Jottings

by Miller, J. | Category: Jottings | Nov 1955

It is of very great importance that the disciple of the Lord should know and appreciate God's view of the world, lest in these days when Satan is out to make the world a place of attraction, and of ease and pleasure, he be caught in the world's net, like a fly in the web of a spider, and he lose his life.

The attitude of the world to the Lord when He came into the world should in itself be sufficient to teach us what our attitude should be to it, and what we may expect from it. He said. time and again, such words as, "Ye are from beneath; I am from above ye are of this world; I am not of this world" (John 8 28) "I am not of the world (John 17 14 16) By regeneration a complete change has taken place in us, both to the Lord and to the world, and as the Lord said "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world" (John 17 14 16)' We have both the same Father, even as the Lord said to Mary Magdalene, "My Father, and your Father (John 20 17) and the Lord put tins blessed covenant name of God in the New Testament into the mouth of His disciples when He said "After this manner therefore pray ye Our Father which art in heaven Hallowed be Thy name" (Matthew 6.9).

The world knew Him not, nor does it know Him yet, though almost twenty weary centuries have rolled by since the rejected Man of Sorrows was here. It knew Him not as the Son of the Father (John 1.10; 17.25), nor did it know the Father who sent Him (John 8.19). It is for this cause the world knows us not as the children of God. "Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God: and such we are. For this cause the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not" (1 John 3.1). When He is revealed we shall be revealed also, for the creation waiteth for the revealing of the sons of God, and then it will be delivered into the liberty of the glory of the children of God (Romans 8.19-21).

Because the Lord was not of the world, and because He bore witness of its evil works, the world hated Him (John 7.7; 15.18, 19), and as they hated the Master, so they hated His servants. "These things I command you, that ye love one another. If the world hateth you, ye know that it hath hated Me before it hated you. If ye were of the world the world would love its own; but because ye are not of the world but I chose you out of the world therefore the world hateth you" (John 15 17 19) The Spirit of Christ through David said, "They that hate Me without a cause are more than the hairs of Mine head (Psalm 69 4) His was a causeless love for men, for there was nothing lovable in us, and ours a causeless hate of Him who is altogether lovely Thank God for the reconciliation in Christ Jesus that we have known' John says "Marvel not brethren if the world hateth you (1 John 3. 18)

Let us not endeavour to sit between two stools: we cannot be on the Lord's side and on the world 5 as well God and the present world can never be united James warns us against the world's friendship. Those who make a friend of the world will soon have their mouth shut in testimony for Christ. "Ye adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore would be a friend of the world maketh himself an enemy of God" (James 4.4). The friendship of the world cannot be converted and assume a right attitude towards God; this is no more a possibility than it is possible to change the flesh. It is said that "the mind of the flesh is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be

(Romans 8.7). The mind of the flesh cannot be changed, nor can the friendship of the world be converted. Believers, and especially young people, must be warned against the world's friendship, its purposes and plans, its praise and its pleasure. If believers are to walk with their Lord, then they must go out to Him who is still an Outsider. He was cast out at Calvary, and He will not be in till the Father brings Him in, when the kingdom will be His and He will commence His kingdom of a thousand years with righteous seed, the wicked having been eliminated in judgement. You cannot grasp the hand of the world and the nailpierced hand of the Lord and walk with both.

The word "world" (Greek, Kosmos) is used in various ways in the New Testament. It is used of the earth on which we dwell, in, for instance, such passages which speak of "the foundation of the world" (John 17. 24; Ephesians 1.4). It describes also the people who live on the earth, as in John 3.16, "For God so loved the world," and other like passages. It is used in defining the evil system of the world which the children of God are not to love:

"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the vainglory of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world" (1 John 2.15, 16). It is used to describe the tongue, the member of speech. "The tongue is a fire: the world of iniquity among our members is the tongue, which defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the wheel of nature, and is set on fire by hell" (Greek, Gehenna) (James 3.6). How deadly the human tongue can be unless it is tamed by God's grace, for no man can tame it! Then Kosmos is used, in 1 Peter 3.3, 4, of a woman's adorning. "Whose adorning let it not be the outward adorning (Kosmos) of plaiting the hair, and of wearing jewels of gold, or of putting on apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in the incorruptible apparel of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price." The modern word "cosmetic" is derived from the Greek Kosmos, and what a waste of money, time, and feminine attractiveness there is in the use of these useless things, which, in what are called Cinema "stars," are used to cover faces which so often bear traces of the lives of debauchery these creatures live! Christian women should not find their patterns in these poor, yet over-paid, creatures, whose marital relations are often an affront to civilization.

It is important that the Christian should ever keep well in mind the trinity of evils against which he has to contend: the world, the flesh and the devil. The word Kosmos means order, regularity, ornament, decoration, embellishment. The Creator in Genesis brought a world of order and beauty out of what had been in chaos and darkness, for God is a God of order. But, alas, how soon the fair scene became chaos again by the entrance of sin, for "through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin; and so death passed unto all men, for that all sinned"! (Romans 5.12). Not only did sin enter the world, but the old serpent, Satan, grasped the reins of world government and became "the prince of this world" (John 12. 31; 14.30). Thank God there was One who came into the world, in whom he had nothing, there was no sin or corrupt nature in the Lord on which he could work. In his last futile attack he came to the Lord only to be defeated by the patient and Divine Sufferer, whose suffering on Calvary would mean his utter defeat, for the Lord said, " Now is the judgement of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Myself." The world stands judged and condemned at Calvary, and by that death Satan, defeated, the battle for him for ever lost through the blood of the Lamb, will be cast out, and by the death of the cross the Lord shall enter the centre of all things, the greater drawing Power, to draw men to Himself and to control them. Blest cross-work and blest Saviour! Paul calls Satan "the god of this age" (2 Corinthians 4.4). Also in Ephesians 2.2 he is seen as "the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience." In 1 John 5.19 we are told that "the whole world lieth in the evil one," not simply "in wickedness," as the A.V. gives it, but something much worse, "in the evil one." Think too how world governments are dominated by those who are under Satan's control (Ephesians 6.12), "the world rulers of this darkness."

Miller, J. | Nov 1955
Jottings