He then shows what it is which imparts to believers strength to fulfil all these commands. "And his commandments are not grievous [difficult]. For whatsoever is born of God, overcometh the world; and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?"

These are the highest of all commands, those instituted by Christ himself, and by him alone perfectly fulfilled; the commands developed by him in the Sermon on the Mount, the ground-traits of an all-transcending holiness, such as has been reached by no system of human ethics, and before which every human spirit must bow in deep humility. And yet we hear John saying, that these commands are not difficult. But as the highest of all moral requirements, they should be the most difficult of all. How then are we to understand it, when John says that these commands are not difficult? He must himself have learned by experience, that they are not hard to obey. Not in the commands themselves, not in their relation to other moral commands, must lie the ground of his assertion; but in the changed position of man towards the divine law. What was once difficult, nay impossible; this has now, by virtue of his moral transformation, become easy. He himself assigns as the reason, that all which is born of God overcomes the world. From the fact then, that believers have received strength to overcome the world, he deduces the consequence that these commands are no longer difficult for them, difficult as they may be for him who has not received that strength. We can therefore infer from this, what is requisite for fulfilling these commands, which is the victory over the world. Only in conflict with the world can they be fulfilled. What makes their fulfilment difficult to man, is the entanglement of the spirit in the world; the power of the world over the spirit, the worldly bias, the earthliness of spirit, whereby is stifled the higher God-related nature of man, which accords with the divine law and for which that law exists. The power of the world, is the power of all that is not of God. To him whose spirit is ruled by the world, who feels himself drawn to the world and finds in it his highest good, to him the commands of God appear difficult. Since now, in the strength of that divine life which believers have received the power is given which overcomes the world John says that all which is born of God overcomes the world; and since, through this world-conquering power, all hindrances to the fulfilment of the commands are easily overcome, he says that for believers these commands are not difficult. They possess the power whereby the difficult is made easy. So Christ invites to himself those who feel weighed down, who cannot breathe freely, by reason of the burden of the Law, saying: "My yoke is easy and my burden is light;" made light by fellowship with him, by the power which he imparts.

John then shows what it is, by which believers are freed from the power of the world, transformed from children of the world to children of God, made partakers of the divine life, and thus enabled to overcome the world. This is faith in Jesus as the Son of God. It is worthy of note that he does not say: faith is that whereby we attain the victory over the world; nor, faith is that which will overcome the world. He says: faith is itself the victory, which has overcome the world. In these words lies a deeper meaning, whose full import we must endeavor to unfold.

Faith is itself a victory already achieved over the world; it has its being only as a victory attained in conflict with the world. For when the divine drawing in the heart of man, the drawing of the Father to the Son, incites him to the exercise of faith; the whole world then rises against him, to hinder him from attaining faith. What in man is of the world and is in union with the world, resists the incipient faith. Hence the manifold counter-influences, which make it at first so hard to believe. Hence the power of those doubts, which withstand faith. Thus faith itself is a victory over the, world. And having thus come into being through victory over the world, having once for all overcome the world; in it there resides the divine power, against which the world can effect nothing. Faith, once for all, has overcome the world; and therein is given the victory which in all succeeding conflicts with the world, attests itself by the fulfilment of the divine commands. The whole subsequent christian life, if it holds fast the faith in its quiet healthy process of development, is nothing else than a continuation of the victory over the world once attained in faith. As Christ, in the words already quoted, says not that he WILL but that he HAS overcome the world (John xvi.33), and bids believers rejoice in this assurance; so faith, by virtue of fellowship with Christ, shares in this his victory over the world. Since now there exists no other power through which the world can be overcome, it necessarily follows, that only he overcomes the world, who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

From this we learn the important lesson, that all true reformation of the world can proceed only from this faith, from the energy of the divine life residing therein. We cannot, therefore, but be distrustful of all attempts to cure the evils of the world, which build not upon this one foundation. Even though they may accomplish many single reforms, yet a radical cure of the disease is not to be effected by such means. For that which is everywhere the obstacle to the fulfilment of the divine commands, -- the world, which stands opposed to all that is of God, -- that remains unweakened in its strength, the fountain whence all evil continually springs anew. Though at single points the world seems to be overcome, it avails nothing. The world may be overcome by the world, and its power remain as before; it has but assumed another form. The conquest of the world, as a whole, can be achieved only through faith in Jesus as the Son of God, only through the might of his Spirit; and this must first be effected before the world can truly be overcome in all its single forms of evil. So Christ himself represents all attempts to extirpate evil from humanity and from the individual man as futile, if the inward might of evil be not first broken by the power of the mightier, which is Christ, -- by the finger of God. (Luke xi.20, comp. Matt. xii.28.) Hence he says of such attempts to subdue and banish evil otherwise than by his Spirit, that though apparently producing by other agencies effects similar to those of the Gospel, they are yet not for him but against him. So far from laboring with him, in the one divine work of founding the kingdom of God in its unity among men, their tendency is to lead men away from this unity, away from the kingdom of God. This is the most corrupting of all delusions, under the most dangerous of all disguises; professing, by apparently similar results which proceed from another spirit, to supply the place of that work which can be effected only by Christianity.