If we search the Word of God, we shall find that though sometimes the term “world” refers to the earth on which we live; yet it is more often used to denote a certain sphere, or state of things here, that though the children of God are obliged to live in as to their bodies, till death or the coming of the Lord takes them out of it, they no more belong to it, as our blessed Lord tells us, than He does Himself.
In the 4th of Luke we find that when Satan tempted the Perfect Man, one of the temptations was to offer all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them to the Son of God, if He would only worship him. (See verses 6 and 7).
In 1 John 5:1919And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness. (1 John 5:19), we are told that “the whole world lieth in wickedness,” literally “in the wicked one.” Our Lord owns Satan as “the prince of this world” in John 14:3030Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me. (John 14:30), as also in chapter 12:31. And the Holy Ghost in 2nd Corinthians 4:4 tells us that “the god of this world” “blinds the minds of them that believe not” the gospel; referring to Satan also. And again in Ephesians 2:1, 2, 31And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; 2Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: 3Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. (Ephesians 2:1‑3), those “dead in trespasses and sins,” “walk according to the course of this world,” which course is “according to the prince of the power of the air (Satan), the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience” (unbelievers). “Among whom we all had our conversation in times past, fulfilling the desires of the flesh, and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath even as others.”
The world then is composed of those who—still in their natural state—are spiritually “dead towards God, in their trespasses and sins” —who are fulfilling from morning till night, and day to day, the natural desires of the flesh and of the mind, without reference to God or God’s will at all—and are energized by the spirit of this terrible enemy of the true God, Satan, who is blinding their minds, and to whom they are in bondage, and who is their god really, and their prince; no matter what their form of godliness may be, or religion.
Yea, such is the state of this sphere, or condition of things called “the world,” that the Spirit says through the inspired Apostle James, that “the friendship of the world is enmity with God,” —that “whosoever will be a friend” of it, is “an enemy of God,” —and calls those believers who mix, with it, “adulterers and adulteresses.” How solemn! how awful! While the same Holy Spirit through the Apostle John, in the 1st Epistle 2:15 says, that “if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” The reason given being, that “all that is in the world,” the three motives that in some form or another govern the walk and ways of the world, that is, what it takes pleasure in, and seeks to find happiness in the gratification of, namely, “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, are not of the Father, but of the world,” and are all going to pass away.
Yes, dear reader, and just as Pharaoh ruled over the children of Israel, in Egyptian bondage, by taskmasters; so Satan rules over the children of this world, through the natural desires of the flesh and of the mind, so that God is shut out, and man, the world, is in bondage to sin, and their minds blinded to the truth: unless the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, shines, through sovereign grace, into the heart, giving the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ.
Now when we see this, we see what the world is and if we know what it is to have our own once-blinded eyes open—if the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ has shone into our hearts, is it not most important, yea, absolutely necessary, for us to be thoroughly separate from the world? How can (as the Spirit of God puts it in 2nd Corinthians 6:14, 15, 16) righteousness and unrighteousness, light and darkness, Christ and Belial, the believer and the unbeliever, the temple of God and the temple of idols, have fellowship, go along arm in arm together.
Listen then, dear children of God, to the Lord God Almighty speaking in those last two verses of that same chapter, “Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing (the world), and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you (act a Father’s part toward you), and ye shall be My sons and daughters,” or, in other words, you shall know practically what it is to enjoy God’s love as a Father, in every sense of the meaning of that word “Father.”
Now-a-days, it is, perhaps, more difficult to draw the line between the world and the church, or the world and the family of God, because alas, in these last days, the world has got into the church and the church into the world.
There can be no real, true, enjoyment, of happy communion with the Father and the Son; that holy, blessed happy fellowship with God, that taste of heaven upon earth (even now!) where there is not separation from the world. It is impossible. Yea, more—friendship with the world, and loving the things of the world, so deadens the souls of those who try to go on with it, even if they do not walk on the dirty, but on the clean side of the broad way that the world is on, in its downward road to everlasting destruction and misery, that the children of God go to sleep among the dead—lose spiritual eyesight, and power— forget what the grace of God delivered them from at the first; and have to be waked up, perhaps on a death-bed! and that often an early one; or by some sore, bitter humbling trial, the direct loving, but severe, because needed chastisement of the Father’s hand, to bitter, bitter sorrow of heart and shame and self-judgment; to look back on a lot of lost opportunities of serving the blessed Lord, and helping souls around them, perhaps even to look back (awful thought) and see how they have been a stumbling-block to others, when they might have been a help, or at least not a hindrance. (See 2 Peter 1: verses 5 to end of 11, and Ephesians 5:1414Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. (Ephesians 5:14)). And to be saved so as by fire, like Lot out of Sodom.
O, children of God, beware of the world, which Satan would use to seduce you, from walking with, and enjoying, that holy, happy portion even here, that God’s blessed Son suffered and died to bring us into the enjoyment of. The enjoyment of God Himself.
The world, like a beautiful handsome Delilah; will, if you allow it, put you to sleep in its laps like she did Samson, the man separated to God in his day. And then, like with him, it will end in your spiritual eyesight being put out, and your strength taken away, and you becoming the sport of the enemies of the Lord, if you do not, in the strength that is made perfect in weakness, the Lord’s strength, learn to overcome the world.