The moral Individual—II - Chambers, Oswald
THE WORLD WORLDLY OTHERWORLDLY
In It Of It In It but Not of It
1. The world in it
The term world is used to mean the material world, and the men and women in it we are all in it in this sense. The bible says that god so loved the world. . . . And the unfathomable depth of his love is in that word soyet it also says that who- soever would be a friend of the world maketh himself an enemy of god ( James 4:4). The apparent contradiction can be explained like this gods love for the world is the kind of love that makes him go all lengths in order to remove the sin and evil from it. Love to be anything at all must be personal; to love without hating is an impossibility, and the stronger and more emphatic the love, the more intense is its obverse, hatred. God loves the world so much that he hates with a perfect hatred the thing that switched men wrong; and calvary is the measure of his hatred. The natural heart of man would have arguedgod so loves the world that of course he will forgive its sin: god so loved the world that he could not forgive its sin. There is no such thing as god overlooking sin, therefore if he does forgive there must be a reason that justifies him in doing so. To be a friend of the world means that we take the world as it is and are perfectly delighted with it the world is all right and we are very happy in it. Never have the idea that the worldling is unhappy; he is perfectly happy, as thoroughly happy as a christian. The people who are unhappy are the worldlings or the Christians if they are not at one with the principle which unites them. If a worldling is not a worldling at heart, he is miserable; and if a christian is not a christian at heart he carries his Christianity like a headache instead of something worth having, and not being able to get rid of his head, he cannot get rid of his headache. A worldling is not immoral, he is one who wisely keeps within the bounds of the dis- position which the bible alone reveals as sinful, viz. , my claim to my right to myself. The bible reveals the solidarity of sin, a bond of union that keeps men together, it is the mutual inheritance of the human race wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned (Romans 5:12). Satan is anxious to keep that solidarity intact because when- ever it breaks out into immoral acts it disintegrates his kingdom. Two things disintegrate the solidarity of sin the breaking out into overt acts of sin, and the conviction of the spirit of god. This will be found to be the solution of a number of moral problems. To love the world as it is is the wrong kind of love, it is that sentiment which is the enemy of god, because it means i am the friend of the system of things which does not take god into account. We are to love the world in the way god loves it, and be ready to spend and be spent until the wrong and evil are removed from it. When Jesus said i pray not for the world, . . . It did not mean he was indifferent to the world, or despised it: his work for the world is to save it. In thinking about the world we are apt to overlook the greatest factor of all from the bible standpoint, viz. , that man belongs to a fallen race. In our intellectual conceptions the fall has no place at all; the human race is looked upon as a crowd of innocent babes in the wood. The bible looks upon the human race as it is as the result of a mutiny against god; consequently you find in the bible something you find in no other book or conception. The modern view of man is what a marvellous promise of what he is going to be! The bible looks at man and sees the ruin of what he once was. In the bible everything is based on the fact that there is something wrong at the basis of things.
2. Worldly – of it
To be of the world means to belong to the set that organises its religion, its business, its social life and pleasures without any concern as to how it affects Jesus Christ, as to whether he lived or died matters nothing at all. When our lord said be of good cheer; i have overcome the world. He obviously did not mean the world in the material physical sense, the rocks and trees, the seasons, and the beautiful order of nature, the sea and sky; it was not these he overcame, but the world in its ordered system of religion and morality, with all its civilisations and progress, which system reveals in the final analysis that it is organised absolutely apart from any consideration of god. A clean cut from everything that savours of the world in this sense is essential for the christian. No one can decide the matter for you; you may have to draw the line in one place; i may have to draw it in another, while the holy spirit is educating us down to the scruple.12 if i have for my religious ideal a good social life lived among the societies of men, that is to be of the world, no matter how religious it may be in terms. It is easy to denounce wrong in the world outside meanyone without a spark of the grace of god can do that; easy to denounce the sins of others while all the time i may be allowing all sorts of worldly things in my own religious life. We must be continually renewed in the spirit of our mind so that the slight- est beginning of compromise with the spirit of the world is instantly detected. Well, whats the harm; there is nothing wrong in it, when you hear that you know you have the spirit of the world, because the spirit that comes from Jesus says, does this glorify god? The only way we are going to overcome the world as jesus overcame it is by experimental sanctification. We are to live in heavenly places in Christ Jesus while on this earth and among worldly people. That is the glorious discipline of the sanctified life. The apostle paul in writing to the Corinthians says, i don’t say you are to have no dealings with those that are with out for then must ye needs go out of the world; but i do say you are to have nothing to do with those who practise wrongdoing within the christian community. Outside the christian community, we must bear the shame and humiliation of contact with bad men vicariously, like Jesus did, and we may win them to god. Do not ye judge them that are within? But them that are without god jud- geth (see 1 Corinthians 5:1013). As he is, so are we in this world. Our lords own life proved that in the midst of the world where we are placed we can be holy men and women, not only talking rightly, but living rightly. The greatest insult you can offer god is pious talk unless it is backed up by holy actions. The attitude of a christian towards the providential order in which he is placed is to recognise that god is behind it for purposes of his own. For example, in our own country the dominance of state machinery stops occasionally and things are reconsidered and readjusted by means of a general election. Then is the time for Christians to work and make their voice heard. As soon as the machinery is at work again, the counsel abides subjection to the higher powers: the powers that be are ordained of god.
3. Otherworldly in it but not of it
Otherworldly is simply a coined word to express what our lord prayed for in john 17i pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evili don’t ask you to take them out of the world, away from the society of men, but to keep them out of compromise with the evil one who works in the world. The counsel of the spirit of god to the saints is that they must allow nothing worldly in themselves while living among the worldly in the world. Those who live otherworldly in this world are the men and women who have been regenerated and who dare to live their life according to the principles of Jesus. When once the protest is made where your lord requires you to make it, you will soon find where you stand exactly where Jesus said you would, outside the synagogue, called purist, narrow and absurd. I have given them thy word; and the world hated them, because they are not of the world, even as i am not of the world ( john 17:14 RV). The hatred of the world is its intense objection to the principles exhibited by the saint, and frequently it is the best specimens of the worldly spirit who positively hate and detest the otherworldly spirit of the saint. It is not that they hate you personally, they may be very kind to you, but they hate what you represent of Jesus Christ. Remember what sin is, fundamental independence of god, the thing in me that says, i can do without god, i don’t need him. The hatred of the world has its source there. When you meet the hatred of the whole world-system unspiritual people around you will laugh to scorn the idea that you have a struggle on hand, but you realise that you are wrestling not against flesh and blood, but against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Most of us live our life in the world without ever discovering its hatred, but it is there, and a crisis may suddenly arise and bring it to a head, then we are appalled to find the meaning of our lords words, and ye shall be hated of all men for my names sake. I have no business to stir up the hatred of the world through a domineering religious opinionativeness that has nothing whatever to do with the spirit of Jesus; i am never told to rejoice when men separate me from their company on that account; but when in all modesty i am standing for the honour of Jesus Christ and a crisis arises when the spirit of god requires that i declare my other worldliness, then i learn what Jesus meant when he said, men will hate you. It is the hatred of the world expressed to the otherworldly standpoint once it is made clear.
This age is the last of the ordered ages which condition mans life on this earth, and the new testament writers look on to the time when creations thraldom ends in deliverance and in the manifestation of the sons of god. We . . . Look for new heavens and a new earth; nowadays people have got tired of the preaching about a future heaven and they have gone to the other extreme and deal only with what is called the practical, consequently they rob themselves of the unfathomable joy of knowing that everything god has said will come to pass. The redemption covers more than men and women, it covers the whole earth; everything that has been marred by sin and the devil has been completely redeemed by Jesus Christ. . . . New heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness nothing that defiles can be on it at all; at present that is absolutely inconceivable to us. The world and the earth are not the same; the world represents the societies of men on gods earth, and they do as they like; the earth remains gods. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. The meek bide gods time.