PARENTHOOD
a divine stewardship

The Mind Behind the World System

With this issue of Parenthood we begin a series of issues concerning the world. The Bible refers to the world as the created physical earth or universe, the people occupying the earth, or the things belonging to the earthly sphere. However there is something behind these outward factors--the world is a system, and there is behind that system, a mind which organizes, conducts, and controls how the world operates. At times we Christians may loosely interpret some things as "worldly," yet have a very imprecise understanding of what we mean. At other times we may ourselves be fully occupied in the world, but have no sensation of our involvement with the world.

Watchman Nee, in his book entitled Love Not the World, writes,
The time has passed when we need to go out into the world in order to make contact with it. Today the world comes and searches us out. There is a force abroad now which is captivating men. Have you ever felt the power of the world as much as today? Have you ever heard so much talk about money? Have you ever thought so much about food and clothing? Wherever you go, even among Christians, the things of the world are the topics of conversation. The world has advanced to the very door of the Church and is seeking to draw even the saints of God into its grasp. Never in this sphere of things have we needed to know the power of the Cross of Christ to deliver us as we do at the present time.

The above word from our brother was written in the 1940's, yet it sounds like it was written for the beginning of this new millennium. Today, the world penetrates our homes through the medium of television; through the internet and the video games, it reaches into the very depths of the being of many of our children as more and more of our homes become equipped with pc computers for all ages.

More and more of the "common people" are becoming investors in the stock market. Politics, education, literature, science, art, law, commerce, music are all part of the world. We parents must know the world, and through example and teaching, train our children not to love it.

"Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto myself" (John 12:31, 32).

Our Lord Jesus utters these words at a key point in His ministry. He has entered Jerusalem thronged by enthusiastic crowds; but almost at once He has spoken in veiled terms of laying down His life, and to this heaven itself has given public approval. Now He comes out with this great twofold statement. What, we ask ourselves, can it have conveyed to those who have just acclaimed Him, going out to meet Him and accompanying Him home on His ride? To most of them His words, if they had any meaning at all, must have signified a complete reversal of their hopes. Indeed the more discerning came to see in them a forecasting of the actual circumstances of His death as a criminal (v. 33).

Yet if His utterance destroyed one set of illusions, it offered in place of them a wonderful hope, solid and secure. For it announced a far more radical exchange of dominion than even Jewish patriots looked for. "And I..."--the expression contrasts sharply with what precedes it, even as the One it identifies stands in contrast with His antagonist, the prince of this world. Through the Cross, through the obedience to death of Him who is God's seed of wheat, this world's rule of compulsion and fear is to end with the fall of its proud ruler.

And with His springing up once more to life there will come into being in its place a new reign of righteousness and one that is marked by a free allegiance of men to Him. With cords of love their hearts will be drawn away from a world under judgment to Jesus the Son of man, who though lifted up to die, is by that very act lifted up to reign.

"The earth" is the scene of this crisis and its tremendous outcome, and "the earth" is, we may say, its point of collision. That point we shall make the theme of our study, and we will begin by looking at the New Testament ideas associated with the important Greek word kosmos. In the English versions this word is, with a single exception shortly to be noticed, invariably translated "the world."...

It is worth sparing time for a look at a New Testament Greek Lexicon such as Grimm's. This will show how wide is the range of meaning that kosmos has in Scripture. But first of all we glance back to its origins in classical Greek where we find it originally implied two things: first a harmonious order or arrangement, and secondly embellishment or adornment. This latter idea appears in the New Testament verb kosmeo, used with the meaning "to adorn," as of the temple with goodly stones or of a bride for her husband (Luke 21:5; Revelation 21:2). In I Peter 3:3, the exception just alluded to, kosmos is itself translated "adorning" in keeping with this same verb kosmeo in verse 5....

While it is true that...three definitions of "the world," as (1) the material earth or universe, (2) the people on the earth, and (3) the things of the earth, each contribute something to the whole picture, it will already be apparent that behind them all is something more. The classical idea of orderly arrangement or organization helps us to grasp what this is. Behind all that is tangible we meet something intangible, we meet a planned system; and in this system there is a harmonious functioning, a perfect order.

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