07/15/2022
Have we overcome the earth? There are men and women in this world that have so much wealth that they couldn’t possibly spend it in a dozen lifetimes, and yet they continue to be obsessed with it, protecting it, hoarding it, and focusing on making more. They feel like it gives them power, that they have overcome the world, and are its masters, but in truth their wealth has ensnared them, and owns them. Jesus came into this world born of meager parents, and walked across it with little more than the clothes on his back, yet He was free of poverty, because He had truly overcome the world. When we finally see as He saw, that what matters in this world is loving God, winning each soul’s deliverance from sin, and then returning it to our Heavenly Father, then we too will have overcome the world, and will have glorified God… Can we honestly say that we have overcome the world?
“For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.”
1 John 5:4 ESV
We see that we are destitute when we come to the realization that there is no one in this world who loves us for who we really are, and that everything we once thought was our purpose in life is simply vapor. Have you ever known someone who pursued a life, that they felt would bring them joy, and who, on the outside seemed to be happy, but always carried a shadow of darkness in them? Were they really happy, or did they surround themselves with people and things in an attempt to find the love, and joy that was a mere mirage in their earthly lives. We don’t have to be rich to fall into this trap… only absent from God, and His Son Jesus Christ.
“Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”
1 John 5:5 ESV
No one says in casual conversation that Jesus was a self-made billionaire, or that He had it all! No one says that everyone who knew Him loved Him, and that He was always happy. No, Jesus told us quite the opposite about His life, and what following Him would mean to us in ours…
““If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”
John 15:18-19 ESV
But despite those who hated Him, He had overcome the world, and there were those who loved Him. We too are loved, but if we don’t know Jesus it will be a worldly love, and not for the reasons that are everlasting. A spouse might profess love but then leave us. Our children might love us when young, and yet abandon us when we become old, or burden to them, and our friends… well they can be more fleeting than either of these. However, God’s love for us is unfailing, and does not wither over time. It doesn’t leave us when our bank account runs dry, or walk away when we have nothing left to give, no, it is eternal.
“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Romans 5:6-8 ESV
So by love we will overcome the world, and it is by love that we realize who God is, and who we should be… loving, righteous, and set apart for him… thus made holy. In this way we, like Jesus, will have overcome the world, and the riches we will have acquired, and stored up in heaven, will be eternal as well.
““Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Matthew 6:19-21 ESV
When we love God above all else, and know that Jesus is His Son who died, and was resurrected so that we might live, then the world will no longer own us, and we will have overcome it. We will realize that no matter how much, or little, we have on earth, and whether we are happy or sad in our moments here, nothing else matters, can control us, or can take away the eternal love that allows us to love God, and one another. In this way, we too will have won victory over the world.
“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
Ephesians 3:14-19 ESV
Prayer:
Father, thank you for your unfailing love for us, and for your Son Jesus, who overcame the world. Thank you for the eternal nature of your love, and for showing us through Christ that we too can love, and be loved in this way. Help every man to love His wife, and wife to love her husband, just as Jesus loves the church. Help every parent love their child, and child love their parent so that your commandments can be fulfilled, and teach us how we are to love our neighbors, friends, and enemies using your love and grace as our model. By loving in this way Father, give us victory over the world. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who teaches us to overcome the world through your Son Jesus, grace, and the love you have given us. Merciful are you who gives us redemption from sin through the blood of your Son, and who never abandons us to the world. You are with us always Lord, and your love lifts us forever towards you. Wash us now in the blood of Jesus, and in the purity, and love this brings us we pray that you will find us worthy in Him to dwell in your house forevermore.
Rich Forbes