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, they no more belong to, as our blessed Lord tells us, than He does Himself.
John 17 states, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” Galatians 1:44Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: (Galatians 1:4) tells us, Christ gave Himself for our sins to deliver us from this present, evil world.
In Luke 4 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 vvs. 6-7).
In 1 John 5:1919Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. (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 John 12:3131Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. (John 12:31). And the Holy Ghost in 2 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 2:1-31And 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. Such have no 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. Satan is their god really, and their prince, no matter what their form of godliness may be, or their religion.
Yea, such is the state of this 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 the world 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 1 John 2:1515And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables; (John 2:15), says, that “if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” The reason given is that “all that is in the world, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” These things are three motives that in some form or another govern the walk and ways of the world. What it takes pleasure in, and seeks to find happiness is in gratifying “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” And just as Pharaoh ruled over the children of Israel, in Egyptian bondage, by task masters, 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 men of the world are in bondage to sin, and their minds are blinded to the truth: unless the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, shines into their hearts, 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 2 Cor. 6:14-16), 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 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.” 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, since the day when church and state were joined together after the death of the Apostles, when whole nations outwardly embraced, Christianity as their national religion. In the Apostles’ days it was not so, and the assembly of God in a town or city was a company of true believers, gathered to the Name of the Lord Jesus, entirely distinct and separate from the State, or the mass of Jews and Gentiles who were still going on in Judaism or in open idolatry. Now, in so-called Christian countries, almost every one professes, outwardly at all events, some kind of Christianity. And Church and State are joined together. In consequence there is not the same open violent persecution that the early Christians had to go through, even unto death. But the world is the same old world still, no matter if it calls itself Christian now, or not.
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. Friendship with the world, and loving the things of the world, deadens the souls of those who try to go on with it. Even if they walk on the “clean” side of the broad way that the world is on in its downward road to everlasting destruction and misery, the child of God goes to sleep among the dead — loses spiritual eyesight, and power — forgets what the grace of God delivered them from at the first; and has to be waked up, perhaps on an early death-bed or by some sore trial, the direct, loving chastisement of the Father’s hand, to bitter, bitter sorrow of heart and shame and self-judgment. Then they must look back on a many lost opportunities of serving the blessed Lord, and helping souls around them, perhaps they even 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 1:5-11, and Eph. 5:1414Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. (Ephesians 5:14).) These are they saved so as by fire, like Lot out of Sodom.
Oh, children of God, beware of the world, which Satan would use to rob you of walking with, and enjoying, that happy portion 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 Delilah; will, if you allow it, put you to sleep in its lap, like she did to Samson, the man separated to God in his day. And then, like him, it will end in your spiritual eyesight being put out, your strength taken away, and you becoming the sport of the enemies of the Lord, if you do not, in the Lord’s strength that is made perfect in weakness, learn to overcome the world.