What does it mean that Christians are not of this world?

Beloved, I pray you notice these words of our Lord, when speaking of His people - "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world!" It is not as though He gave a commandment unto them that they should strive to be heavenly, but He says, "they are not of the world!" By birth, by being, they are heavenly - "born from above!" "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." The man that hath this breath of heaven communicated to him, is constituted a heavenly person. Jesus often said to the Jews, "I am from above" - "I am not of this world" - "ye know not whence I am." He knew whence He was and whither He was going - others did not. So with the saints - "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." We have really life from God - are born from above, and go thither; though undiscerned by others, is not this the meaning of those words - "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit"? We are "from above" - no more "of this world" than Christ is "of this world." Ask a Christian man whence he has come - his answer ought to be in the language of Christ - "I am from above!" that which is true of Christ, is true of those who are His, though it is undiscerned by others whence they come, and whither they go. Dear brethren, this is not a mere title, but a reality; not a shadow, but a substance. We are not only reformed men - men changed, so as to have better thoughts and better feelings; but those who are "born of God" - "sons and daughters of the Lord God Almighty!" substantially in possession of that life which was from the beginning in the bosom of the Father. It is a birth from heaven. Thus should we feel with regard to the world in which we are - "I am from above!"

To the serious and thoughtful, the question comes up often and earnestly - What is the world? What is it from which we are to keep ourselves unspotted? There are three senses in which the word world can be used; literally, it means the order or system according to which human affairs are managed on the earth. The earth itself is called the world, because it is the platform on which the world-system operates, and the people who live according to this world-system are called the world also. They may thus be distinguished: the world-space, the world-people, the world-system. When we read that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, it may be understood that He came into the world-space, and in so doing He necessarily came in contact with the world-system which hated Him. He said to His disciples, "Ye are not of the world, even as I am not of the world," that is, you are not under the system governed by it, finding your life in it. He that is a friend to that system is an enemy to God, because it is self-governed, not subject to God. Take, for an illustration, the military system. When a man enlists in the army he finds everything provided for him: the paymaster's department supplies his funds, the quartermaster's department clothes him, the ordnance department arms and equips him. It is arranged for him that he shall go here, and lodge there; there are regular hours for drill, dress, parade, roll-call, etc., etc., and to this system he is bound when he enters the army. It is very significantly called a little world in itself, so complete and systematic are its arrangements. This is but a faint illustration of the all-governing system called the world, where every want of man is provided for - every faculty brought into exercise.

Here are a few humble folk, who love Him, and He loves them. They are going to be left without Him in the world, and the next thing is what we get in verse 14: "I have given them Thy word, and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." We are left in the world on the distinct understanding that we are not of it. We are not part of the world-system by which we are surrounded, and for that reason the world hates the Christian. Notice the Lord here makes Himself the standard. We are identified with Him in this.

Never had there been such a breach before. It was not so during God's dealings with Israel of old; nor yet in their ruin during the ensuing times of the Gentiles. Man was still under trial; and even while the Lord was here below, the character of His ministry was God in Him reconciling the world to Himself. But the world would none of Him, and is judged in its prince. And as man is now in the light of the cross pronounced lost, so is the saint crucified to the world and the world to him. They are not of the world, as Christ is not of the world. It is a fact, and not merely an obligation, though the firmest ground of obligation. They are not of the world, not merely they ought not to be; whilst if they are not, it is grievous inconsistency even to seem to be of the world. It is to be false to our relationship, for we are the Father's and given to the rejected Son, Who has done with the world. But if it be said that this is to bring in everlasting and heavenly relationships now, be it so; this is exactly what Christianity means in principle and practice. It is faith possessing Christ, Who gives the believer His own place of relationship and acceptance on high as well as of apart from and rejected by the world below; which he has to make good in words and ways, in spirit and conversation, whilst waiting for the Lord.

He gave them the word of His Father — not the words to bring them into communion with Him, but His word — the testimony of what He was. And the world had hated them as it had hated Jesus (the living and personal testimony of the Father) and the Father Himself. Being thus in relationship with the Father, who had taken them out from the men of the world, and having received the Father's word (and eternal life in the Son in that knowledge), they were not of the world even as Jesus was not of the world: and therefor the world hated them. Nevertheless the Lord does not pray that they might be taken out of it; but that the Father should keep them from the evil. He enters into the detail of His desires in this respect, grounded on their not being of the world. He repeats this thought as the basis of their position here below. "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." What then were they to be? By what rule, by what model, were they to be formed? By the truth, and the Father's word is truth. Christ was always the Word, but the living Word among men. In the scriptures we possess it, written and stedfast: they reveal Him, bear witness to Him. It was thus that the disciples were to be set apart. "Sanctify them by thy truth: thy word is the truth." It was this, personally, that they were to be formed by, the Father's word, as He was revealed in Jesus.

Now this is what drew upon them the hatred of the world. Their presence, representing the Father in testimony, told the world that everything did not belong to it; that that which was of God did not. There were men who were in relationship with the Father; but the consequence of this was that they were not of the world. Judgment was not executed, but the separation was made.

And now He goes on to their testimony before the world. "I have given them thy Word, and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." Here I find the Christian's place in the world: he is no more of it than Christ. He does not say, They ought not to be; but, "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." As Christians deriving your life from Christ, and having your place with Christ, you are not of the world. The life, the place you have got in Christ, all flows from the fact that He has given you a relationship with the Father, in virtue of which you are no more of the world than He Himself was. There is the manifesting of Christ to the world - but these duties and affections flow from a relationship that is established already. It is not as the way of getting into the relationship; but when Christ has become my life, then I must walk as He walked. To the world this becomes a testimony. Of what? What became of Christ Himself? The world would not have Him. "O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee." It was as good as saying, There is a complete breach between the world and me. Christ comes into the world in grace, revealing the Father, and the world hated Him; and therefore He goes out of the world, and brings us into His place as gone on high. Will the world bear us any more love than it bore Him? It will not. He is there because the world would not have Him; and it is only as having entered that place by blood and death that He can say, "My Father and your Father, my, God and your God." Now, He says, I will make you a witness of that. You are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world," etc.

And now He puts them in His own place, not with the Father, but in respect of the world; "I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them." It is in the same place of testimony that He had been in. They are in the same place as Himself with the Father to the end of verse 13; and then He begins to put them in the same place as to the world, and He prays, "not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil." There I learn that He has made their place that which His was, giving them His testimony, the Father's word, not words here, and the world will not bear it; if you get into this place the world will not stand it. The world will bear a deal of religion, but not the Father. The Father dwells with the Christian; you are all outside, if you belong to the world and not to the Father. The Father has taken His Son up to Himself out of the world; and the Son says, "O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee, but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me." "I have manifested thy name" and the effect is that I am rejected. The world has not known the Father, but the Father takes up the Son to His right hand, and the world is all left behind; but Christians are put in His place before the Father and before the world.

It is not here, as in verse 8, "the words" (ῥήματα) given of the Father to the Son which the Son had given to the disciples, the communications of love, whence they knew truly that He came from the Father, and believed to their joy that the Father sent Him. It is here (as in verse 6) the Father's "word" (λόγος), the expression of His mind. This, it was said already, they had kept. But the Lord resumes the notice of it in connection with testimony in the world which for Him was closed. In the world they were to be witnesses of Him, and the Father's word He has given them, and the world hated them, not for that word only, offensive as it is to the world, but because they, the disciples who had it, were not of the world, even as their Master is not. This is the true measure of unworldliness, and it is intolerable in the world's eyes, and nowhere so much as in the religious world. For men on earth to know themselves possessors of life eternal sounds presumptuous to such as know not Christ and His work. But to add that they are not of the world, the world will have to be the worst intolerance.

Furthermore, if they enjoyed the Son's portion before the Father they would also share His portion in relation to the world. The world hated Christ because He was not of it. There was nothing in common between Christ and the world. He was but a Stranger here, moved by motives and governed by objects entirely foreign to this world. If He was misunderstood and hated, we also, if following in His path, will be hated by the world.

Thus most blessedly the disciples are set before the Father in the same position that the Son had occupied before the Father as a Man on earth. The Father's name is revealed to them; the Father's word is given to them; the Father's care is assured to them; Christ's joy is their joy; Christ's reproach and Christ's strangership is their portion in this world.