Destroying Our Illusions: What the Bible Says About the World

By David J. MacLeod [1]

A Meditation on John 12:31

Introduction

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82), noted American essayist and poet, voiced the spirit of worldliness when he said, “Other world! There is no other world! Here or nowhere is the whole fact.” Many would sympathize with the no-nonsense attitude that says, “This world is my home.” [2] In decided contrast to Emerson, the Spanish mystic, St. John of the Cross (1542–91), made the striking, yet very biblical, statement, “God is at home, we are in the far country.” [3] The Spanish mystic’s idea is biblical in that the Scriptures tell us as Christians that “our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil. 3:20).We are temporary pilgrims (“aliens … strangers and exiles”) on earth making our way to the heavenly city (cf. Heb. 11:9–16; cf. 1 Pet. 2:11), the home country.

Yet his idea is shocking to many Christians, because they don’t feel they are in the far country. Life on earth is quite satisfying, thank you. They have forgotten the Lord’s words, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal” (Matt. 6:19–20). Or His warning that we should not allow our hearts to be “weighted down with dissipation [immoral conduct] and drunkenness and the worries of life” (Luke 21:34).

In spite of our Lord’s words, many professing Christians are as materialistic and hedonistic as anybody else. They have made financial success their god.

They present exalted teaching about marriage (“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church,” Eph. 5:25), then shed their wives and children as easily and without conscience as anyone else in the country.

Years ago someone put a poem on the wall of the McAuley Rescue Mission in New York City that captured the disjuncture between profession and practice:

Angels from their realms on high
Look down on us with wondering eye,
That where we are but passing guests,
We build such strong and solid nests;
But where we hope to dwell for aye [ever],
We scarce take heed one stone to lay. [4]

Yet St. John of the Cross was right. “God is at home. We are in the far country.” And if we are at home in this world we need to be confronted once again with the truth about the world. That is just what happens in John 12:31. Enthusiastic crowds have greeted our Lord Jesus as He entered Jerusalem (John 12:12–16). No doubt visions of exalted positions in the imminent kingdom fill the heads of the disciples. Yet immediately the Lord speaks in veiled terms of laying down His life (John 12:23–24, 33). Jesus’ words must have come as a blow, a complete reversal of their hopes. Yet in destroying one set of illusions, He offered them a wonderful hope, solid and secure, of eternal life (John 12:25, 32). [5]

In just such a way we need our illusions destroyed. We need to face the truth about this world and our place in it. If we are Christians, “we are in the far country,” and although it has its attractions, this world is enemy territory, and we need to be alert.

In this article I want to conduct a quick survey of a few of the key biblical passages that tell us the truth about the world. Before I do, let me remind you of the two Greek words translated by our English word world in the New Testament: In the first article in this series we considered 1 John 2:15, “Do not love the world, nor the things in the world.” [6] We learned that the term world is the Greek word κόσμος (kosmos). As used in that passage it views the world as an evil social system corrupted by the fall of man and opposed to God. It is unregenerate mankind hostile to God. In our second article we considered Romans 12:1–2, “Do not be conformed to this world.” [7] The word world in that passage is different. It is a word (αἰών, aiōn) meaning age. We learned that this term speaks of the moral or immoral atmosphere of the world system. It is the value system or world view that molds and degrades the world.

Our Lord does not want us to be deceived about this world that is outwardly so attractive. He wants to destroy all our illusions about it, and this He and His apostles do in the six texts we shall consider here. In them we shall see that:

1. There is a mind behind the world system, 2 Cor. 4:4; 1 John 5:19.
2. The world is bitterly hostile to Jesus Christ, 1 Cor. 2:8; John 15:18–25.
3. The Cross of Christ reveals the divine decision concerning the world, John 12:31; Gal. 6:14.

There Is a Mind Behind the World System

In Classical Greek the term κόσμος sometimes had the idea of order, orderly arrangement or organization. [8] This helps us grasp what the world system really is. Behind all that is tangible — the worldly affairs, the worldly goods, the endowments, riches, advantages, pleasures, which stir our desire and seduce us from God — there is something intangible. The world system is a planned and organized system, and the Apostles reveal to us the mind behind that system.

Satan Is the God of This World

The Existence of Satan

In one of his well-known books, C. S. Lewis says there are two equal and opposite errors into which people fall about Satan and demons. The one is to have an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. The other is to disbelieve in their existence. [9] Modern secular, naturalistic man has fallen into the second of these errors. There is just no room for Satan in his world view. But the Christian hasna different world view, a world view shaped by his/her reading of the Bible and by his/her instruction by teachers of the Word in the meetings of the church. As Paul the Apostle says, “we are not ignorant of his schemes” (2 Cor. 2:11).

Our Lord Jesus Christ said that Satan is a “liar, and the father of lies” (John 8:44). As Baudelaire (1821–67), the French critic and poet, said, “The devil’s cleverest wile is to make men believe that he does not exist.” [10] This is what the Swiss writer, Denis De Rougemont, means when he says that the “Devil’s first trick is his incognito.” God says to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM” (Exod. 3:14), i.e., “I am He who is.” But the devil, ever jealous of God and bent on imitating Him, even though it be in reverse, says to us, “My name is Nobody. There is nobody. Whom should you be afraid of?” [11]

But we are not fooled. Several books of the Old Testament mention him (Gen. 3; 1 Chron. 21:1; Job 1:6–12; 2:1–7; Isa. 14:12–17; Ezek. 28:1–19; Zech. 3:1–2). His existence is exposed by every New Testament writer; nineteen of them use one of his names; eight imply his existence by the mention of demons. Of special interest is the fact that our Lord speaks of him twenty-five times.

The Power of Satan

In 2 Corinthians 4:4 the Apostle Paul calls Satan “the god of this world,” lit. “age” (ὁ θεὸς τοῢ αἰῶνος τούτου, ho theos tou aiōnos toutou). Bengel speaks of this as “a grand, but awful description of Satan.” [12] This title parallels that given him by the Lord, “the ruler of this world” (ὁ ἄρχων τοῢ κόσμου τούτου, ho archōn tou kosmou toutou, John 12:31; 16:11).

Now the Bible teaches that there is only one true “King of the Ages” (1 Tim. 1:17, ὁ βασιλεὺς τῶν αἰώνων, ho basileus tōn aiōnōn), and that is God Himself. Yet Satan wishes to set himself up as God, and unbelievers, in rebelling against the true God, subject themselves to him. His goal is to blind their minds in various ways to keep them from believing the gospel of Jesus Christ. [13]

It is clear from Scripture that Satan exercises real power in this world. Adam had dominion over the earth, but this was usurped by the evil one when Adam sinned. This is implied during the temptation of Jesus when Satan offers Him “all the kingdoms of the world” (οἰκουμένη, oikoumenē, lit., “inhabited earth,” Luke 4:5) if He will worship him. The devil adds the significant remark, “for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish” (Luke 4:6). [14]

During this present age, extending from Adam’s fall to Christ’s return to earth, Satan is “the god of this world.” In the age to come, when Christ establishes His kingdom, the devil will be driven out (cf. Rev. 20:1–3). The death of Christ has dealt a decisive blow to Satan and his subordinates, but they are not yet completely defeated and pacified. They attack Christians and, here in 2 Corinthians 4:4, they prevent men and women from becoming Christians. [15]

In a sense there are three rulers of the earth, under the sovereign hand of God, during its history: (1) Adam ruled over Paradise [Gen. 1:26–28]; (2) Satan rules over the present world system, which extends in time from Adam’s fall to the second advent of Christ; (3) Christ will rule over the millennial earth [Rev. 5:10; 11:15; 20:4–6]. [16]

Satan’s Influence is Pervasive, 1 John 5:19

The New Testament writers attribute to the Devil broad and organized influence. [17] Our Lord clearly implies that Satan is the single head of a unified kingdom of evil (cf. Matt. 12:22–29). The Apostle warns of “the schemes of the devil.” Then he says that our struggle is “against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:11–12).

The Apostle John informs us that “the whole world lies in the power of the evil one” (ὁ κόσμος ὅλος ἐν τῷ πονηρῷ κεῒται, ho kosmos holos en tō ponērō keitai, 1 John 5:19). The AV has “the whole world lieth in wickedness.” It takes the τῷ πονηρῷ as neuter. However, the preceding verse has the masculine ὁ πονηρός (“the evil one”), which determines that τῷ πονηρῷ in v. 19 be masculine as well. [18] In short, the translation “the evil one” is correct.

In the immediate context (vv. 13–18) John assures his readers that they have eternal life. The evil one may assault the believer, but he gets no hold (“the evil one does not touch him,” v. 18). Whoever is in Christ is safe. Jesus said, “No one shall snatch them out of My hand” (John 10:28). [19] The believer takes courage from his/her Lord’s words, “In the world you have tribulation, but take courage: I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

John assures the believer in the world that the devil’s power does not rival that of Christ: “Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). [20] Although the evil one cannot touch the believer he has the whole world (its values, its moral and intellectual life) in his grasp. The verb “lies” suggests helpless passivity. The world lies utterly under his dominion and at his disposal. [21]

Occasionally on TV I have seen a variety of nature programs, which are designed, I suppose, as entertainment for the whole family. Yet they are among the most violent programs available, with a steady diet (no pun intended) of one animal eating another. The most frightening scenes are those of a python with its prey, whether it be an eagle, a rabbit, a small deer or monkey. The python grabs hold and then wraps itself around its victim. The final scene is inevitably the quarry passively in the grasp of the great snake. That is the picture of the world, helplessly under the control of the Serpent. Because of his pervasive influence there is ever a “trend away from God” in the world. [22]

What do you think of when you think of worldliness? Do you narrow it down to a few sins, usually sins that others commit: drunkenness, drug addiction, homosexuality, thievery, gambling, pornography? Look again at the words of John: “the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” All human affairs are influenced by the god of this world: politics, social affairs, industry, science, popular culture, education, religion; all of the structures and values that exert a controlling influence on society. [23] Think of this for a moment:

The World of Government and Politics

In Old Testament times God created a nation (Israel). Its trend was ever away from the Lord until it fell into great idolatry.

Our modern governmental institutions and parties are part of the world. Many in politics have found that the political life leads to diabolical pride, and cancerous inner self-centerdness. Some time ago the Los Angeles Times published this letter from a senator, “Over a period of years, as I drank the heady wine of power and influence, my priorities in office became distorted. Success and recognition were foremost; honesty and adherence to the law were not at the center of my focus. Like some others before me, I placed undue emphasis on raising funds, on achieving political status, on impressing my friends. Strict compliance with the law would have allowed me to perform my public service without becoming the center of one controversy after another over the years.” [24]

The political party thrives on loyalty. Loyalty to my party in spite of moral issues. The consummate party man was Adolf Eichmann (1906–62), who was executed for his war crimes of exterminating Jews. His defense was that he was loyal to the system, i.e. the Nazi Party. May God deliver us from the sin of pragmatic loyalty. [25]

The secular establishment does not like to talk of good and evil. President Ronald Reagan horrified the pundits back in the early 1980s when he spoke of the Soviet Union as “the evil empire.” Politicians, of course, do have their own version of good and evil. They boldly seek to suppress crime, drug traffic, environmental polluters, bank raiders, etc. But confront the evil and pride and self-centeredness in their own lives, never. One astute observer of the political scene in England observed, “It is probably quite impossible for a good Christian to be a highly successful politician. [26] “The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.”

The World of Industry and Commerce

The proud middle-class businessman looks down at a prostitute as a worldling. Yet he is part of the world if he becomes involved in dishonesty, unfairness, and corruption. He becomes part of the world system if he resorts to advertising that appeals to the vanity, snobbery, and covetousness of people, tantalizing their every appetite. “Buy this product and you will have fullness of life. Buy these worldly possessions and you will have status. Buy this product because we are better at sexual titillation than our competitors.” [27] “The whole world lies in the power of the evil one,” says the Apostle John.

The World of Science

In our world today science is an idol. A number of years ago the government hired some students at the University of Georgia to work on a civil defense research project. The students were all from different departments. They frequently had discussions on science and religion. One student, Brenda, a graduate student in psychology, offered this observation: “Religion is only useful in explaining what we don’t know yet.… The more science answers that need, the less we rely upon theology.”

After a long discussion, a law student spoke up, “Brenda, science gave us atomic weapons.” “Well,” said Brenda, “science just gives us knowledge. It doesn’t tell us what … to do with it.” “Oh,” the law student asked, “then what does?” Science as idol (scientism) fails to put technology in a moral context. It cannot deal with good and evil and moral purpose. About an hour after takeoff, the story goes, a pilot announced to his passengers that his news for them was both good and bad. “First the good news,” he said. “We’re making good time. But the bad news is … we’re lost.” The technological and scientific story of the twentieth century might remind us of that wandering airplane with throttles set at full speed. [28]

“Surely medical science is not worldly,” someone may say. What of medical procedures offered simply to conform the patient to what is sexually desirable in our culture? What of medical procedures that result in the death of unborn children or of undesirable adults? What of physicians whose sole goal is to enjoy the power and prestige of their profession? “The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving.”

The World of Education

There are many worlds that Satan uses to keep us away from God. Donald Grey Barnhouse, the well-known Bible teacher and pastor of Philadelphia’s famous Tenth Presbyterian Church, was in Boston for a series of speaking engagements. A young instructor at Harvard University came to talk to Dr. Barnhouse at the request of a Christian relative. He was eager to terminate the appointment because he was not interested in the Gospel. Dr. Barnhouse opened the Bible and told him he would read a verse that explained his lack of interest. “And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil” (John 3:19).

The young man was visibly angry and spoke against those who are always looking for evil in the lives of other people. Dr. Barnhouse stopped him. “Do not misunderstand. I am not accusing you of having killed anybody, or having spent the weekend in immorality, or of having plagiarized another man’s thesis. Your evil deed may consist in sitting in the stacks of the Widener Library thrilling with joy because you have discovered the answer to some problem about Shakespeare’s plays which has puzzled scholars. If it keeps you away from God, the world of books is as evil as the world of banditry or the world of lust.” [29]

Most of the early universities on the East Coast of the United States were founded to provide training for men to become evangelical ministers. The essential worldliness of secular education is demonstrated by the present condition of those institutions. They are part of the secular, materialistic establishment. [30] Educators can be dishonest. They can cheat on research. They can rewrite history in order to placate the politically correct dogma of the moment.

What do we expect from our schools? Do we expect them to make our children better people, or more marketable people? In a large number of public schools there are ethics classes. Teachers are not allowed to tell students that certain things are right or wrong because of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures. Instead the class is encouraged to find their own values. One teacher in Newton, Massachusetts was teaching the techniques of values clarification to her sixth graders. One day they told her that they valued cheating and wanted to be free to do it on their tests. She was uncomfortable with this. What was her solution? She told them that since it was her class, and since she was opposed to cheating, they were not free to cheat. “In my class you must be honest, for I value honesty. In other areas of your life you may be free to cheat.” [31] “The whole world lies in the power of the evil one,” says the Apostle John.

The World of Popular Culture

There is an increasing obsession with sexuality and vice in literature, advertising, TV, and films. Newsweek magazine, reviewing the new book of pornographic sex by a popular singer and actress says that it celebrates sadomasochism, homosexuality, and exhibitionism. Popular culture is creating a nation of voyeurs. [32]

The immoral literature and films seek to win sympathy for adulterers, sodomites, drug addicts, and nymphomaniacs. All is defended because the artist is sincere and authentic. Spurious moral excuses are used to defend the corruption.

In 1992 the movie Naked Lunch was released. It was based on a novel by William S. Burroughs, who was an alcoholic, a drug addict, and a self-confessed homosexual. Several years ago a group of writers sought to paint Burroughs as a moral man. One said Burroughs found commitment in “addiction to narcotics which swallows up his income and gives him a new grim interest in the economy.” Our magazines and TV personalities worship these stars and seek to give a bogus glamour to their lives of vicious debauchery.

As Christians we must remember the truth about the world. The powers of evil will exploit every possible occasion for drawing men and women into the mental confusion of blurred concepts and twisted values. We must expect that evil will be at large where God is not. [33] P. T. Forsyth (1848–1921), well-known Scottish theologian and preacher, once said, “If within us we find nothing over us we succumb to what is around us.” [34] We live today in a generation that has almost entirely lost its capacity to grasp that which transcends the world, heaven, that which is “over us.” [35] As a result it has succumbed to “what is around us,” i.e., the world. “The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.”

The World of Fashion

One of the best illustrations of the world and worldliness is the fashion industry. It’s the world of Vogue, Elle, Mirabella, Harper’s Bazaar, and, for the men, GQ, Esquire, and Playboy. It is obsession with what is sexually seductive, sophisticated, chic, elegant, tasteful. It is the world of rouge, lip blush, false eyelashes and wrinkle eraser. It is the lust of the flesh (“fresh, tarty, concealing yet revealing”) and the pride of life (trend-setting, keeping up with the ever-swinging pendulum of what’s “hot” and what’s “not”). “The world is passing away,” says the Apostle John (1 John 2:17), and nowhere is this better illustrated than in last year’s new fashions.

Tucked away in the Apostle Peter’s first letter (1 Peter 3:3–4) is this bit of counsel to Christian women, “And let not your adornment be merely external — braiding the hair, and wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses; but let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit.” It is the kind of text that could get a preacher into a lot of trouble. Yet the Apostle is not telling women, contrary to legalists ancient and modern, not to braid their hair, or wear jewelry or fine clothing. He is not telling them to be unkempt and dowdy. A clue to his meaning is found in the word “adornment” (NEB, NASB, NIV). It is the word (κόσμος, kosmos) that is translated “world” over one hundred times in the New Testament. Here only it has the sense “adornment” that it regularly had in classical Greek. [36] We might paraphrase Peter, “And let not your world be the world of fashion, of the beauty shop, the jeweler, or the dressmaker, but let it be the hidden person of the heart.” [37] The real goal of the Apostle is constructive, to inculcate a proper sense of what is really important. [38] “The whole world lies in the power of the evil one,” says the Apostle John.

The World of Religion

As we walk through any large bookstore we will find shelf after shelf devoted to books on religion and the occult. Subjects covered include: life after death, reincarnation, psychic powers, Satanism, New Age Meditation, magic, etc. Our newspapers regularly carry astrology columns. Former First Lady, Nancy Reagan, admitted that she regularly consulted with an astrologer and followed her advice in influencing her husband’s schedule. The current First Lady, Hillary Clinton, is reputed to have been involved in psychic se;ances in which she carried on imaginary conversations with Eleanor Roosevelt and Mahatma Gandhi. [39]

Closer to home we have professed Christian preachers on TV who promote a message of worldliness; name whatever you covet by faith and it is yours. There are well known Christian leaders who break their marriage vows and commit adultery and obtain divorces. There are theologians who undercut every fundamental doctrine of the Christian faith in order to accommodate themselves to the world. The deity of Christ and His substitutionary atonement for sin are denied. The devil is demythologized (I wonder who is behind that move?). Describing the kind of doctrinally empty message preached in many churches today, H. Richard Niebuhr once said, “A God without wrath [brings] men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.” [40]

William Kelly (1821–1906), an outstanding Bible scholar among the Brethren in the nineteenth century, was once offered a prestigious position in the religious, academic world. If he accepted it, he was assured, he would be given “a place in the world.” Kelly’s response showed him a foe of worldliness. He replied simply, “For which world?” [41] “The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving.”

This World Is Bitterly Hostile to Jesus Christ

The best illustration of the character of the world is its reaction to our Lord Jesus Christ and His church. Here we see the world system exposed for what it really is.

It Crucified the Lord of Glory, 1 Corinthians 2:8

This section of 1 Corinthians is dominated by the idea of wisdom. [42] The wisdom of which Paul speaks is not the wisdom of “this age” (τοῢ αἰῶνος τούτου, tou aiōnos toutou). This wisdom, long hidden — and still hidden to some — is the message of a crucified Messiah (v. 2). [43] The “rulers of this age” (οἱ ἄρχοντες τοῢ αἰῶνος τούτου, hoi archontes tou aiōnos toutou), viz., the worldly establishment — those who control the current climate of opinion — including the religious authorities (Sanhedrin) and the political authorities of the Jews and the Romans, had no idea who Christ really was. [44] They did to Him what the worldly wisdom of this age dictated; they put Him to death. [45]

The great irony of their deed is brought out by the phrase “which God predestined before the ages” (v. 7). The very ones who were trying to do away with Jesus were in fact carrying out God’s predetermined plan (cf. Acts 2:23). The enormity of their crime is seen in the title, “Lord of Glory” (ὁ κύριος τῆς δόξης, ho kurios tēs doxēs), which we might render “glorious Lord.” More than one scholar has thought that this is one of the loftiest titles ever applied to Christ by Paul. [46]

The expression “of glory” in the phrase “the Lord of glory” (τὸν κύριον τῆς δοζῆς) is emphatic (genitive of quality or attributive genitive) in the original text. It brings out “the contrast between the indignity of the cross (Heb. 12:2) and the majesty of the Victim (Luke 22:69; 23:43).” [47]

The term glory [48] is applied to the Father elsewhere in the New Testament (Acts 7:2; Eph. 1:17). Now the title is taken and applied to Christ in His resurrection. The rulers of this age did not understand the destiny of the One they sentenced to death. God has exalted Him on high and invested Him with a new glory. [49] It is through union with Him that His people are to be glorified (v. 7). The worldly establishment had no inkling of His true identity when they thought they had Him at their mercy. [50]

It Hates His Chosen Ones, John 15:18-25

The night of His betrayal the Lord Jesus sought to prepare His followers for His absence. He commanded them to love one another (John 15:17), and He warned them that their new relationship to Christ meant a new relationship to the world (vv. 18–25). “It is not without its significance,” says Leon Morris, “that the disciples are to be known by their love, the world by its hatred.” [51]

Why the World Hates Believers, vv. 19-2152

The first reason: They are not “of the world,” v. 19. The world is a society of rebels. It finds it hard to tolerate those who are in joyful fellowship with Christ. There is a sense in which believers are aliens. They do not belong. They are different, and the world hates the difference. [53]

Professor William Barclay of Glasgow University gives several illustrations from secular sources of the world’s intolerance of those who are different: (1) The first concerns the inventor of the umbrella. One of the most common things in the world is an umbrella. When Jonas Hanway invented it and tried to introduce it into England by walking down the street beneath one, he was pelted with stones and dirt. (2) Another illustration is Aristides (530-468 B.C.), the Athenian statesman and general. He was called Aristides the Just, yet he was banished. When one of the citizens of Athens was asked why he had voted for his banishment, he answered: “Because I am tired of hearing him always called the Just.” (3) So it was with Socrates (469-399 B.C.). They killed him. He was called the human gadfly. He was always compelling men to think and to examine themselves, and men hated that and they killed him.

Says Barclay, “To put it at its widest — the world always suspects nonconformity. It likes a pattern; it likes to be able to label a person and to put him in a pigeonhole. Anyone who does not conform to the pattern will certainly meet trouble. It is even said that if a hen with different markings is put among hens that are all alike, the others will peck her to death.” [54]

Of course, in John 15:18–19 our Lord is not making a sociological observation about man’s inborn suspicion of strangers. He is making a moral observation. The world loves its own and hates believers because the Christian does not share the world’s values and aspirations. [55] The reason why believers are not “of the world” is that Christ chose them “out of the world” (v. 19b). The world is enraged at the thought of Christians being the singled out favorites of God. [56] Believers, of course, must never forget that they, with all others, are “objects of wrath” (Eph. 2:3).

The world may complain about the faults and inconsistencies of Christians. Its real complaint is with the grace of God. Luther remarks, “Among themselves they are … as friendly to one another as cats and dogs, but in what pertains to Christ they are all unanimous in their hatred.” [57]

The second reason: They are identified with Christ, v. 20. “If they persecuted Me,” the Lord Jesus says, “they will also persecute you.” “The quarrel of the world with the Church,” says H. B. Swete, “is merely a continuation of its quarrel with Christ.” [58] This text should comfort us. Many believers do not expect the world’s hatred and are surprised when it comes. [59] The bitterness of the world towards believers should not surprise nor distress them.

John Wesley (1703–91) would get worried if he did not get persecuted. One day while he was riding his horse along the road it dawned on him that he hadn’t been persecuted (with verbal assaults, punches, rocks, etc.) for three days. Immediately he stopped his horse and exclaimed, “Can it be that I have sinned and am backslidden?” He got down from his horse and began to pray asking God to show him if his lack of persecution was due to any unconfessed sin. While he was on his knees, an unbelieving man passed by and recognized the hated preacher. He picked up a brick and threw it at Wesley. It missed the evangelist, but he saw it as an answer to prayer. “Thank God,” he exclaimed, “it’s all right, I still have His presence.” [60]

Why the World Hates Christ, vv. 22-25

“If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin.” This obviously does not mean that people lived in sinless perfection until Jesus came. All men since Adam have sin. Rather, the thought is this: “If I had not claimed the true functions of Messiah and spoken in that capacity, and wrought ‘the works of the Christ,’ they might then have treated me as a mere man and rejected me without sin.” [61]

The thrust of these verses is that Christ exposed their sin and they are now without excuse. His words and works brought sin to light (vv. 22, 24), and men hated the exposure. H. A. Ironside tells the story of the wife of an African chief (a “chiefess”) who visited a mission station. The missionary had a little mirror hung up on a tree outside his cabin. The woman happened to glance into the mirror and saw herself reflected there in all her hideous paint and evil features. She had come straight out of her pagan environment and had never seen the hideous paintings on her face. “Who is that horrible looking person inside the tree?” “It is not in the tree; the glass is reflecting your own face,” said the missionary. She would not believe it until she held that mirror in her hand. She said, “I must have the glass. How much will you sell it for?” “Oh,” he said, “I don’t want to sell it.” But she insisted and begged, so he decided to sell it to her to avoid trouble. So he set a price and she took it. Then as she said, “I will never have it making faces at me again,” she threw it down and broke it to pieces. Men and women of the world hate Jesus Christ and the Bible for just the same reason. And they rejected Him just as violently. [62]

The Cross Reveals the Divine Decision Concerning the World

It Revealed the Guilt of the World, John 12:31a

Occasionally people say, when speaking about a corrupt politician, “The truth will out.” At the Cross the truth about the world came out. In context Jesus has begun to think of the Cross (vv. 23–24). “Now judgment is upon this world.” The world thought it was passing judgment upon Christ, but the cross was passing judgment upon them. [63] In its callous murder of the Son of God the virulent evil of the world is fully revealed. It is wicked and hopeless, apart from divine redemption. It condemned itself by its treatment of the Son of God. [64]

It Accomplished the Defeat of the Devil, 12:31b

Satan saw the Cross, no doubt, as his hour of triumph. In reality, it was the moment of his defeat. [65] The Cross might seem to be a casting down of Christ. In fact it was a lifting up (v. 32). The phrase “if I be lifted up” looks to the Savior’s death and also His victory over death. [66] By means of the Cross Christ was enthroned, and by means of the Cross Satan is dethroned. [67] Today the devil is “out on bail” until the final sentencing, but the Cross marks his defeat (cf. Col. 2:15; Heb. 2:14–15; 1 John 3:8; Rev. 12:9; 20:3, 10).

It Reorganizes the Priorities of the Believer, Galatians 6:14

The Apostle Paul, unlike the worldling, boasts in the Cross of Christ. He says that by the Cross “the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” As the believer contemplates the Cross all the accepted standards of social life are turned upside down. A whole new set of values, different than the world’s values, are now mine. The unbelieving person is desperately anxious to be in favor with the world. But now that I have seen myself as a sinner and Christ as my sin bearer, I should not care what the world thinks or says of us or does to us. [68]

This means a separation from the world: its climate of opinion and its codes of honor and dishonor, its values of what is important and unimportant, its moral values of right and wrong, its ideas of what is fashionable and unfashionable. [69] I shall let Isaac Watts (1674–1748) have the last word: [70]

When I survey the wondrous cross,
Where the young Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss
And pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast
Save in the death of Christ, my God;
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.

See from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down;
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

His dying crimson, like a robe,
Spreads o’er His body on the tree;
Then I am dead to all the globe,
And all the globe is dead to me.

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.

Conclusion

What, then, have we learned? The world system is the whole range of worldly affairs, worldly goods, advantages, and pleasures that stir our desire and seduce us from God. It has a world view, a way of looking at things, that is hostile to God. There is a mind behind the system, the mind of Satan, the god of this world. Satan has great power to control and influence the world system. The world is bitterly hostile to Jesus Christ and His followers. Its true character was revealed when it murdered the Son of God.

What about us? Are we to abandon the world, give up our careers as Satanic? No, but we should, with the Apostle Paul, begin to view all of life in light of the Cross: my career, my education, my business, my social and political involvements.

Perhaps there is someone reading this article, and you are saying to yourself, I am part of the world that crucified Christ. There is a promise to you in John 12:32, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.” The word “draw” (ἕλκω, helkō) emphasizes that the natural man will not come of himself. Only as God works a work in your soul are you able to come. He has been drawing men and women to Himself ever since He died and rose and ascended to heaven. As He speaks to you through His Word, may your response be, Lord, “draw me after you and let us run together! The king has brought me into his chambers. We will rejoice in you and be glad; We will extol your love more than wine. Rightly do they love you” (Song of Solomon 1:4). [71]

Notes

1. Dave MacLeod is a faculty member at Emmaus Bible College and the Associate Editor of The Emmaus Journal. This is the third in a series on the subject, “The Christian and the World.”
2. Cf. A. J. Conyers, The Eclipse of Heaven (Downers Grove: Inter Varsity Press, 1992), 57.
3. Quoted by Conyers, The Eclipse of Heaven, 57.
4. Quoted by Joseph Bayly, “Out of My Mind,” Eternity (Sept., 1981): 57.
5. Cf. Watchman Nee, Love Not the World (Fort Washington: Christian Literature Crusade, 1968), 9.
6. Cf. David J. MacLeod, “The Love That God Hates: An Exposition of 1 John 2:15–17, ” EmJ 4 (Summer, 1995): 3-20.
7. Cf. David J. MacLeod, “The Consecrated Christian and Conformity to the World,” EmJ 4 (Winter, 1995): 99–124.
8. Nee, Love Not the World, 11; cf. TDNT, s.v. “κόσμος,ς by H. Sasse 3 (1965):868-69.
9. C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (New York: Macmillan, 1962), 3.
10. Pierre Charles Baudelaire, Short Prose Poems, quoted by Denis De Rougemont, The Devil’s Share, trans. Haakon Chevalier (New York: Meridian Books, 1956), 17.
11. De Rougemont, The Devil’s Share, 17.
12. John Albert Bengel, New Testament Word Studies, 2 vols. trans. C. T. Lewis and M. R. Vincent (Philadelphia: Perkinpine & Higgins, 1864; reprint ed., Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1971), 2:290.
13. Cf. Philip E. Hughes, Paul’s Second Epistle to the Corinthians, NICNT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1962), 127.
14. Cf. S. Lewis Johnson, Jr., “The Temptation of Christ,” BS 123 (1966): 349, contra: Sydney H. T. Page, Powers of Evil: A Biblical Study of Satan and Demons (Grand Rapids and Leicester: Baker and Apollos, 1995), 98.
15. Cf. C. K. Barrett, A Commentary on the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, HNTC (New York: Harper & Row, 1973), 130–31.
16. Cf. Nee, Love Not the World, 13.
17. Cf. Marguerite Shuster, Power, Pathology, Paradox: The Dynamics of Evil and Good (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1987), 123.
18. Cf. A. E. Brooke, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Johannine Epistles, ICC (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1912, 150; contra Rudolf Bultmann, The Johannine Epistles, Hermeneia, trans. R. Philip O’Hara, et al (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1973), 89.
19. Cf. Alfred Plummer, The Epistles of St. John (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1886; reprint ed., Grand Rapids: Baker, 1980), 126.
20. Cf. Earl F. Palmer, 1, 2, 3 John, Revelation (Waco: Word, 1982), 78–79.
21. Cf. Robert Law, The Tests of Life: A Study of the First Epistle of St. John (3d. ed., Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1914; reprint ed., Grand Rapids: Baker, 1968), 410.
22. Nee, Love Not the World, 17.
23. Cf. Clinton E. Arnold, Powers of Darkness: Principalities & Powers in Paul’s Letters (Downers Grove: Inter Varsity Press, 1982), 194; Harry Blamires, The Christian Mind (New York: Seabury Press, 1963), 42–99.
24. Los Angeles Times (Nov. 20, 1991), A-23; quoted by John MacArthur, Jr., How to Meet the Enemy (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1992), 11.
25. Blamires, The Christian Mind, 25.
26. Blamires, The Christian Mind, 23.
27. Blamires, The Christian Mind, 27–9.
28. Conyers, The Eclipse of Heaven, 106–9.
29. Donald Grey Barnhouse, The Invisible War (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1965), 181–82.
30. Cf. Nee, Love Not the World, 21–22.
31. As told by Christina Hoff Sommers, “Teaching the Virtues,” Imprimis (November, 1991): 3.
32. John Leland, Maggie Malone, Marc Peyser, and Pat Wingert, “The Selling of Sex,” Newsweek (Nov. 2, 1992), 95.
33. Blamires, The Christian Mind, 95–96.
34. P. T. Forsyth, Positive Preaching and the Modern Mind, The Lyman Beecher Lectures on Preaching, Yale University, 1907 (New York: Hodder & Stoughton, n.d.), 47.
35. Conyers, The Eclipse of Heaven, 20–21.
36. TDNT, s.v. “κόσμος,” by H. Sasse 3 (1965):867, 869, 883.
37. Cf. Barnhouse, The Invisible War, 181.
38. Cf. J. N. D. Kelly, The Epistles of Peter and of Jude, HNTC (New York: Harper & Row, 1969), 129.
39. Michael Isikoff, Daniel Klaidman, and Martha Brant, “Hillary’s Other Side,” Newsweek (July 1, 1996): 20-23.
40. H. Richard Niebuhr, The Kingdom of God in America (New York: Harper, 1937), 193. Written almost 60 years ago, Niebuhr’s comments are still relevant.
41. Touchstone, “Which World?” The Witness (August, 1975): 307; cf. H. W. Pontis, “The Late Mr. William Kelly,” in Index to the Bible Treasury (reprint ed., Winschoten, Netherlands: H. L. Heijkoop, n.d.), xiv.
42. Cf. Frederick L. Godet, Commentary on St. Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1889; reprint ed., Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1977), 140.
43. Cf. Gordon D. Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, NICNT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987), 105.
44. It is commonly asserted that the “rulers of this age” (v. 6) are demonic powers (cf. John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; cf. C. K. Barrett, A Commentary on the First Epistle to the Corinthians, HNTC [New York: Harper & Row, 1968], 70; Rudolf Bultmann, Theology of the New Testament, 2 vols. [New York: Scribners, 1955], 1:259). There are several reasons why this view should be rejected: (1) Throughout the Gospels demons know very well who Jesus is [cf. Mark 1:24]. (2) No statement in the New Testament implies directly that demonic powers effected the crucifixion. The hanging of Jesus was a very human act [John 19:23; Acts 2:36]. (3) In the immediate context [v. 8] the rulers are directly responsible for Jesus’ death, and those who killed Christ were human [Acts 2:23]. (4) In Paul the term ἄρχοντες is never equated with the ἀρχαί of Col. 1:16 and Eph. 6:12. (5) When ἄρχων [archōn] appears in the singular it sometimes refers to Satan [Matt. 12:24; Mark 3:22; Luke 11:15; John 12:31]. (6) There is no evidence of any kind that it is used of demons. (7) When used in the plural in the New Testament it invariably refers to earthly rulers [Rom. 13:3; cf. Godet, St. Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians, 136; William F. Orr and James Arthur Walther, 1 Corinthians, AncB (New York: Doubleday, 1976), 164; Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, 103–4, n. 24]. It is quite likely, of course, that behind the “rulers of this age” Paul saw demonic powers impelling them [Bruce, 1 and 2 Corinthians, 38–9].
45. Cf. F. F. Bruce, 1 and 2 Corinthians, NCB (London: Oliphants, 1971), p. 38.
46. Cf. Leon Morris, The First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, TNTC (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1958), p. 56).
47. Cf. Archibald Robertson and Alfred Plummer, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the First Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians, ICC (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1911), 40.
48. The term δόξα (doxa) is regularly used in the LXX to translate ךָכּבוֹּוד (kāḇôḏ). Its primary meaning has to do with God’s honor or power. God’s power is an expression of the divine nature. The glory of God reveals the nature of God in His mighty acts. In the LXX δόξα acquires its distinctive sense as a term for this divine nature or essence of God either in its invisible or perceptible form. Cf. TDNT, s.v. “δόξα,” by G. Kittel, 2 (1964): 244. In the New Testament when used of God it speaks of His heavenly radiance and lofty majesty (p. 237).
49. The title “Lord of Glory” has been understood in two ways: (1) As a reference to Christ’s essential glory, i.e., His deity. “He belongs to the heavenly world and shares in the being of God” [Barrett, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, 72]. He is “the Lord whose essential attribute [characterizing quality] is glory” [Charles J. Ellicott, St. Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1887; reprint ed., Minneapolis: James Family Christian Publishers, n.d.), 39]. (2) As a reference to His acquired glory, i.e., His glorification at His resurrection and exaltation. This second view better fits the eschatological note of v. 7 [“predestined before the ages to our glory”]. The second view is defended by Kittel, “δόξα,” 248; Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, 107; William Kelly, Notes on The First Epistle of Paul The Apostle to the Corinthians [London: G. Morrish, 1878], 44–45.
50. Cf. Bruce, 1 and 2 Corinthians, 39.
51. Leon Morris, The Gospel according to John (rev. ed., Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), 602.
52. Cf. Arthur W. Pink, Exposition of the Gospel of John, 3 vols. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1968), 3:29–32; S. Lewis Johnson, Jr., “The Believer in the World: John 15:18–16:4, ” EmJ (Winter, 1996): 143-153; James M. Boice, The Gospel of John: An Expositional Commentary, 5 vols. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1979), 4:264–66.
53. Cf. Boice, The Gospel of John, 4:264; D. A. Carson, The Gospel according to John (Grand Rapids and Leicester: Eerdmans and Inter Varsity Press, 1991), 525.
54. William Barclay, The Gospel of John, 2 vols. (rev. ed., Philadelphia: Westminster, 1975), 2:185–86.
55. Carson, The Gospel according to John, 525.
56. Pink, The Gospel of John, 3:30.
57. Martin Luther, Sermons on the Gospel of St. John, Chapters 14–16, in Luther’s Works, vol. 24, ed. Jaroslav Pelikan (St. Louis: Concordia, 1961), 274.
58. H. B. Swete, The Last Discourse and Prayer of Our Lord: A Study of St. John 14–17 (London: Macmillan, 1914), 98.
59. J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on The Gospels: St. John, 3 vols. (1865; reprint ed., Cambridge: James Clarke, 1976), 3:134.
60. As told by Steven A. Kreloff, “The World’s Hatred of Believers,” Israel My Glory (Nov. 1985): 15-16.
61. Cf. Brooke Foss Westcott, The Gospel according to St. John: The Greek Text With Introduction and Notes, 2 vols. (London: John Murray, 1908; reprint ed., Grand Rapids: Baker, 1980), 2:211.
62. H. A. Ironside, Addresses on the Gospel of John (Neptune: Loizeaux Brothers, 1942), 684–85.
63. Carson, The Gospel according to John, 443.
64. Morris, The Gospel according to John, 597.
65. Carson, The Gospel according to John, 443.
66. Westcott, The Gospel according to St. John, 2:128.
67. Carson, The Gospel according to John, 443.
68. John R. W. Stott, The Message of Galatians (London: Inter Varsity Press, 1968), 180.
69. Cf. F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Galatians: A Commentary on the Greek Text, NICGT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982), 271–72.
70. Isaac Watts, “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,” quoted by Bruce, The Epistle to the Galatians, 272–73. The second line of verse one (“young Prince”) is changed (“Prince of glory” or “Lord of glory”) in most hymnbooks, and the fourth verse (“His dying crimson”) is omitted altogether. The oldest edition of Watts’ hymns to which I have access has the common wording of verse 1 but includes verse 4. Cf. Samuel Worcester, ed., The Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs of the Rev. Isaac Watts (Boston: Samuel T. Armstrong, and Crocker & Brewster, 1832), Hymn 7, Book 3.
71. Cf. S. Lewis Johnson, “Christ Drawing All Men,” Believers Bible Bulletin (April 17, 1983): 6.