“Do
not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves 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 pride of life -- is not of the Father but is of the world. And
the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God
abides forever.”(1
Jn. 2:15-17)
The word “world”,
used six times in this passage, is translated from the Greek word kosmos and
has a primary meaning of order, regular disposition, and arrangement. It is
used in scripture as the sum total of human life in the ordered world,
alienated from and hostile to God, and of the earthly things which seduce
people away from God. Kosmos is an ordered system: It has a government, the
principalities and powers of darkness. It has a leader, satan. It has
emissaries, fallen angles and demons. And it has subjects, the unsaved masses
of the human race. Kosmos, as a world-system, can be religious, cultured,
refined, and intellectual, but it is anti-God and anti-Christ, espousing
purposes, pursuits, pleasures, and practices that God abhors.
Here is a good
definition of the world “world” as The Apostle John used it:
All that floating
mass of thoughts, opinions, maxims, speculations, hopes, impulses, aims, aspirations,
desires at anytime current in the world, which it may be impossible to seize and
accurately define, but which constitutes a most real and effective power, being
the immoral atmosphere which at every moment of our lives we inhale, again
inevitable to exhale. This is the world system to which John refers. (Trench,
modified)
The “world” is what
the philosophers call Zeitgeist, a powerful force embedded in the individuals
of a society that espouse a dominant set of ideals and beliefs motivating the
actions of the members of the society in a particular period in time. This is
the spirit of this age, our age, the end times. Zeitgeist is satan personified…
AND THE WORLD
IS PASSING AWAY
AND THE LUST OF
IT
BUT HE WHO DOES
THE WILL OF GOD
ABIDES FOREVER
No comments:
Post a Comment