Worldview

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world.  And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. – 1 John 2:15-17

You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. -- James 4:4

As we know, the world does not necessarily mean the earth.  The Greek word behind world can be transliterated as kosmos, which is related to kosmeo which means “to adorn.”  We might say “to dress things up.”  As used in the above passages, and many others in the New Testament, the cosmos isn’t a place but an arrangement.  In his little treatise called Love Not the World, Watchman Nee explains:  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.

Now even though the kosmos has an internal harmony, it is hostile toward God and rejects Him.  Though it could not exist apart from God’s creation and is, in fact, derived from creation (it could not be otherwise), its internal consistency allows it to function apart from and in opposition to the Divine order.  In John 12:31-32, Jesus, speaking of His coming crucifixion, contrasts what has been with what is about to be:  Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out.  And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.  The Cross dethrones and casts down the one who has been ruling and will give mankind a new ruler and a new cosmos.

Christianity is often cited as a source of conflict in the world.  Jesus would not argue with that.  He said He came to bring division.  We are bound to be in conflict with an order and a system that rejects God and thus rejects us.  We tend to think of things being worldly that are obviously immoral or that are associated with debauchery.  But worldliness is simply looking at things in a way that lines up with the mind that is behind the world – the prince of this world. 

Satan does not rule over planet earth.  He rules that kosmos.  He has a hierarchy and structure upon which his system is organized and integrated.  If you accept that system, it will make perfect sense and have, as Nee said, an internal harmony.  Of course, this requires us to reject truth and much of what we know is real, but it does provide those who are of the world with the ability to live in a coherent way. 

If I say that the kosmos is a “state of mind” it conjures up connotations of positive thinking and positive mental attitudes.  It’s more like being of one mind with the mind behind the system.  In Romans 8 Paul says that to be fleshly- or worldly-minded is death while to be spiritually-minded is life and peace.  He says, in Colossians 3, that we should set our minds on things above, where Christ dwells.  If we accept the thinking of the world system, it is spiritual death because it cuts us off from God.  If we accept the mind of Christ we will have everlasting life, and, for a time, we will continue to live behind enemy lines, in contact with the world system, confronting, abrading, offending it – not because we are doing anything wrong, but because that kosmos has been judged and its ruler dethroned by the Cross.

A lot of us would like to declare a truce of some kind with the world.  It won’t work.  I’m going to have to close this out, but there seems to be a lot more here.  Maybe when I’m not so addled from working all night I'll be able to come back to it.