In the world but not of the world…

 

“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world — the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does — comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.” (1 John 2:15-17)

Typically the word “world” here (cosmos) is understood, in this context, to be the world system as organized by fallen men.  And we are called to love the people in the system, but to reject the system itself, and to not lust after what it has to offer — to be “IN the world, bot not OF the world.”

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The counter-intuitiveness of reality…

Much of reality is counter-intuitive to the natural mind. Looking at what appears to be a solid wall, you would never guess that it is actually made up mainly of empty space, with trillions of tiny dots swirling around. Many other things, like the Law of Relativity, as it relates to time, are very counter-intuitive to the natural mind.

And the same is true about spiritual realities as well. Before we had read the bible, we would never have imagined the things it speaks of. That is why it is so important to allow the Word of God and the Spirit of God to transform our understanding and to define reality. Otherwise we will be regularly confused and deceived — so much so that right can seem wrong and wrong can seem right.

“There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.” (Proverbs 16:25)

“The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Corinthians 2:14)

“…for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.” (2 Corinthians 11:14)