John 17:16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. This text teaches us — I. THAT CHRIST IS NOT OF THE WORLD. 1. Christ came down from a higher world into this. He was not the product of the age in which He lived. Some say that He was. (1) Now it is no doubt true that every age has men who are very much like their contemporaries, but endowed with a larger nature and a better gift of utterance, so that they can express better than anybody what everybody thinks and feels. When they speak, you say "How clever! That's just what I've thought all my life long, but never could express it." The representative men of an age are always popular. People are charmed to hear that which chimes in so well with their own sentiments. Representative men make a great noise in their own time, but the echoes wax feebler and feebler, and at length die out. (2) Was Christ simply the representative man of His age? What was that age? A period of decay. In Judaea there was no political and very little religious life. The Jews paid tribute to the Romans. The Pharisees had long since degenerated. The Sadducees had sunk into practical scepticism. In place of the "open vision" of prophecy there were tradition and the authority of doctors. The Messianic ideas were not what we might have expected from such a generation. What the nation really needed was the transfusion of new blood, the breathing of fresh life, what it looked for was a Messiah-king, who would transform it into a great and victorious nation. Was Christ the representative man of that age? There is no theory further from the truth. (a) Christ was full of fresh life, whilst the age was dead. (b) Christ was spiritual, whilst the age was formal. (c) In a time in which "the oracles were dumb," Christ spoke forth that which men felt to be the word of God. (d) In an age of artificiality, He was real.If Christ had been the creation of His age, He would have perished with it. Christ was crucified by the Jews, because He did not answer their expectation of a political Messiah. 2. If all this is true, we might naturally expect that Christ would be unworldly. Anything which puts a man before his time tends to make him so, because it withdraws him from the influences which are at work around him into a higher sphere. I understand by a worldly man, one who does not seek to raise the standard of his generation, but who conforms to it. The worldly standard differs in different ages. In the last century it was favourable to duelling and drinking. In the present day, it is against all outward breaches of decorum, but it is strongly in favour of the worship of wealth and outward success. The worldly spirit is the utter antipodes of the spirit of Christ. All Christ's teaching was unworldly. He praised the very virtues which worldly men do not praise. He did not look upon either things, or men, or women, or cities as the worldly man looks upon them. He did not regard the distinctions of society, but looked below them all. II. THAT CHRIST'S DISCIPLES ARE NOT OF THE WORLD. 1. It has not been always expected that disciples should have the same disposition or lead the same life as their Teacher. It has been enough if they received His system. But no adherence to a system will make us disciples of Christ. "If we have not the spirit of Christ, we are none of His." Not that a disciple is perfectly like Christ: he may be very imperfect, as were the first disciples. A disciple is a learner, and you do not expect a learner to be perfect. But in the very act of entering Christ's school His disciples turn their backs upon the world and deny themselves its vanities. Hence Christ said, "If any man will be My disciple, let him take up his cross and follow Me." 2. If you will be Christ's disciples — (1) You must have a high standard; you must not be content with that of people around you. (2) You will love not the artificialities of the world, but that which is simple and natural. (3) You will not be carried away by the bustle of business or the flutter of gaiety, you will have your thoughts raised to the city of God. (4) You will not be mere cyphers in the world's great sum; you will feel always the worth of your own individual soul. 3. The history of the struggle between the Christian life and the spirit of the world may be divided into two periods. (1) During the first three centuries Christianity had to struggle with the brute force of the world, as embodied in the Roman Empire. Imperialism was not merely a political thing, it was also a religion. The Emperor was worshipped. The Christians never objected to fulfil any duty binding on them as citizens; but they would not worship brute force. And he who admires force more than goodness, who sticks to legal right in preference to moral right, is no true disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. (2) The main struggle since then has been with the corruptions of the world. The history of those corruptions may be divided into three periods. (a) The world corrupted the Church with heathenism. All the true Christian life in the Middle Ages had to struggle up towards the light shining through any loop-holes which there might be in that dense system of superstition. (b) The world corrupted the Church with her vices. Superstition, in the long run, leads to vice. All the institutions of the Church gradually degenerated till indulgences became a regular source of income to the Pope. It was these indulgences which roused the spirit of Luther, and led to his crusade against the Papacy. (c) The world has in our day corrupted the Church with her indifference. There never was an age in which there was more organization for doing good, but the life to animate it is wanting. III. THAT THOUGH THE CHRISTIAN IS TO BE UNWORLDLY, HE IS NOT TO SEPARATE HIMSELF (ver. 16). We are not to desire to be taken out of — 1. The world of nature. It is a beautiful world. It is full of emblems of that which is spiritual and Divine. Talk about it being a "waste howling wilderness," it is our souls which are wildernesses. 2. The world of humanity. Our Lord did not estrange Himself from this world. He ate and drank with publicans and sinners. Is He not our example? While saying this, I do not forget that there is such a virtue as Christian prudence. Some are spiritually strong, others weak. But the Church cannot influence humanity, if she estranges herself from it. We ought not to frown on any pure human joys. We need not pull long faces, or wear a peculiar garb. The true Christian, like his Lord, loves to see the fully developed man in his prime of manhood; the woman with her womanly beauty; the child with its fresh grace and innocent ways. 3. The little world in which we are cast in the order of God's Providence. It is better for us not to desire to go out of that but rather to shape it after "the patterns in the heavens." IV. THAT WE ARE TO PRAY GOD TO KEEP US FROM THE EVIL IN THE WORLD (vers. 16). I have been speaking about the bright side of things, but these words remind us that there is a dark side. There is a dark side both to nature and humanity. There are volcanoes, earthquakes, inundations. There has been perpetual struggle and competition. There are disease and death. Sin has been the great curse of the world — the curse of all our lives. But there is One who came down from a higher world, in order to redeem us from captivity to evil. Through His grace many millions have walked through this world's miry ways, and have kept their souls unstained. There were great differences of race, age, temperament, belief among them; but there was one thing in which they were all alike — they all had unwordly, simple, childlike hearts. (R. Abercrombie, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.WEB: They are not of the world even as I am not of the world. |
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