“I do not pray the You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world” -John 17:15-16
This is what Jesus prayed to the Father. In this prayer, Jesus requested protection and sanctification for His followers rather than their immediate removal from the world.
It’s a tough assignment, to be “in the world, but not of the world.” how come we operate as followers of Jesus in this world without allowing ourselves to belong to it.
This may seem impossible today, but it is clear that we are not to become entangled with the world.
The world is such a great danger to our souls that this danger caused Jesus, the Son of God, to go to the cross to deliver us from it.
The world denoted by the Greek word, “Cosmos,” meaning the world system, which is headed by satan and based on that in of itself, greed, and pride. This is the world that God warns about.
2 Corinthians 4:4 says, “In whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the Good News of the glory of Messiah, who is the image of God, should not dawn on them.”
The warnings in scripture are clear. The Romans 12:2 says, “Do not be conformed to this world” It teaches in Galatians 1:4, “Christ, who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us out of this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.”
In other words, the world is such a great danger to our souls that it caused Jesus to go to the cross to save us from it.
Throughout the Bible, the lines are definitely drawn between the world of unbelievers and the world of the children of God. In such a way that James 4:4 states, “Do you know that being the world’s friend (this is, loving the things of the world) is being God’s enemy?
So whoever chooses to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. And Jesus said in John 15:18, “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.”
The Bible teaches that those who follow Jesus will face opposition in the world. Paul said in 2 Timothy 3:12, “All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.” Just as Jesus’s life with all love, concern, and selflessness was a rebuke to the world of His time, so our lives with Jesus abiding in us today bring criticism, opposition, and persecution from those who can not comprehend God’s redemptive grace.
The Bible teaches that we are not to be discouraged by this. We are to consider it as evidence that we are identified with Jesus. Jesus said, in Matthew 5:11-12, “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kind of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and we exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven.”
The world has entertainment and distractions that permeate the atmosphere as to makes the way of the cross seem antiquated and irreverent, and to make a godly person seem strict or rigid. In much of the world today – entertainment, and media is fostered by the world, the name of God is profaned, sex is glamorized and moral standards are laughed at.
Even, many to follow Jesus are tricked into believing that you cannot enjoy life except as a member of the worldly crowd. The happiest people I know are separated, followers of Jesus. They are not dependent on stimulants, or abuse their bodies to relax their minds. Because with Jesus’s “presence there is fullness of joy” (Psalm 16-11).
Being a follower of Jesus is not a long list of restrictions. It opens the windows to the real joy of living. The world would have us believe that following Jesus is a “killjoy” a dull life, unnatural and abnormal.
But the evidence is to the contrary. Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” -John 10:10.
The Bible teaches that worldliness is a force, a spirit, an atmosphere of the cosmos, that is in opposition and contradiction to all who are godly and follow Jesus. It’s goal is selfish pleasure, material success, and the pride of life.
Jesus identified Satan as a prince of this world. Satan employs every device at his command to harass, tempt and thwart the people of God. His attack is relentless. In Ephesians 6:12 Paul writes, “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
Yet, we are not left defenseless. God provides the power to give us victory over Satan. Paul told us is Romans 8:37, “We are more than conquerors through Him who loves us.” And John wrote in 1 John 4:4, “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”
We will never overcome Satan and the power of this world system in our human effort or by any deeds of righteousness, no matter how commendable they may be. But we can overcome by the blood of the Lamb.
The Bible instructs us to make a clean break with all the evils of this world and be separated from them. We are not to get the world mix up with following Jesus is. This is where the confusion lies, Jesus, eight with politicians and sinners, nearly everyone he associated with was an outcast. But His relationship with them was not purely social, it was redemptive.
God meant that we are not to mingle with the world, but we are to witness to the world. We are to love the world of people whom God loves. We are too weep with those who weep, suffer with those who suffer, and identify ourselves with the poor, sick, and needy.
As for loving the evil world, and being enamored of the world system of evil, we are to be separated from it.
From Pity to Praise 