February 22

This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. - 1 John 5:4.

“BE of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” Thus did our Lord assure to his disciples the victory over the world, as if he had said, I have found it from the beginning to be an enemy, but it has not conquered me and it shall not conquer you; I have overcome it for you, and, because I have overcome, you shall overcome also; and, “because I live, ye shall live also.” But what is the Christian’s victory now over the world? It is not fleeing from the world,-fleeing is not fighting,-but it is their abiding in the situation and calling in which they are placed by God; discharging with diligence and zeal the duties pertaining to them; bearing with patience, and firmness, and privation, the trials incident to them; avoiding the snares and the corruptions that are inherent in them; resisting the temptations belonging to them, and using all the opportunities afforded them to “do good as they have opportunity unto all men,” and to “serve their generation according to the will of God.”

It is to be undismayed by the frowns of their adversaries, and to pursue their work however they may oppose, or threaten, or persecute. It is to be unseduced by their smiles, by their allurements, by their promises. It is to act independently of them, from conviction and disposition. It is not to be “conformed to the world, but to be transformed by the renewing of their mind.” It is to dare to be singular, like Noah, in an ungodly world. It is to be able to say, with David, “Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity, for I will keep the commandments of my God,” or with Joshua, “Choose this day whom ye will serve; but, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

The man who thus lives overcomes the world; the man who thus lives, though he is in the world, is not of it; he is in the world as the soul is in the body,-in it, indeed, but not of it,-in it, but of another quality. And however busy this man may be, however much he may be engaged in the things and with the men of the world, yet such a man as this is not carried away by what the apostle calls “the cares of this world,” and he is not acted upon by what he calls “the spirit of the world.” He has received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God.

But now let us notice how the victory is achieved:- “This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith,” and by no other means is it possible to overcome. It is only by faith that the secret is manifested to the conscience that “the friendship of the world is enmity with God. Whosoever therefore will be the friend of the world is the enemy of God.” It is faith that with a trumpet-voice says to the man, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, is not of the Father but of the world.” It is faith alone that can loosen him from the dominion of things seen and temporal, by revealing to him the things that are not seen and eternal. It is this faith that not only brings heavenly grace within his view, but within his reach; and it enables him to say, “God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever,”-when he can say, “Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.”

“When I can say my God is mine,

When I can feel his glories shine,

I tread the world beneath my feet,

And all that earth calls good or great.”