 |  |
THE AGE OF THIS WORLD.--The way in which aiġn is used in this verse prevents
us from translating aiġnian, "age-abiding", or "age-lasting", because something more
than a time idea is intended here. Character also must be understood; while "age"
therefore includes the idea of time, it also includes the characteristics of that time; the
expression, "age of this world", looks at the age dominated by "the world". The A.V.
suggests character by the translation "course". What is the world? Kosmos.--In secular
writings this word always denotes order, regularity, ornament. In I Pet. 3: 3 it is
translated "adorning". Wahl translates James 3: 6 "ornament (i.e., the glosser over) of
iniquity". In its primary usage it indicates the created heaven and earth, and all therein.
The Lord Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world" (John 18: 36), although His
kingdom will one day include the earth and the land of Israel. "This world" denotes the
order obtaining now, and this world is stained with sin, and at enmity against God. This
world has a prince, "the prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in Me", "Now shall
the prince of this world be cast out", "the prince of this world is judged". It is evident
from these passages that the world as at present constituted is anti Christ, and therefore to
walk according to it is a mark of the unbeliever.
A |
Ye are from beneath;
B
| I am from above;
A |
Ye are of this world;
B
| I am not of this world (John 8: 23).
The seventeenth chapter of John has much to say concerning the world; the Lord
declared both of His disciples and Himself that they were "not of this world". God has
made "foolish the wisdom of this world", and "the spirit of the world" is placed in
opposition to "the spirit which is of God". "The fashion of this world passeth away"
(I Cor. 1: 20; 3: 19; 2: 12; 7: 31).
The epistle to the Galatians has two very strong references to the world; the first
(4: 3) speaks of it as a sphere of bondage, "even so we, when we were children, were in
bondage under the elements of the world", which elements are again referred to in verse 9
as "weak and beggarly". Gal. 6: 14 says, "but let it not be that I should boast, save in
the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and
I unto the world". No words could more clearly declare the utter antipathy that exists
between the gospel of grace (as preached and practised by the apostle) and the world,
than these two references. The elements of the world, together with the traditions of men,
are "a vain deceitful philosophy", and "not according to Christ". To these elements the
believer has died, for the apostle says, "Wherefore, if ye died with Christ from the
elements of the world, why as though living in the world are ye subject to ordinances"
(Col. 2: 8, 20). It will be seen from this earth passage that it is still possible to be living
in this world; the entangling web of the world alas holds us all, we are often unaware of it
until some revealing ray of light shines from the Word of truth. True religion includes
the keeping of oneself "unspotted from the world" (James 1: 27), which clearly indicates
its moral character and defiled state before God. Further, James asks, "Know ye not that
the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of
the world is the enemy of God". It is in this epistle that Abraham, the man of faith, the