WHO OVERCOMES THE WORLD?

I JOHN 5:4-5: “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” NKJV

OBSERVATION: Am I an overcomer or am I being overcome by the world? This is one of the summary thoughts that John lays out in his first epistle. Throughout his letter, John has drawn a sharp contrast between the old and new nature, the love of the world and the love of God, light and darkness, sin and righteousness. There is a battle line drawn and a battle to be won.

How do I win the battle? How do I overcome the world?

John gives us the answer is one bold statement. He says,

“And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.”

Our faith! It sounds so simple yet it at this very point we can quickly lose our way. What is faith? How do we exercise our faith? What do we place our faith in? Is our faith in faith, a leader, a doctrine, a denomination, or our personal success? There are many who would lead us down these paths. Yet, John reminds us very simply WHO the center of our faith is and where our victory is found.

“Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”

Our faith, our victory, is in Christ alone. It is in our complete trust and surrender to Him in every area of our life. He is the one complete sacrifice for our sin and the only hope of eternal life. However, even though I know this in my heart I still struggle with how to live this out in my life. How do I tangibly, daily, moment by moment…

Overcome the world through faith?

John gives us the key to this in the verses that precede our text. He writes,

“Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.” (1John 5:1-3)

To John, the call to faith is a call to love. The call to love is a call to obedience. The call to obedience is the call to victory. The call to victory is the call to freedom. This is not a call to legalism. It is a call to childlike faith and obedience. A child loves so much that they obey freely, joyfully, and completely. There is no arguing, no resistance, no delay. The child obeys from the heart out of an overabundance of love.

We lose this childlike quality as we trounce our way through this life. We become burdened and jaded. Our hearts become guarded from previous disappointments and hurts. We begin to entertain former patterns or behavior that we left freely and joyfully when we first began to follow Jesus Christ. We begin to lose our first love and when we do we begin to sink in the mire of the struggle. We cease being overcomers and begin becoming the overcome.

To be an overcomer…I need to return to my first love!

I sense the Holy Spirit calling me to a restoration of my childlike faith. This is not a return to being childlike in my understanding. It is simply a return to my full and complete trust in Christ alone and in my willingness to engage my love in absolute surrender to His will. It is saying – “Yes Lord!”, from a heart of love. It is learning once again how to respond like a child when He calls me.

David’s great prayer of contrition in Psalm 51 captures this call to return to the Lord.

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners shall be converted to You.” (Psalms 51:10-13)

David prays – “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation…”. This is a call to be restored to the simple childlike faith and obedience that David shared with the Lord as a young boy. The precious communion of the Holy Spirit, the sense of the Lord’s presence, and the joy of walking in the light of His love. This is the cry of my heart as I read from John’s epistle and recall these words from David.

I don’t need more knowledge. I need more love. I don’t need more effort. I need more obedience.I need more worship. I need more surrender. We love because He first loved us. When our relationship with God becomes anything other than a relationship of love we move from grace to self-effort, victory to defeat, overcoming to being overcome.

I need more of His love so I can overcome this world!

Lord, help me to overcome the world as I rediscover how to respond to You moment by moment in childlike faith and obedience through a heart that is being transformed by Your great love!

In Jesus’ Name!