SHARE Magazine July 2016 | Page 8

Without God Without God A World T The term ‘the world’ is regularly referred to in the New Testament with very negative connotations. Is it a place, a system, a people or all of the above? Jesus said, it hates us (John 15:19), that Satan rules over it (John 16:11) and that it will give us trouble (John 16:33). It is the enemy of God (James 4:4) and we are warned not to love it. (1 John 2:15). SO WHAT IS ‘THE WORLD’? When used in this context, it is not referring to the natural world, the earth with its flora and fauna, but speaks of a godless, devilish system of thinking and behaving. It consists of people who are bankrupt of God, His values and virtues, a people who have rejected God and are controlled 8 | SHARE|MAGAZINE by sin and Satan. Jesus has called us out of that system and from among that people. This does not mean that we are in a separate location physically, but that we are created to be different. So, though we are in the world we do not belong to it “As a follower of the Lord, I order you to stop living like stupid, godless people. Their minds are in the dark, and they are stubborn and ignorant and have missed out on the life that comes from God. They no longer have any feelings about what is right, and they are so greedy that they do all kinds of indecent things.” Ephesians 4:1719 This system is so repulsive to God that Peter writing by inspiration, July - September 2016 likened it to mud and vomit (2 Peter 2:22). God, Himself, will not touch anyone who is corrupted by it. He warns that He will soon burn it with unquenchable fire, along with those who gorge themselves with it. And He does this as if to purge the earth of its rot and stench. For God to accept us we must, “Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.” “I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, Says the Lord Almighty.” 2 Corinthians 6:17-18 (NKJV) TYPES OF ‘THE WORLD’ In the Old Testament before the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven there was not a division between