Focus: What A World Is This?

Text: Jh.17:9

"I pray not for the world…"

There's more to this world than what we can see. The world looks beautiful on the surface, but beneath the surface is something sinister and dangerous. The Greek word for 'world' is kosmos, and that is a noun. The verb is kosmeo, and it is from this verb that our word cosmetics is derived. There's something cosmetic, plastic, artificial or superficial about this world. We live in a world of makeups - the world of the beauty shop. The world's beauty or glamour is not real; it's fake. It's a make-believe world. Our world masquerades. In our world everything seems masked. There's surely more to this world than what meets the eye.

Jesus Christ tells the Father, "I pray not for the world." John writes in his epistle, "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 pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world" (1Jh.2:15-16). James warns, "Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God" (Jam.4:4). Jesus Christ would not pray for the world. John tells us not to love the world. James warns us not to befriend the world.

Paul tells us that it is a world without God - godless, a world without hope - hopeless, a world without strength - powerless, and a world in which man has no life - lifeless (Eph.2:1,12; Rom.5:6; 1Jh.3:14). Moses described Israel as "children in whom there is no faith" - faithless (Dt.32:20). Paul tells us that all men have not faith, and such faithless men are unreasonable and wicked (2Thes.3:2).

John speaks of the "sins of the world" (1Jh.2:2). Peter talks about "the corruption that is in the world through lust" and "the pollutions of the world" (2Pet.2:20; 2Pet.1:4). Paul tells us about "the darkness of this world" and about "this present evil world" (Gal.1:4; Eph.6:12). He tells us that the world is already condemned, and that "the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God" (1Cor.3:19; 11:32). He tells us of "the spirit of the world" (1Cor.2:12). He says, "Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience" (Eph.2:2). The world is possessed of a bad spirit. There's a spiritual evil force operative in the world. 

Jesus Christ said, "Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out… Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged" (Jh.12:31; 16:11). John tells us that "the whole world lieth in wickedness" (1Jh.5:19). What John is saying is that the whole world sits on the laps of the wicked one, and that is Satan. Paul says that "the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not…" (2Cor.4:4). This god blinds men's eyes, making it humanly impossible for them to see the truth and embrace it. 

John says, "And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world…" (Rev.12:9). That god mentioned by Paul is here described by John as Satan, the Devil, the old serpent, the dragon, and the world's deceiver. He deceived the first man in the garden of Eden, and here in the book of Revelation he has succeeded in deceiving the whole world - from one man to all men.

John declares that "the world passeth away, and the lust thereof…" and Paul says that "the fashion of this world passeth away" (1Jh.2:17; 1Cor.7:31).

What a world is this? It chokes life out of those who believe in Christ. No wonder Paul tells the people of God not to be "conformed to this world…" (Rom.12:2)! It's a messy and hostile world. It's a world that is beautiful on the outside, but very dark and ugly on the inside. It runs by a system that has Satan at the top of it. It's a world in which evil resides and presides over everything. 

Child of God, beware! Don't be deceived, for all that glitters is not gold. Things are not often as they seem. Beware! Smell evil from afar and avoid it. This world reeks of a bad odor. Be not lured away by its fancies and fantasies and do not be trapped or entangled with its trappings or make-believe beauty! Stay in Christ and sound the gospel alarm for the world to hear and be saved!

by Bishop Moses E. Peter