Love not the world.....

[StormyOne]

Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted from the earth, will draw all men unto myself" (John 12:31, 32).

Our Lord Jesus utters these words at a key point in his ministry. He has entered Jerusalem thronged by enthusiastic crowds; but almost at once he has spoken in veiled terms of laying down his life, and to this heaven itself has given public approval. Now he comes out with this great twofold statement. What, we ask ourselves, can it have conveyed to those who have just acclaimed him, going out to meet him and accompanying him home on his ride? To most of them his words, if they had any meaning at all, must have signified a complete reversal of their hopes. Indeed the more discerning came to see in them a forecasting of the actual circumstances of his death as a criminal (verse 33).

Yet if his utterance destroyed one set of illusions, it offered in place of them a wonderful hope, solid and secure. For it announced a far more radical exchange of dominion than even Jewish patriots looked for. "And I ..."-the expression contrasts sharply with what precedes it, even as the One it identifies stands in contrast with his antagonist, the prince of this world. Through the Cross, through the obedience to death of him who is God's seed of wheat, this world's rule of compulsion and fear is to end with the fall of its proud ruler. And with his springing up once more to life there will come into being in its place a new reign of righteousness and one that is marked by a free allegiance of men to him. With cords of love their hearts will be drawn away from a world under judgment to Jesus the Son of man, who though lifted up to die, is by that very act lifted up to reign......


http://www.worldinvisible.com/library/nee/lovenottheworld/chapter%201.htm

 

[Dathen]

I think that the amount of really old threads that arn't answered is quite astonding. someone posts something like this and no-one answer it.

 

[smooze]

 

[woobadooba]

I think that the amount of really old threads that arn't answered is quite astonding. someone posts something like this and no-one answer it.

I'm not going to go into detail, but there was a lot of conflict in the forum when this was posted. It resulted in a lot of people leaving. It was a sad time.

 

[tall73]

I'm not going to go into detail, but there was a lot of conflict in the forum when this was posted. It resulted in a lot of people leaving. It was a sad time.

Yup

 

[Dathen]

May I ask why, this upset people?

 

[woobadooba]

May I ask why, this upset people?

People weren't upset about this. They were upset with each other.

That's all I care to say about it.

 

[Dathen]

This is really interesting to me. It made people upset, with each other, yet no-one posted in it. Strange.

 

[Sophia7]

This is really interesting to me. It made people upset, with each other, yet no-one posted in it. Strange.

This post did not make people upset with each other. At the time it was posted, though, some people were already upset with each other. Also, some threads just don't get any comments, for whatever reason. There was nothing wrong with this thread, though, that caused the conflict.

 

[Dathen]

I get it.. Wink, wink. Still a bit strange thoguh. So we can get back to posting on the sublect of theis thread.

 

[Sophia7]

It would perhaps be a good idea to go to the link that Stormy posted at the end of his quote and read the whole thing because it's from a book, and that quote was only a portion of the first chapter.

Here is the preface to the book:

Preface

The greater part of this book derives from a series of addresses on the subject of "the world" given by Mr. Watchman Nee (Nee To-sheng) of Foochow to Christian believers in Shanghai city in the early period of the Sino-Japanese War. They are thus colored a little by the economic pressures of those days. To them have been added other talks on the same general theme given at various places and times during the period 1938-41. For example, Chapter Three is based on a sermon preached at a baptismal service in May 8 1939. I am indebted to several friends for the notes which have supplied the book's source material.

The author sees the cosmos as a spiritual entity behind the things seen, a force always to be reckoned with. He deals with its impact upon the Christian and his impact upon it, with the conflicting claims upon him of separation and involvement, and with the destiny of the man in Christ to "have dominion." As always, Mr. Nee's studies display original thinking and he is not afraid to be provocative, stirring both heart and mind to a response. It is my prayer that, despite the inevitably piecemeal construction of the book, its theme will prove to have coherence as a picture of the man of God in the world, and further, that it may challenge us all who name the name of Christ to move more courageously and positively through this earthly scene, with thought always for our role here in God's eternal purpose concerning his beloved Son.


ANGUS I. KINNEAR
London
1968