Not of This World…What Does That Mean?

When I was a young man in Southern California, there was a Christian company whose logo comprised the phrase “Not of This World “(it may have gotten larger than Southern California, but I don’t know). It comes from Jesus’ prayer in John 17, where Jesus says that His disciples were not of this world. He does not ask to take them out of the world, but that they would not be of it. I think about this phrase an awful lot, and how, one way or other, it’s used to justify unbiblical things that Christians believe.

It is true: we’re not of this world, and that does not mean we act as though we’re holier than thou, better than, or ignore it. It also does not mean that we blend in with the hopes we can get people out. What it means is that, while we live here as strangers, sojourners and exiles, we’re ambassadors for the Kingdom of Christ. In every sense of the word, we’re supposed to be transformed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ, not giving approval to the world or its ways, but seeking to expand the Kingdom by spreading the Good News of Jesus and bringing souls to Him. We ARE to prepare for the next life, while at the same time being a light in the darkness, and showing those who dwell in death what true life looks like.

This world is passing away; it’s kingdoms belong to Satan, no matter how much Christian influence may be on them. We should absolutely seek the welfare of the city, state or nation in which God has sent us; but we also need to be cognizant of the fact that we’re in a temporary resident. We cannot put our faith or trust in any earthly institution: all of our faith belongs to Christ. It is in Him, and Him alone, in His life, death, burial and resurrection in which we hope, where our hope and trust should lie, and therefore we ought to please God by following Him.

1 John 2:15-17

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 of life—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.

James 4:1-12

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 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. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?