Scripture Reading:
1 John 2:15-17 Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him; Because all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the vainglory of life, is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and its lust, but he who does the will of God abides forever.
Gal. 1:4 Who gave Himself for our sins that He might rescue us out of the present evil age according to the will of our God and Father
The Objects of Dealing with the World
The world in our daily living consists of people, activities, and things which usurp the place of God in us. Therefore, these objects are the aim of our dealings.
An age is a part of the world as the satanic system. An age refers to a section, an aspect, the present or modern appearance, of the system of Satan, which is used by him to usurp and occupy people and keep them away from God and His purpose. The various ages of the satanic system are expressed in the fashions of clothing that prevail during a certain period of time. For example, in the 1950s men’s neckties were narrow, but in the late 1960s and throughout most of the 1970s, they were broad. Now, according to the latest change of style, they have become somewhat narrow again.
The present evil age in 1:4, according to the context of this book, refers to the religious world, the religious course of the world, the Jewish religion. At the time of Paul, Judaism was very prevailing. His intention in writing to the Galatians was to rescue the distracted believers from the tyranny of the present evil religious age. At the time of John 10, God’s people, His sheep, were in the fold of Judaism. But as this chapter makes clear, Christ came to bring His sheep out of the fold and to form them with the Gentile believers into one flock, the church (10:16). Hence, the fold is religion, whereas the flock is the church. Today Catholicism and the denominations are folds that keep Christ’s sheep. But Christ is seeking to rescue His sheep out of the various religious folds and to bring them together as the one flock.
The Basis of Dealing with the World
The basis of our dealing with the world is the same as dealing with sin. It is based upon the sense of life obtained during fellowship. We should pay attention to the following three principles:
Firstly, we should deal with the world upon the basis of the inner feeling gained through fellowship. The dealing should not exceed our inner feeling. Secondly, we should gradually broaden the area of our fellowship so that our inner feeling touches all aspects of our life. Thus we will have dealings with the world in all aspects. Thirdly, we should gradually deepen our fellowship so that our inner feeling concerning the world deepens; thus, we may deal more thoroughly.
Besides these three principles, there are two factors which greatly influence our inner feeling toward the world: our love for God and our spiritual growth in life. We have said that God is the standard for dealing with the world. If we are far from God, we are not conscious of our worldliness. But once we draw nigh to God, we discover many worldly matters in us. Only those who love God desire to draw nigh unto God. Therefore, if we desire to deal with the world, we should first love God.
Our inner feeling towards the world also depends upon our spiritual growth. The more we advance in the spiritual life and knowledge of God, the deeper we will be in knowing the world. If we wish to deal to the end that God may have a complete place within us, we should ask Him to draw us so that we may love Him more and pursue more for our spiritual growth, so that we may become more mature in life.
The Extent of Dealing with the World
Dealing with the world causes us to experience life and sense the freshness, brightness, satisfaction, strength, joy and peace of life. In other words, we should deal with the world to the extent that we have life and peace.
The Practice of Dealing with the World
If we wish to practice dealing with the world, we should pay our attention to one point—that is, to close our mind to the world.
For this, we should not simply wait for the Lord to constrain us with His love or for His grace to support us. We must also use our own initiative to deal with this matter. If so, worldly thoughts will never intrude again. (The Experience of Life, pp. 84-85, 90-92).
Reference: The Experience of Life, ch. 5; CWWL, The (1963) Vol. 3, Basic Principles of the Experience of Life, ch. 14; Life-Study of Galatians, msg. 1.
