If ye were of the world the world, would love his own
The pedigree and position of true men
I.
THE PEDIGREE OF TRUE MEN.
1. They were once in the world. That world is characterized by
(1) Practical athiesm. They who make it up are without God, if not avowedly, at least in spirit, conduct and aim.
(2) Imperial materialism. They have no practical recognition of a spiritual universe, relationship, obligation. They walk after the flesh, and seek their happiness, wealth, dignity in earthly things.
(3) Dominant selfishness. Each one is governed by selfish interests. These are the goal towards which their steps are directed; the idol they worship.
2. They have been brought out of the world by Christ. No one but Christ can bring men out of such a state. Philosophy, civilization, natural religion are powerless. Christ penetrates men with the idea of the true God. He draws the curtain of materialism and reveals the spiritual world. He destroys selfishness and constrains men with His own love. This work is represented by an emancipation, regeneration, resurrection, creation--and none of these words are too strong.
II. THE POSITION OF TRUE MEN. They are rendered repugnant to the world by Christ.
1. The hatred of the world to true men is of the same kind as that which Christ experienced. The forms of persecution change, but the spirit remains. If it is prevented from mangling the body, it will mangle the reputation.
2. Then hatred is for the same reason. The world hated Christ because
(1) His purity condemned their depravity.
(2) His benevolence their selfishness.
(3) His humility their pride.
(4) His truth their prejudices.
(5) His spirituality their carnal pleasures. For these reasons now the world hates true men. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
The world we have renounced
1. Perhaps there is no word more commonly in our mouth than “the world;” and yet hardly any to which we attach less clear and certain meaning, Indeed, the sense intended by it varies according to the character of the person that uses it. Some people denounce the world as unmixed evil; some say it is for the most part good, or at least innocent: some profess to see its deceitful workings everywhere; some will see them nowhere: some make their religion to consist in a separation from the world; some think the field of their religious duty is in the world: in a word, there is little or no agreement or certainly but in this, that there is such a power and reality as the world, and that it is of great moment to us to know what it is.
2. In its original sense, the world is altogether good. By the work and will of God it is all sinless and pure. It is only in its second intention that the world has an evil sense; but that sense is its prevailing and true one--“the weed” is the creation of God as it is possessed by sin and death. So subtle and far spreading is the original sin of man, that no living soul is without a taint. The original sin was not a measured quantity, so to speak, of evil, which, like a hereditary disease, might exhaust itself in the course of two or three descents. Every several generation renewed it afresh; every several man reproduced it, and sustained the tradition of evil by example, habit, and license; it was perpetuated in races, nations, families; by custom, usage, law. And what is this great tradition of human thought and will, action and imagination, with all its illusions, misjudgments, indulgences, and abuses of God’s creatures, but the world? We mean by it something external to our minds, and yet not identical with the creation of God; something which has thrust itself between it and us; something parasitical, which has fastened upon all God’s works, and has wound itself into its inmost action, and into its very being.
I. It is true to DISTINGUISH BETWEEN THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD, as between things antagonistic and irreconcilable: for the Son of God, by His incarnation and atonement, and by the calling and mission of His apostles, has founded and built up in the earth a visible kingdom, which has no other Head but Him alone. “That visible kingdom is so taken out of the world, that a man must either be in it or out of it; and must, therefore, be either in the Church or in the world. In the visible kingdom of Christ are all the graces and promises of life; in the world are the powers and traditions of death.
II. But it is no less true to say, that THE WORLD, WHICH IN THE BEGINNING WAS VISIBLY WITHOUT THE CHURCH, IS NOW INVISIBLY WITHIN IT. So long as the world was heathen, it warred against the Church in bitter and relentless persecutions. The two great traditions--the one of God, the other of the world, the powers of the regeneration and of the fall--kept their own integrity by contradiction and perpetual conflict. The Church stood alone--a kingdom ordained of God, having her own princes and thrones, her own judges and tribunals, her own laws and equity, her own public customs and private economy of life. It was when the conversion of individuals drew after it, at last, the whole civil state; when the secular powers, with all their courts, pomps, institutions, laws, judicatures, and the entire political order of the world, came into the precincts of the Church; then it was that the great tradition of human thought, passion, belief, prejudice, and custom, mingled itself with the unwritten usages of the Church. In the beginning the Church had a sorer and a more fiery trial: but who can say that the peril of souls is not greater now? In those days it was no hard matter to discern between the world and the Church. But now our very difficulty is, to know what is that world which we have renounced; to detect its snares, and to overcome its allurements … I will say, that the state of public morals, the habits of personal and social life, popular amusements, and the policy of governments, so far as they are not under the direct guidance of religion, are examples of the presence and power of that which is properly and truly called “the world.” And nobody need fear to add, that the tone and moral effect of all these, except when they are especially guided by religion to a Christian use and purpose, is almost always, in a greater or less degree, at variance with God. This, then, is the world which in our baptism we renounced. It was no remote or imaginary notion, but a present and active reality: that very same principle of original evil which, in all ages, under all shapes, in all places, has issued in lust, pride, covetousness, vainglory. We are not called to separate ourselves from any outward system, but to be inwardly as estranged from the evil that cleaves to the system around us, as if we were not of it. (Archdeacon Manning.)
Christians separated from the world
It is a remarkable act, that while the baser metals are diffused through the body of the rocks, gold and silver usually lie in veins; collected together in distinct metallic masses. They are in the rocks but not of them And as by some power in nature God has separated them from the base and common earths, even so by the power of His grace will he separate His chosen from a reprobate and rejected world. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)
The believer not of the world
When courtiers come down into the country, the common home-bred people possibly think their habits strange; but they care not for that. “It is the fashion at Court.” What need, then, have the godly to be so tender-foreheaded, to be out of countenance because the world looks on holiness as a singularity? It is the only fashion in the highest Court,--yea, of the King of kings Himself.” (H. G. Salter.)
Christians not to compromise with the world
That idea is very popular. “Now then, Moses, do not be too strict. Some people are a deal too particular. Those old-fashioned puritanical people are narrow and straitlaced: be liberal and take broader views. Cannot you make a compromise? Tell Pharaoh’s daughter you are an Israelite, but that, in consequence of her great kindness, you will also be an Egyptian. Thus you can become an Egypto-Israelite--what a fine blend! Or say an Israelito-Egyptian--with the better part in the front. You see, it seems a simple way out of a difficulty, to hold with the hare and run with the hounds. It saves you from unpleasant decisions and separations: Besides, Jack-of-both-sides has great praise from both parties for his large-heartedness. My hearers, come out, I pray you, one way or the other. If God be God, serve Him; if Baal be God, serve him. If it is right to be an Israelite, be an Israelite; if it is right to be an Egyptian, be an Egyptian. None of your trimming. It will go hard with trimmers at the last great day. When Christ comes to divide the sheep from the goats, there will be no middle sort, and meanwhile you border people will be driven down to hell. May God grant us grace to be decided! (C. H.Spurgeon.)
