Whole world

” We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one” 1 John 5:19

Whole world – We compromise.  God doesn’t.  God uses words like “whole” and “all” and “only” and “nothing”, but we like “most” and “nearly” and “some” and “not quite”.  We prefer the middle of the road.  God seems just too extreme.

What would life really be like if you and I lived according to God’s words?  Do we really believe that Jesus is the only way?  Do we really exhibit “be anxious for nothing” or “cast all your cares on Him”?  Do we truly expect whatever we ask in prayer?

This verse in John’s first letter is a real wake up call.  John doesn’t say that some things in the world are under the influence of Satan.  He doesn’t tell us that we need to separate the good stuff in this world from the bad.  He uses the expression ho kosmos holos (the whole world).  John says that everything of this world is under Satan’s power.  How can that be?  Is John suggesting that this isn’t God’s world after all?

The answer is found in the first part of this verse:  We know that we are of God.  John is painting a picture of opposites.  There are two kinds of people on the earth: those who are of God and those who are enslaved by the power of this world.  There is no middle ground.  Everything about those who are enslaved to this world is under Satan’s grip.  John makes the distinction as strong as possible because he wants us to see that compromises are futile.  Any accommodation to the world’s point of view throws us under the power of Satan.

Left to us, the call of this verse would be impossible to perform.  You and I live here, where the world’s paradigm constantly presses us to conform.  So many times we don’t even realize how powerful and subtle this pressure is.  Left to us, we cannot overcome.  And that’s John’s point.  We are not left to ourselves.  Jesus has overcome the world!  Because we are “of God”, we can expect God to reveal to us those behaviors that have been under Satan’s grip.  We let them go.  They do not belong in God’s world.  Compromise always brought bondage.  Freedom never came through the world’s idea of success.  Freedom only comes from living from a different point of view.