(First Sunday after Easter.)
1 John v. 4, 5. Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world:
and this is the victory which overcometh the world, even our faith.
Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that
Jesus is the Son of God?
What is the meaning of 'overcoming the world?' What is there about
the world which we have to overcome? lest it should overcome us, and
make worse men of us than we ought to be. Let us think awhile.
1. In the world all seems full of chance and change. One man
rises, and another falls, one hardly knows why: they hardly know
themselves. A very slight accident may turn the future of a man's
whole life, perhaps of a whole nation. Chance and change--there
seems to us, at times, to be little else than chance and change. Is
not the world full of chance? Are not people daily crushed in
railways, burnt to death, shot with their own guns, poisoned by
mistake, without any reason that we can see, why one should be
taken, and another left? Why should not an accident happen to us,
as well as to others? Why should not we have the thing we love best
snatched from us this day? Why not, indeed? What, then, will help
us to overcome the fear of chances and accidents? How shall we keep
from being fearful, fretful, full of melancholy forebodings! Where
shall we find something abiding and eternal, a refuge sure and
steadfast, in which we may trust, amid all the chances and changes
of this mortal life? St. John tells us--In that within you which is
born of God.
2. In the world so much seems to go by fixed law and rule. That is
even more terrible to our minds and hearts--to find that all around
us, in the pettiest matters of life, there are laws and rules ready
made for us, which we cannot break; laws of trade; laws of
prosperity and adversity; laws of health and sickness; laws of
weather and storms; laws by which not merely we, but whole nations,
grow, and decay, and die.--All around us, laws, iron laws, which we
do not make, and which we dare not try to break, lest they go on
their way, and grind us to powder.
Then comes the awful question, Are we at the mercy of these laws?
Is the world a great machine, which goes grinding on its own way
without any mercy to us or to anything; and are we each of us parts
of the machine, and forced of necessity to do all we do? Is it
true, that our fate is fixed for us from the cradle to the grave,
and perhaps beyond the grave? How shall we prevent the world from
overcoming us in this? How shall we escape the temptation to sit
down and fold our hands in sloth and despair, crying, What we are,
we must be; and what will come, must come; whether it be for our
happiness or misery, our life or death? Where shall we find
something to trust in, something to give us confidence and hope that
we can mend ourselves, that self-improvement is of use, that working
is of use, that prudence is of use, for God will reward every man
according to his work? St. John tells us--In that within you which
is born of God.
3. Then, again, in the world how much seems to go by selfishness.
Let every man take care of himself, help himself, fight for himself
against all around him, seems to be the way of the world, and the
only way to get on in the world. But is it really to be so? Are we
to thrive only by thinking of ourselves? Something in our hearts
tells us, No. Something in our hearts tells us that this would be a
very miserable world if every man shifted for himself; and that even
if we got this world's good things by selfishness, they would not be
worth having after all, if we had no one but ourselves to enjoy them
with. What is that? St. John answers--That in you which is born of
God. It will enable you to overcome the world's deceits, and to see
that selfishness is _not_ the way to prosper.
4. Once, again; in the world how much seems to go by mere custom
and fashion. Because one person does a thing right or wrong,
everybody round fancies himself bound to do likewise. Because one
man thinks a thing, hundreds and thousands begin to think the same
from mere hearsay, without examining and judging for themselves.
There is no silliness, no cruelty, no crime into which people have
not fallen, and may still fall, for mere fashion's sake, from
blindly following the example of those round him. 'Everybody does
so; and I must. Why should I be singular?' Or, 'Everybody does so;
what harm can there be in my doing so?'
But there is something in each of us which tells us that that is not
right; that each man should act according to his own conscience, and
not blindly follow his neighbour, not knowing whither, like sheep
over a hedge; that a man is directly responsible at first for his
own conduct to God, and that 'my neighbours did so' will be no
excuse in God's sight. What is it which tells us this? St. John
answers, That in you which is born of God; and it, if you will
listen to it, will enable you to overcome the world's deceit, and
its vain fashions, and foolish hearsays, and blind party-cries; and
not to follow after a multitude to do evil.
What, then, is this thing? St. John tells us that it is born of
God; and that it is our faith. _Faith_ will enable us to overcome
the world. We shall overcome by believing and trusting in something
which we do not see. But in what? Are we to believe and trust that
we are going to heaven? St. John does not say so; he was far too
wise, my friends, to say so: for a man's trusting that he is going
to heaven, if that is all the faith he has, is more likely to make
the world overcome him, than him overcome the world. For it will
make him but too ready to say, 'If I am sure to be saved after I
die, it matters not so very much what I do before I die. I may
follow the way of the world here, in money-making and meanness, and
selfishness; and then die in peace, and go to heaven after all.'
This is no fancy. There are hundreds, nay thousands, I fear, in
England now, who let the world and its wicked ways utterly overcome
them, just because their faith is a faith in their own salvation,
and not the faith of which St. John speaks--Believing that Jesus is
the Son of God.
But some may ask, 'How will believing that Jesus is the Son of God
help us more than believing the other? For, after all, we do
believe it. We all believe that Jesus is the Son of God: but as
for overcoming the world, we dare not say too much of that. We fear
we are letting the world overcome us; we are living too much in
continual fear of the chances and changes of this mortal life. We
are letting things go too much their own way. We are trying too
much each to get what he can by his own selfish wits, without
considering his neighbours. We are following too much the ways and
fashions of the day, and doing and saying and thinking anything that
comes uppermost, just because others do so round us.'
Is it so, my friends? But do you really believe that Jesus is the
Son of God? For sure I am, that if you did, and I did, really and
fully believe that, we could all lead much better lives than we are
leading, manful and godly, useful and honourable, truly independent
and yet truly humble; fearing God and fearing nothing else. But do
you believe it? Have you ever thought of all that those great words
mean, 'Jesus is the Son of God'?--That he who died on the cross, and
rose again for us, now sits at God's right hand, having all power
given to him in heaven and earth? For, think, if we really believed
that, what power it would give us to overcome the world, and all its
chances and changes; all its seemingly iron laws; all its selfish
struggling; all its hearsays and fashions.
1. Those chances and changes of mortal life of which I spoke first.
We should not be afraid of them, then, even if they came. For we
should believe that they were not chances and changes at all, but
the loving providence of our Lord and Saviour, a man of the
substance of his mother, born in the world, who therefore can be
touched with a feeling of our infirmities, and knows our necessities
before we ask, and our ignorance in asking, and orders all things
for good to those who love him, and desire to copy his likeness.
2. Those stern laws and rules by which the world moves, and will
move as long as it lasts--we should not be afraid of them either, as
if we were mere parts of a machine forced by fate to do this thing
and that, without a will of our own. For we should believe that
these laws were the laws of the Lord Jesus Christ; that he had
ordained them for the good of man, of man whom he so loved that he
poured out his most precious blood upon the cross for us; and
therefore we should not fear them; we should only wish to learn
them, that we might obey them, sure that they are the laws of life;
of health and wealth, peace and safety, honour and glory in this
world and in the world to come; and we should thank God whenever men
of science, philosophers, clergymen, or any persons whatsoever,
found out more of the laws of that good God, in whom we and all
created things live and move and have our being.
3. If we believe really that Jesus was the Son of God, we should
never believe that selfishness was to be the rule of our lives. One
sight of Christ upon his cross would tell us that not selfishness,
but love, was the likeness of God, that not selfishness, but love,
which gives up all that it may do good, was the path to honour and
glory, happiness and peace.
4. If we really believe this, we should never believe that custom
and fashion ought to rule us. For we should live by the example of
some one else: but by the example of only one--of Jesus himself.
We should set him before us as the rule of all our actions, and try
to keep our conscience pure, not merely in the sight of men who may
mistake, and do mistake, but in the sight of Jesus, the Word of God,
who pierces the very thoughts and intents of the heart; and we
should say daily with St. Paul, 'It is a small thing for me to be
judged by you, or any man's judgment, for he that judges me is the
Lord.'
And so we should overcome the world. Our hearts and spirits would
rise above the false shows of things, to God who has made all
things; above fear and melancholy; above laziness and despair; above
selfishness and covetousness, above custom and fashion; up to the
everlasting truth and order, which is the mind of God; that so we
might live joyfully and freely in the faith and trust that Christ is
our king, Christ is our Saviour, Christ is our example, Christ is
our judge; and that as long as we are loyal to him, all will be well
with us in this world, and in all worlds to come.--Amen.