How to Conquer the World

I believe that ever since Cain killed Abel, men have wanted to conquer the world. In some way, men have wanted to have power over others, to control the things that often seem incontrollable, to have the world at its knees. Some might say that was even Satan’s lust, and it was, to have complete power and to lord it over others. Yet can one have power without lording it over others? Lord Acton made famous the statement, “Absolute power corrupts absolutely” and we have seen this in action in dictators throughout the world. Yet one person has had absolute power without lording it over others, although he has the right to do so, Christ. So often we fail to remember or fail to consider that with all that is going in the world, nothing is out of his control. Sometimes that is actually hard to swallow.

It is hard to say those words and to expect you to believe it when you see genocide happening in various parts of the globe, when you see sin abounding in our “Christian” culture, and you see poverty and sickness and evil all around, how could he still have power and not use it. That is a tough question. Yet, with all sincerity I can say, that is what makes him God. We know that Jesus was fully man; by his life, and death he has proven that, yet what makes him fully God is his ability not to do things as we would.

We know how we would handle it, don’t we. I mean we all have our plans of what we would do if we were ruler of the world, right. Oh we may never say them out loud, but surely we know how to handle these situations. Yet what does it mean to even thing such a thing. Does it mean that we know better than God? Does it mean that we think God could use some pointers from us, or better yet, move over so we can fix this thing!

Now I am not saying that God does not want us to work to improve the situation, I believe that he does, and I believe that he has given us a plan that can help us do it. That’s what this message is all about, but it is not the plan that we would think of. It is not the plan that we have dreamed up…because it is God’s plan. Remember in Isaiah 55:9 he declares that his ways and his thoughts are so much higher than ours, higher than the heavens from the earth. In other words, he sees things from a different perspective and knows far more and far better than we do. Does this mean he thinks all these other things are good? I don’t think so, and I think he will put a stop to all when he is ready, but his understanding of conquering the World is so much different than ours. And his way is so much different.

But before we discuss what it means to conquer the world and how it can be done, let us look at what the Apostle John has to say when he was writing to encourage some Christian brothers and sisters who were being fed a bunch of lies about Christianity and God. We pick up John’s writing in Chapter 5, after he has had much to say about the veracity of Christ, about the call to love, about guarding yourself from false teachers, how to recognize a true Christian and the nature of God himself. Now he addresses the subject of conquering the world. But he begins by talking about those who are from God.

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child.
Did you realize that you were born of God? Most of us have considered ourselves children of God, but according to John, by our putting our trust in Jesus as God, we have been born of God. For as Jesus has said, no one comes to the son unless the father has drawn him. This is no accident. If you have believed in Jesus, you have been born anew as his child. And if you are his child, you love him; therefore, according to the prevailing logic of John’s time, you love the children as well.

You see there was something about a family that is considered a unit. You cannot love just a part of it, but must love the whole thing. Now we may quarrel with that, for we may know some people in a family that we like but perhaps not the others. Yet the truth is, if we really love any part of the family, we must love the whole thing, because it is all interrelated. If we understand love in this case to mean such that we desire the best for someone, how we can desire the best for part of a family and desire the worst for the rest of the family. Part of the family will affect the other part. It is inevitable. Therefore if we love part of the family, we must love the whole thing, or we really don’t love them at all. If we Love God, we must love his children. John says this very thing

[2] By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.
We are obedient to God because we love him, and if we are obedient to God, we love his children. We love each other. This may sound like a no-brainer, of course we love each other, but what does that mean? How does that show up? Do we recognize that each other not simply as fellow church member, but as brother or sister. What would you do for your brother or sister if they were in need? Would you give your resources, your time, your talents? Would you give everything you had? Would you put yourself out for your brother or sister? Sure you would, but would you for a member of the church? Well, we may from time to time help out as best we could, but would we put ourselves out for each other?

You know I think some of the Amish and Mennonite communities have this way better than we do. They understand that if a brother in the church needs something, the whole church will come together to make sure it gets taken care of. I heard of an Amish family that many of you know that had serious medical bills ranging close to a million dollars, and the Church just gathered together and paid it. That is what it means to love your brother and sister, to love your family of God.

I recognize the natural tendency to think of your naturally born family as closest, yet Jesus ostracized his to say, “Those who do the will of my father in heaven are my brothers and sisters.” These are the ones that I will give myself to, he said, not those who have some claim because we grew up in the same house, but those who will be living in the same house when it is all said and done. That is what it means to understand family.

[3] For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome,
What are his commandments? Love God with all your heart and mind and soul and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. Actually Jesus says, “Love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12). His commandments are not about what we shall not do, but what we are to do is love. Sure there are some rules to help us understand what that looks like, but Jesus tells us the command is to love, and look what John says here, His commandments are not burdensome. They are not hard to do. Remember Jesus said, my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. He is not giving us a strict legalistic rigorous pharisaical list of commandments. He is simply saying “love!”

But this is not the Beatles “all you need is love” type of mantra, for love is not easy to the world, because the world does not understand what love is. For if they knew what Love was, they would recognize it in Jesus Christ. He is love and he showed us how to love. The world does not get it. They think love means accepting each other with all the foibles and faults and saying “I’m okay, you’re okay.” But Love is saying, “I’m not okay, and you’re not okay. Let’s look to Jesus to find out what okay is. Let’s let him fix us, because we can be okay!” Why is it so hard to keep Jesus commandments if it is supposed to be easy? Because the world and its ways run contrary to God. That is why John says in verse 4.

[4] for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith.

Finally we get to conquer the world! But it doesn’t mean what we were hoping it means. It doesn’t mean we get to take over the Middle East or southern Asia. It means the world cannot conquer us. We have become the victors over the world and its ways. It’s kind of like the world is playing one giant game of tic-tac-toe and they never seem to make any head way, but we have found a way to opt out. We are no longer playing their games. AS they move tit for tat, we are seeing a better way …through our faith. Our faith has allowed us to conquer the ways of this world so that they no longer have power or dominion over us. Only Christ has power and dominion over us now.

You see the world and its ways have been against God, but we have become victorious by our faith in Christ. Christ has won the victory. The world and its ways are perishing. This earth will be destroyed, but we are victorious for we will not be destroyed. We will not be conquered, for we have conquered the world. Do not let the world have any hold on you, but let Christ have complete hold on you. Yes we may still be in the world, but we are not of it, for our citizenship is in heaven. We do not need to be bogged down with the ways of the world except for this, to show our love to our neighbor. But that is not the world’s way anyway. That only proves that we have overcome the world when our concern becomes showing people by our actions that God loves them.

Conquering the world does not mean having power over it, but it means not letting it have power over you.

[5] Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
As Christians, the world has no power over us. What can they do to us but hasten our reunion with our father? This was a real scenario for John’s audience, as it still is for many Christians around the world today. Belief in Jesus as the Christ is the only way to get free from this bondage that the world has on us. Conquering the world is getting free from bondage to its ways. It means getting free from hate and lust for power. It means being obedient through faith in Jesus Christ to love one another. We conquer the world when by our faith we love each other. Christ has won the victory, let us become conquerors, or more than conquerors, through faith in Christ. Amen