John 16:33 These things I have spoken to you, that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer… I. WHAT IS MEANT BY THE WORLD. In St. John's writings the word occurs more than one hundred times, and mostly from our Lord's lips. It is used sometimes as equivalent to — 1. The universe. "The world was made by Him." 2. The race of men. "God so loved the world." 3. But here it cannot mean either of these, because the world in one sense is the revelation of God, and in the other the object of Christian love as the purchase of Christ's blood. 4. What is it then? It refuses to be described. It eludes our mental grasp. It is not a person, nor a multitude, nor anything on which we can fix responsibility. It is not civilization, though it hangs on its outskirts. It is not sin, though it produces and is produced by it. It is not the wicked, though they are its victims. It is not Satan, though he is its prince. It is an atmosphere, a temper, a spirit, a power most real and energetic, but dead and invisible — a miasma which has arisen from the putrefying corpses if all the sins which have been committed since the Fall. It has hung for ages like a dark, murky cloud over the heart of humanity. It poisons the very air we breathe. 5. But what is it in its essence? It is that warp in the aim and affections of the soul which makes of each of the objects of the visible creation and of the circumstances of life a distinct hindrance to getting to heaven. It is, says St. John, "The lust of the flesh, the lust of the age and the pride of life." It is putting the creature in the place of the Creator. Friends, business, books, &c., may become incorporate with the world. Solomon has told us how his palace, gardens, slaves, singers, &c., were to him the world. Though Haman had an establishment which rivalled that of Ahashuerus, yet this one object — the humiliation of Mordecai formed for him his world. Dives found a world in his purple and fine linen; the young ruler in his great possessions; Felix in the favour of Caesar. 6. We are all familiar with the phrase, "the spirit of the age," and know how one line of thought rules in one age, and another in another. Well, then, the world is a mighty tradition of all the thought and feeling that the human race has accumulated round itself since the Fall, and that is hostile to the rights of God. It is like a great river which rolls its dark volume across the ages, while a thousand civilizations and races and nations have poured their successive contributions, like so many rivulets, the tyrant as well as the handiwork of the human soul. It is like the November fog which hangs over our vast metropolis, the product of its countless homes and the proof of its vast industries; and yet the veil which shuts out from it the light of heaven destroys the colour on its works of art; the unwholesome vapour which clogs vitality and undermines health, and from which the Londoner escapes that he may see the sun, and the face of nature, and feels what it is to live. Even thus the world hangs over the soul, flapping its wings like the evil bird in the fable, or penetrating it like a subtle poison to sap its vigour and its life. II. NOTE THE CHARACTER OF ITS INFLUENCE. 1. It works secretly and without being suspected. (1) When we speak of it, it is as something outside us. We are in private life, perhaps, in narrow circumstances, and we regard royal pageants, &c., as the pomps of the world. Or we have been brought up in comfort, in a Christian family shielded from temptation, and as we read the newspaper reports of crime and sin we shrug our shoulders and say "What things do go on in the world!" Or we have just been married, and we look from our happiness upon the worn faces around us, on which gain, pleasure, &c., have traced lines of care and say, "The world knows nothing of real joy." Or in deep affliction we reproach the hard, heartless world. (2) The world in fact disguises itself. It can be prudent, like the old prophet; wise like Ahitophel; courageous like Saul; zealous like Jehu; industrious and public-spirited like Herod; honest like Gallio; very pious like the false apostles at Corinth. 2. Which leads to another characteristic, viz., its marvellous versatility, and power of adaptation to all ages, races, classes. We speak of the Roman, Greek, French, and English world: the truth is, that the great world comprises many worlds or schools, the literary, commercial, political, clerical — each has its special work, but each contributes its quota to the whole. And thus the labourer, needlewoman, crossing-sweeper has as real a world as the monarch or statesman. 3. It is contagious. It may be conveyed by a hint, attitude, fashion, dress. Ancient monarchs lived in fear of the poison which might lurk in every dish, and we may well suspect each object around us of harbouring poisonous attractions. III. THE RESULT OF ITS INFLUENCES ON THIS AGE. 1. Its view of sin is that of something which interferes with the comfort and well-being of society. Hence it is at times unjustly lax and unjustly severe. 2. It neutralizes the truth that, living or dying, each soul lives in awful solitude beneath the eye of God, by suggesting that we are merely members of a family, town or nation. 3. God is retained just as we might keep a piece of antiquity, or the apex of a theory, or a mere abstraction. From God it turns away to created life and proclaims its supreme importance. What St. John calls sensuality, the world terms enjoying life. What He calls covetousness, the world terms doing the best you can for yourself. What He calls pride, the world calls taking your proper place. Look how it treats the political adventurer, the literary character, the capitalist who have made their way through villainy. It "goes wondering after the beast;" and proclaims the libertine not so very bad after all. IV. THE ATTITUDE OF CHRIST TOWARDS IT. 1. Between Him and the world of His day there was a profound and necessary hostility. He began with the world of a little provincial town — Nazareth — and passed to what resembled the world of our manufacturing districts, Capernaum, Bethsaida, &c. Then He passed to the London world of Palestine to Jesusalem. Here you see Him receiving deputations from the various sections of the world: from the popular religious teachers, the Pharisees; the sceptical intellectualists, the Sadducees; the political adventurers, the Herodians. He passes to the world of the lower classes, and mixes with publicans, Samaritans, Greeks. He entered into society; for He was at the marriage at Cana, and dined with the Pharisee, &c.; and the world condemned and rejected Him, and He measured the world and condemned it. There was no mistake on either side. It crucified Him, but the Resurrection was a triumph over the power that killed Him. He had conquered the world by His doctrine, His moral beauty, His death; but, in view of His Easter victory, He said, "I have overcome the world." 2. Only as the ages pass is that victory slowly developing its vast results. You see some of them in the world-wide establishment of His Church, in the ruin of the heathen empire, in the conquest of human thought, power, hearts, new races, and lands. And He is certain of the future. The theatre of the struggle indeed is shifted. It is now the Christian soul. Twice, especially does the world make an effort to dethrone Him — at conversion, and at the period when the soul is moved to dedicate itself to Him perfectly. Meet the world's enchantment by a greater — that of Christ, His conquest, and the heaven He won for you. (Canon Liddon.) Parallel Verses KJV: These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. |
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