The Devil and the World
By the "power of the air" is meant not simply in the abstract, Satan's government over the air whereof he is prince, but his devils, his angels that live and fly up and down in the air as the most convenient place for their residence; these have that power whereof he is prince; and as the “power of the air" refers to those airy spirits that are principalities and powers and rulers with him in this world, and who work under him in the men of this world; and they are a united kingdom, a body politic under this one prince, Satan: and they are called Power, as we call an army a power, a force, as Pharaoh's host in Exodus 14:28; 15:4. The whole creation above the earth may be divided into three parts, whereof each part has its powers that are its inhabitants; there are the highest heavens, where is God and His host of angels; there are the starry heavens, with the sun for the prince of its hosts, and there is the air of this sublunary world, with Satan's trained crew there, called the “power of the air" or
hosts of devils in the air under their prince. -Thomas Goodwin.
THERE IS NO more fundamental statement than that the world is to be renounced by every true disciple of Christ, and that to love the world and the things of the world puts us in open and standing enmity to God. By virtue of the relationship of love or friendship to the world, we are the enemies of God. There needs no other sin, no other crime by virtue of our attachment to the world. By that alone, we are the enemies of God.
Christ Jesus lays it down as an obvious truth that between the world and His disciples there would be hatred. The two discipleships to Himself and to the world were inimical and impossible. The call, the touch and choice of Christ when accepted and obeyed, becomes at once the secret and the source of the world's hatred.
Jesus declares the native and inevitable enmity of the world to His followers: “The world hath hated them because they are not of the world even as I am not of the world." Again, in the sacerdotal prayer, He declares this distinct and eternal separation and conflict: "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." By virtue of their relation to Christ they are separated from and are in conflict with the world.
The two persons, Jesus and Adam, their natures, affinities and opposition, are declared in the clearest language: “The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." How strong is the opposition to the world declared and demanded. The love of the world is hostile to and destructive of the love of God. The two cannot co-exist.
“Ye adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore would be the friend of the world maketh himself an enemy of God" (James 4:4).
Nothing is more explicit than this, nothing is more commanding, authoritative and more exacting. "Love not the world." Nothing is more offensive to God, nothing is more criminal, more abominable, violative of the most sacred relationship of the soul with God. "Adulteresses" - purity gone and shame and illicit intercourse exist. Friendship for the world is Heaven's greatest crime and God's greatest enemy.
The world is one of the enemies which must be fought and conquered on the way to heaven. “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments; and his commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world, and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?"
The Gospel is represented as a training school in which to deny worldly desires is one part of its curriculum. “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us, that denying ungodliness «and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." There is something somewhere in the world which makes it a deadly foe to the salvation of Christ and which poisons us against heaven.
What is "this world," which so effectually alienates us from heaven and puts us by virtue of our relation to it and in flagrant enmity to God, and friendship to which violates our wedding vow to God, whose love is enmity to God, whose friendship is criminal to the most abominable and utmost degree? What is it? " The world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, the pride of life." What are they? The world includes the whole mass of men alienated from God, and therefore hostile to the cause of Christ. It involves worldly affairs, the aggregate of things earthly, the whole circle of earthly goods, endowments, riches, advantages, pleasures, and pursuits, which although hollow, frail and fleeting, stir desire, seduce from God, and are obstacles to the cause of Christ. The divorced or torn relation between heaven and earth, between God and His creatures, finds its expression in the term, “the world." Our English word, “desire," expresses the meaning of the word lust, including the whole world of active lusts and desires, to which the seat of desire and the natural appetites impels.
Alford's Commentary says: "The world was constituted at first in Adam, well pleasing to God and obedient to Him. It was man's world, and in man it was summed up, and in man it fell into the darkness of selfish pursuits, and by which man has become materialized in spirit and dragged down so as to be worldly and sensual. The world is man's world in his fall from God. The “lust of the flesh," human nature averse to God; "lust of the eyes," that sense which takes note of outward things and is inflamed by them. The “pride of life," the manner of life of worldly men among one another whereby pride is to display and pomp is cherished.
Bengel says: "The lust of the flesh" means those things on which the sense of enjoyment, taste and touch, feed. “Lust of the eyes" means those things by which the senses of investigation, the eye and sight, hearing and smelling, are occupied. “Pride of life" means when anyone assumes too much to himself in words or actions. Even those who do not love arrogance of life may possibly pursue the “lust of the eyes," and they who have overpowered this yet frequently retain the lust of the flesh, for this prevails in the greatest degree and to the widest extent among the poor, the middle classes and the powerful, even among those who appear to exercise self-denial."
John Wesley says: "The desire of the flesh means the pleasures of the outward senses, whether of taste, smell or touch. The' desire of the eye,' the pleasures of the imagination (to which the eye chiefly is subservient), of that internal sense whereby we relish what is grand, new or beautiful. The' pride of life' means all that pomp in clothing, houses, furniture, equipage and manner of living which generally procure honour from the bulk of mankind, and so gratify pride and vanity. It therefore directly includes the desire of praise and remotely covetousness. All these desires are not from God, but from the prince of this world."
This world arrays itself and all its forces against heaven. Worldliness is the epidemic foe to heaven. To live for this world is to lose heaven by counter attraction. The Son of God declares of His disciples, and reiterates the declaration to His Father as one of prime importance: “Thou gavest them me out of the world. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." It remains true to this hour that all the true disciples of Jesus are not of the world, but are chosen out of the world, have left the world, have renounced the world, and are crucified to the world.
Fundamental and eternal are these truths, of which heaven has an illustration in every follower of Jesus.
What gives the world its fatal charms? What makes its witchery so deadly? Sometimes its beauty is all withered, its brightness all night, its hope all despair, its joy the bitterest anguish, and all its prospects decay and desert, but still it holds and binds. We are loath to leave it. Whence is its deadly sorcery and its fatal snares? Whence is its malignant hate? Whence is its hostility to God and its alienation from heaven? This world is the devil's world. In that fatal hour when man fell from his allegiance and devotion to God, he carried the world with him in his rebellion against God. Man was the world's lord, and it fell with its lord. This is the solution of its full influence, its malignant rivalry, and its intense opposition to heaven. The devil has his kingdom here. It is his princedom. He clothes it with all beauty and seductive power as the rival of heaven. Heaven's trinity of foes are the world, the flesh, and the devil. The world is first, the most powerful and engaging. They all center in and are strong for evil because the devil inspires and inflames them. The flesh wars with the spirit simply because the devil inflames its desires. The world gets its deadly and fascinating snares from the devil. The world is not simply the ally, but is the instrument and the agent of Satan. It represents him with the most servile and complete loyalty.
The text from John already quoted, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world," needs, for its full understanding, to have the preface which reads: “I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father. I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the Word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one."
To "overcome the wicked one," the world, its love and its things must be abjured. There stands at the threshold of many a church door these words, which in spirit belong to the sacred honour of every soul's true espousal to Christ: “Dost thou renounce the devil and all his works, the vain pomp and glory of the world, with all covetous desires of the same, and the carnal desires of the flesh, so that thou wilt not follow or be led by them?" "I renounce them all," was the answer solemnly said in the serious hour, and the preacher and the people and our own hearts, if true, said, "Amen." And Amen let it be now and forever.
This world must be renounced and this is to renounce Satan. This is the deadliest blow at his rule. The friendship of the world is violative of our marriage vows to heaven.
We will not understand James in his severe denunciations of the world, where he makes its friendship so criminal and declares that to be the friend of the world is of itself to be the enemy of God, except we note how he is declaring that the world's friendship is the devil's religion, earthly, sensual, devilish; and that we can get back to God only by renouncing the friendship of the world and by cleansing our hearts and hands of its soiling touch. We draw nigh to God by resisting the devil. We resist the devil by renouncing the world.
The Apostle James sums up the distinct characteristics of the devil's world-counterfeit religion. Passion, appetite and pleasure reign and make war. How much of this passion, pleasure and world-religion has there been in church annals? Too often its history is a history of passion, strife, ambition and blood. Its ecumenical councils are the battlefield of passion in its unbridled, most malignant form. “Earthly, sensual, devilish," is the Divine stigma put on it, and obloquy is put on much of that which marks and mars ecclesiastical history. What volumes of this worldly religion, unwritten volumes, a world full of volumes, belong to the lives of many old reputed saints and to many modern church members and church goers. They are friends of the world, its advocates and lovers. They do not pray and only say prayers in order not to miss praying. There is no drawing nigh to God and no fighting against the devil and driving him from the field of action. Their religion and its performances and worship descendeth not from above, but is " earthly, natural, devilish.” “Submit to God" and “resist the devil," is the keynote of an unworldly religion. A personal God and a personal devil are among the primary articles of creed and experience in true religion. Surrender to God, draw nigh to Him, live close to Him, fight against the devil, and get rid of him by denouncing and abjuring the world.