The World System

The world system is simply the fruit of the tree of knowledge, good and evil being the fruit. Everything in the world, the desire of the eyes, the desire of the flesh and the pride of life is the inward desire to eat of that fruit. And the desire is controlled by the basic rules of the system which are do not touch do not taste, do no handle. (1 John 2:15; Col. 2:20-21) Everything that the natural man thinks and decides and even likes or dislikes is based on whether it is good for him or evil.

Every section of the system whether it be religion, politics, commerce, entertainment or military are based on these principles. To advance in any of them depends on how well you perform according to their various rules. Whether you fully engage in any of them or try to leave them and, for example enter into a monastery to flee the world, the world will go with you and you will find yourself in another expression of the same thing.

Many seeking Christians attempt to leave the world by entering into some form of religion thinking that, particularly if that religion is very spiritual or very "free" that they have left the world. Yet in the long run they discover that they have only entered another kind of system with its demands for some kind of perfomance.

What, then, is the answer? It is to enter into the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ and to stay there. Only by remaining in Him are you out of the world. In the reality of its essence, the world is actually another person: the personified Sin in Romans seven which is the life of Satan. There are only two persons in which men and women can live, either in the old man, Adam, who was taken over be the devil, or Christ. (see 1 Cor.15:22)

To sin is to live in your self-life. Only when we live in Christ who is our life do we live without sin. John says that he that is born again does not sin. That's because in the realm of Christ we cannot sin because sin is not in His life. Jesus, who live as man, not as God, although He was God, could not sin because He always lived by His Father's life. He is the model for us to life in the same way. He said, "As I live because of the Father, he that eats me shall live because of me." Only in that day by day supply of the life of Christ can we live without sin and outside of the world-system.