In this chapter we will consider our dealing with the world. Ephesians 2:2 says, “In which you once walked according to the age of this world, according to the ruler of the authority of the air, of the spirit which is now operating in the sons of disobedience.” To walk according to the age of this world has very much to do with the ruler of the authority of the air, that is, Satan. The world may be compared to a nation, and the ages are like the states; the world is a whole, and the ages of this world are the parts of the world.
Romans 12:2 says, “And do not be fashioned according to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind.” Galatians 1:4 says, “Who gave Himself for our sins that He might rescue us out of the present evil age according to the will of our God and Father.” First John 2:15-17 says, “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him; because all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the vainglory of life, is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and its lust, but he who does the will of God abides forever.” The world itself is opposed to God the Father, and the things of the world are opposed to the will of God.
The world as a whole is the satanic organized system, a systematized organization. Within this organization, this system, there are ages. The age is the part of the world we contact. Fifty years ago, women wore their hair long and high; that was according to that age. Today, modern women wear their hair very short; this is another age. During the First World War, when I was about twelve years old, we would often talk about the armored tank, which was just invented. That was according to the age at that time. In the Second World War, however, other things became modern. This was another age. Therefore, the age is something modern. In Romans 12:2, to be fashioned according to this age simply means to be modernized. Galatians 1:4 tells us that the Lord died for our sins that He might rescue us not only from sins but out of the present evil age.
In order to deal with the world, we must first ask what the world is. It is difficult to give a proper, adequate definition of the world. Strictly speaking, in the first step of the fall of man there was no such problem as the world. There was only the problem of sin. The world in the sense we are speaking of was not created by God. Rather, it was invented by Satan at a certain point in human history. When Cain, the son of Adam, the second generation of the human race, was driven out of the presence of God, he lost God. It was then, in Genesis 4, that Cain and his descendants invented the first human civilization. Before that time there was no such thing on the earth.
For human beings to exist, we need to eat, drink, marry, protect ourselves, and have some kind of pleasure or amusement. Before the fall, when man was living before God, God was everything to man. God was like a parent who prepares everything and fully takes care of his children. He was the protection to safeguard man, and He Himself was man’s pleasure. When we have God, we have the real pleasure; there is no need for another kind of amusement. However, man fell in several steps. In the first step man fell into sin, and in the second step man fell into the world.
Adam fell into sin, and Cain, the second generation, fell further into the world. Because he was driven out of the presence of God, he was afraid that he would starve or be killed by others (Gen. 4:14). He was afraid that there would be no protection or safeguard for him. Moreover, because he sensed that he had lost God, he lost his pleasure and amusement. Therefore, among the descendants of Cain, one invented the way to produce food, one invented the way to amuse people with music, and one invented the way to protect himself with weapons (vv. 20-22). This became the first human civilization.
Even after all this time, human civilization is still for producing food, protecting ourselves, and amusing ourselves. Our economy is simply the means to maintain our living. In addition, we have the national defense for our safeguard and protection, and we have many amusements. Today America provides other nations with economic aid for food and with military aid for protection. Besides these, we also have amusements, such as going to the movies and the beach. If we take away economy, defense, and amusement from the world, there will be nothing left.
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