The Victory That Overcomes

by T. Austin-Sparks

Chapter 2 - The World

"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For 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 passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever." (1 John 2:15-17).

"Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are. For this cause the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Marvel not, brethren, if the world hateth you. Ye are of God, my little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. They are of the world: therefore speak they as of the world, and the world heareth them." (1 John 3:1,13; 4:4-5)

"We know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in the evil one. For many deceivers are gone forth into the world, even they that confess not that Jesus Christ cometh in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist. (1 John 5:19; 2 John 7).

"For whatsoever is begotten of God overcometh the world; and this is the victory that hath overcome the world, our faith. And who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?" (1 John 5:4-5).

Here in this passage the specific thing in view is what is termed 'the world'. You will have noticed how many times that word occurs in this letter. All those passages which are referred to deal with the world. There are several others in the letter which relate to the world in a different way, but not quite in the same connection. God sent his Son into the world, for instance. It is impressive and significant to note how in such a short letter one term occurs so frequently, and when we turn back to the gospel written by this same apostle, covering a much larger range, we shall still be impressed with the place given to 'the world', for in the gospel by John the word occurs no fewer than seventy-eight times. That is impressive, and surely when there is such a preponderating of a term, we are in the way of getting a clue to the message and the meaning of all the rest that is written.

Then another thought: when we remember that these writings of John were the last writings of the apostolic times, that also carries its own significance, that as the times of the apostles were passing out and the last apostolic writings were being sent forth, there should be such a strong emphasis laid upon 'the world'. Surely that signifies at least that it was in that direction that believers needed warning, exhortation, special help. It was from that direction that they were meeting their temptations, their difficulties, their dangers, their perils.

That being the case, it becomes necessary for us to understand what the apostle meant by using this term. What did he mean by the world as something to be overcome by believers, as a special besetment and peril, and to be overcome by faith? How is the world overcome by faith? What is meant by overcoming 'the world' by faith?

You can only answer that as you understand what is meant by 'the world'. Does it mean the sphere in which we are? Well, there is no sense in overcoming a sphere, a place, by faith! Is it overcoming the people in that sphere? Well, the same word is used of the people as of the sphere! Does it apply to the people, that we overcome the people by faith? There is not much more sense in that! Then the same word is used of the system or ordered arrangement of things on the earth; it is called 'the world', what we would call the organisations of mankind and things. Do we overcome it by faith? Has it to be overcome? Well, there may be a good deal that is not right about it, and it would be better ordered otherwise, but I am quite sure that the meaning is not there. Then what does it mean?

If you take all these passages from the letters of John, you will find that the term 'the world' is an inclusive term. It is the whole realm of the things of time and sense.

Man is regarded by the Word of God since the fall as a 'worldly' creature. We use the word 'worldly' in a very much more limited sense than we ought. When we speak of someone being worldly, we mean that they either go to theatres or cinemas, or dress in a certain way. These are incidental things which we call 'worldliness', or perhaps someone who simply lives for this world and not for God and not for heaven. We say they belong to the world. But that, after all, is only a limited way of speaking of worldliness.

The Word of God regards man since the fall as a worldly creature. He is bound and horizoned by this world. He is the slave of this world, the prisoner of this world. This world is his everything. He is born into this world, he lives in this world, all that comes into his life is of this world. He dies in this world, is buried in this world, and all that he has gathered in this world passes with him in this world. He is the slave of this world in the sense that he knows only this world's standards, this world's resources, this world's everything. He knows it more or less, but that is all, and he has no other way whatever of judging things, no other standard by which to judge, by which to go. He has no other mind, no other conception. For him in mind, and heart, and will, and in the whole range of his being, this world is all that he has naturally.

If you present to him the standards outside of this world he cannot follow you, he cannot go with you. It is like trying to make a cat or a dog appreciate the higher arts. It is no use taking a dog to listen to a Beethoven sonata with the hope of getting any appreciation, any understanding, being able to follow the movement and enter into the whole thing. It is no use taking a cat to the Art Gallery and explaining all the beauties and wonders of the artist's creation. That is not the cat's world any more than music is the dog's world. They have their world. Take them to see other dogs and cats and they can appreciate that and enter into that in a lively way. That is their world, the other is not. In that sense man is a worldly creature, because the whole range of his conscious life is this world coming to him through his senses.

Now we are beginning to get to the heart of what the Holy Spirit through John means by overcoming the world. This world sense, the fall - in which man by nature is a prisoner, not only in the sense that he is bound, that he is not free, but in the sense that he is limited, within a certain range of confine - is regarded as cut off from God, and in a state of opposition to God and all that is of God. It is opposed to the things of the Spirit. It is against God. It is, therefore, against obedience to God, and by reason of its nature (not its wilfulness now necessarily, but its nature) is against faith. Faith is not the law of this world's life. Sense is the law of the world. What the world can understand it will accept and follow. What the world can see and feel and have presented as proof and evidence to its senses, it will accept, but what cannot be demonstrated, proved, presented as evidence to this world - in a word, what is of faith in the Biblical sense - the world cannot accept, and it is against that, and thinks that anybody who takes that line is mad. Madness is simply that you do not behave or act as people who regard themselves as quite sane expect you to. Paul was regarded as mad - "Thou art mad" (Acts 26:24) - simply because he was proceeding according to a standard which was not this world's standard. The world could not follow him out there. He had gone outside of its range of comprehension, therefore he was abnormal to this world, and the world called him mad. John gathers this meaning of the world up in that lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, the vainglory of life. There you have a very fine explanation and definition of sense. What is the lust of the flesh? It simply means the strong desire of the flesh. The strong desire of the eyes. The vainglory of life. That is sense, that is the world. John says all that is opposed to God, that is not of God.

To bring this immediately to our present consideration, it becomes clear that faith which overcomes the world means that all that way of being governed in your life is transcended; being governed by the flesh, the eyes, the vainglory of life; being governed by the standards of men out of relation to God; being governed by the limitations of a world, a creation which has lost its spiritual faculties and is therefore bound within certain very restricted limits of understanding, of knowledge, of sight, of judgement, of capacity, of consciousness.

Then, being governed by the eyes: "He shall not judge after the sight of his eyes... but with righteousness..." (Isa. 11:3-4). That is the word concerning the Lord Jesus. The Lord does not look on the outward appearance; the Lord does not judge as man judges. This is the domination of the eye, what the eye sees; that is the limit.

The desire of the flesh. That is to be gratified in oneself, that one's own sense, desire, shall be satisfied. What is a desire of the flesh? It is to see things happening. If you do not see things happening, you do not believe things are happening, if you are a worldly man. Inasmuch as we are worldly we demand statistics, proof, evidence to the senses of what is happening.

What is the vainglory of life? Reputation, a name, position, influence, being well-thought-of, all those things which man likes to have to make something for himself in which he personally can have joy and gratification, some show. Every form of pride is vainglory, whether it be pride of race, of birth, of heritage, of position, of achievement; and the world makes much of it. Worldliness is always talking about who he is, and who she is; and what he has done, and what she has done; what he has achieved and what she has achieved. That is pride. It is not of God, it is opposed to God, and God is set against it. From God's standpoint it is foolishness.

Overcoming the world is getting outside of that. How do you get outside of sense, the domination of the senses, where you must see things, and feel things, and have tangible proof? What is it that takes you outside of that? Every time it is faith. You never do get outside of that but by faith. Nothing happening! No proof! No evidence! Is that the last word? Is it true? Is that all there is to be said? Put it round the other way: there is all the evidence pointing in the direction of failure, disaster, breakdown, tragedy, catastrophe, everything has gone wrong! There is any amount of proof of it! Is that all you have to say?

Faith is the evidence of things not seen. If the apostle had been thinking in another direction he would have put it the other way as well. Faith is the contradiction of a great deal that is seen! Faith has made men say that the things seen are temporal, and that that is not the last word; there is another story somewhere lying behind all the things seen which is God's side of the matter.

Take Paul again in person. All they in Asia had turned away from him. This one gone, that one gone. Churches disrupted, divided, apostasy creeping in, evil men leading believers astray, his life work being laid in ruins, he himself imprisoned, cut off from all direct means of teaching and helping the situation. The whole situation shouts, "Failure! A man's life thrown away!" Is that all? He did not believe that. Many centuries have proved that that was not true, but he could not see it, no one could see it.

Take an even greater instance still, that of Christ on the cross, crucified through weakness, crying a cry of despair; and that over against all the mighty statements as to who He was, over against all His miracles, teaching, and His tremendous claims. There He hangs, stripped and fastened with nails to that cross, crying despairingly about being forsaken of God. What is the evidence to the senses? The evidence to the senses is anything but the truth. Everything bears out what His opponents had said: "An impostor! Making false claims! A pretender!" Is that all? That is what it looks like to this world. We know quite well that there was another side to that, but the other side is only apprehended by faith, you only get into the good of the other side by faith and overcome the world. No one ever comes into the triumphant side of that cross other than by faith. They have got to accept it by faith, and stand into it by faith, before it ever becomes a living reality with value in your own heart. The world has to be overcome.

The world then, is that whole order of things related to man as he is by nature, by which he is governed and dominated, and in which he is imprisoned; an order opposed to the Spirit, to God, to obedience to God, to faith. It may not be that world of dark hostility to God, it may only be that we want proof, that this flesh of ours must have evidence, that we must see things happening, or we cannot go on with God. We must see souls being saved or else faith goes to pieces. We must see the work of God progressing, prospering, or we come to a standstill. We must see in the realm of sentient evidence proof that we are right, or else we stand still. There is a realm in which we have to stand apart from all that, where we can alone stand, and say, "Well, I cannot move from this position! This position has been wrought in me by God! Everything would argue that I am in a wrong position, but my knowledge of God hangs upon my maintaining this position. It is not simply that I am pigheaded, mulish, clinging to my convictions, afraid for my pride; it is something deeper than all such considerations. The vainglory of life does not come into it. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, does not come into this. Though it costs everything, costs reputation, costs following, costs support, costs everything, I can be no other. On this I know God." That is the faith that overcomes the world.

Do you see what the world is? The world is there whenever you and I are tempted to a human or natural consideration, in whatever realm, to accept that which is presented to us through our senses.

Now, faith is the victory that overcomes the world. Faith overcomes sense, sight, personal desire, everything that this world craves for. Faith says: there is something more than that. That, after all, at best and at most is limited, fading, the world passes. Faith says there is more than that, and I go for the more.

Has not that always proved to be true? Has it not been faith which has got more than the world? Always! It has overcome and got more than the world could get. Through his faith Abraham became heir. Of the world? Ah, yes, but his heirship ranged beyond the world! "We are all children of Abraham through faith." The promises reached beyond this world.

Just a word on this particular point which arises: "this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. And who is he that overcometh the world...". Notice the change. From what we might call the abstract, there is a change to the concrete. "This is the victory that overcometh the world... our faith." Now it is made personal: "Who is he that overcometh...?" Then in 2 John 7 we have: "For many deceivers are gone forth into the world, even they that confess not that Jesus Christ cometh in the flesh." I want you to notice the place in this whole matter taken by the incarnation. "Jesus Christ cometh in the flesh." I want you to notice the place in this whole matter taken by the incarnation: "Jesus is the Son of God". The Jews in Christ's day disbelieved the incarnation; that is, they disbelieved that He was the Son of God on natural and worldly grounds. Christ was a challenge to their worldliness. What were the things constantly arising in the impact of Christ upon the Jews? Personal interests, reputation, position, influence, ambition.

For envy they crucified Him. There were too many people following Him. He had too much influence. He undermined their influence, got in the way of their being on top, at the head of things. If they did not get rid of Him, what did they think would happen? "The Romans will come and take away our nation, our country, our position." Personal interest! The things which were constantly coming up when He was present were the personal, selfish, worldly interests and ambitions of the Jews. There was a tremendous clash between Him and their worldliness: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the vainglory of life.

The vainglory of life? He dragged it out to full view: "...they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men" (Matt. 6:5). What a picture! See these men, standing right in the middle of the market, where the crowds congregated, and doing all their praying in such a loud voice, and in such a way that people would say, "He is a very good man!" They loved people to say, "He is a very devout man"! It is a nice sensation when people say you are a very good man. These men went out of their way to do that, and they could not endure His presence because He exposed that thing as not being of God, but being of the world.

That is why John, whose gospel has more than any other to say about being spiritual, speaks so much about the world. Spirituality and the world cannot go together.

So the Jews disbelieved that He was the Son of God on those moral, human, or worldly grounds. They would not have Him, because He challenged their worldliness too much. If they had admitted that He was the Son of God, where would they have stood? If they had consented for one moment to the fact that He was the Son of God come from heaven, they would have been bound to quit their position and change their manner of life, but to maintain that they must cast Him out, and therefore they would not have Him as the Son of God. "This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil" (John 3:19). If they were to admit that He was the light sent from God, they would either have to capitulate and change their whole manner of life, or fight directly against God. And so the way out is: "He is not the Son of God! He is an imposter! He is false!" To accept Christ means alliance or union with Him against the world in ourselves as well as outside of ourselves.

Now you see the place of the incarnation. If you believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that He is come in the flesh, you have to ally yourself with Him, and if you do, you have to forsake the world. Union with Christ means separation from the world. The word does not just mean giving up going to this or that, doing this or that. It means accepting a position outside of this world in spirit, a faith position with Christ where worldly standards are no longer going to govern, where worldly limitations are no longer going to hold in bondage. Faith rides over all those and carries us out into a larger realm altogether, but we never get into the larger realm except through faith.

That step of faith enlarges our horizon and brings us into touch with powers which we never knew. Every fresh test and proof of faith throws down some barrier of limitation, destroys something that has held us in bondage, makes possible things which we could never do before. It is in this sense that the apostle says: "Now if any man be in Christ, there is a new creation" (2 Cor. 5:17). What is the new creation? The new creation is marked by a new set of capacities, an entirely new consciousness, a new relationship. The new creation is through faith.

The world means the limitations of our natural life which governs. Faith means union with Christ, bringing us outside of that domination of the senses of the world, of the natural life, into a realm where there are other considerations, and other standards, other possibilities. It is all of faith: new possibilities which to nature are impossibilities! That is faith. The whole force of the Word of God bears down upon that, that faith is an enlarged world, a liberated life, a new knowledge, a new power.

May the Lord give us the faith which is the victory which overcomes!