          God loved the people of the world so much that He gave His uniquely begotten Son, Jesus, on the cross, so that all who believe in Him might not perish, but might have eternal life, escaping judgment (John 3:16-17).

            2.         God, through Christ, has reconciled the world to Himself in the sense that He is legally and morally justified in forgiving all sinners (2 Cor. 5:19). That reconciliation is effective, however, only in those who accept the gift of forgiveness in Jesus (1 Tim. 4:10).

J.      Believers are sent out into a dark world to shine as light, dispelling the darkness, endeavoring to help people of the world trust in Jesus.

            1.          Believers are to serve as lights in a dark world (Phil. 2:15).

            2.         Jesus sends His followers out into the hostile world to proclaim His message in a unified way so that the world will believe in Him (John 17:11, 18-23).

The Christian and the World

by James T. Bartsch

August, 2007

Published by WordExplain.com

Email Contact: jbartsch@wordexplain.com

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WordExplain by James T. Bartsch

(Scripture quotations taken from the NASB.  Used by Permission.)

Completed November 8, 2010

Updated May 18, 2015