What is it that overcomes the world? All people are looking for how to defeat the spiritual misery in which they live and to which they are slaves. They live in the midst of struggles that they do not know how to fight or win. Vices, drugs, relationship problems, violence, greed and other temptations make us prone to fall into them without knowing how to get out of there.
God, through his infinite mercy, shows us the way to achieve a healthy and happy life: what overcomes the world
What does victory over the world mean?
The Christian comes to his new life in Christ to live it in victory in whatever situation he finds himself. The Lord Jesus Christ came to free us from the sin that produces the miserable and defeated life in which we lived. But, what is that victory? What does this victory consist of?
Victory over the world is what leads us to overcome all the adversities and obstacles that are presented to us so that we do not advance in the kingdom of God and in our salvation.
This can only be achieved through Jesus Christ. Christ has already won this war on the cross and through the resurrection, he won over sin and temptations (Heb 4.15, Mat 4.1-11), over the world (Jn 16.33), over the devil (1 Jn 3.8), on death (Acts 2.24) and on all enemies (1 Cor 15.24-25).
Through the victory of Jesus Christ, we can share in his victory and in it overcome our adversaries in the spiritual warfare that we wage every day.
If someone argues that the victory was Christ’s and not ours, they are forgetting that he achieved it for us, and that he makes us part of it.
Like when our country’s soccer team beats another team, and we all say: We won! Because we identify with the team, we appropriate the victory.
In the same way we are participants in the victory of Christ and all the benefits that derive from it.
Now, the apostle John says in the first letter, how to obtain that victory? What is it that overcomes the world? Let’s find out:
.- What overcomes the world is the believer who is born of God
Those who overcome the world are those who experience a new birth. That is, it is the action of God, who through the Holy Spirit gives new life to those who turn to him in faith and enters into a new relationship with God.
The person who is born again acquires new attitudes infused by the Holy Spirit, changes the will and rejects the sinful nature that persists in him and tries to live according to the fruit of the Spirit that now dwells with the person who experiences the new birth. These are going to show signs of being children of God and possessing in themselves what overcomes the world. Let’s see:
.- Who possess the weapon of faith.
This weapon is essential to be able to experience what the new birth is, what overcomes the world.
It is the means that God gives us to be able to consummate the act of believing. There is no other way. The Bible says that without faith “it is impossible to please God” (Heb 11.6). We believe through faith. The book of Hebrews gives us a beautiful concept of it:
Faith is knowledge and trust (). Faith has content: what we believe is the objective element of faith. It also has a subjective element: confidence, (The conviction of what is not seen). It is essential that these two elements make up our faith.
Faith without trust is an intellectualism, sometimes even dangerous. The Bible says that even the demons believe in God, but they do not trust him. (Stg 2.19). Every day we see many people talking about God, but their lives do not reflect the confidence of what they know about him. Faith without trust is incomplete.
The other situation is trust without faith. This is subjectivism, and borders on fanaticism. It’s like the person who wins the lottery and when they interview him on television he says: I knew I was going to win the lottery! And we wonder how did he know? Because the numbers are chosen at random. That is, in an order of infinite probabilities. This is trust without knowledge.
Intellectualism is an incomplete faith. In such a way that faith must possess these two elements to be what overcomes the world. Based on these two elements, and according to the biblical text in Jn 5.1-5, what overcomes the world, the believer who is born again by faith must have the following hallmarks:
.- Who believe that Jesus is the Christ.
Jesus is the one chosen by God and anointed by the Holy Spirit to be our Teacher, Priest and King. He revealed to us and taught us all the advice and will of God for our salvation (Jn 1.18), who sacrificed himself for us to reconcile us with the Father and who now governs us by his Word and his Spirit, keeps us and preserves salvation that he purchased for us.
.- Who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.
Being the Son of God implies a unity in essence and nature with the Father (Jn 3.16, Heb 1.12), of the same hierarchy with God (), and that he is only subordinate as the Son to the Father according to the order of salvation (Jn 5.30 ). So we must believe that Jesus Christ is God with us.
Thus, we can then summarize what true faith is:
True faith is not only a knowledge of God, but also the confidence that he instills in us through the Holy Spirit, that not only to others, but also to us, God gives forgiveness of sins, perfect justice, and eternal life in the work and merits of his Son Jesus Christ, to give us salvation and a new birth, in such a way that we only live for him, and submit to the will and lordship of Jesus Christ, to the glory of the Father.
Once our faith is defined as what , we are going to analyze the way to demonstrate it.
.- What overcomes the world is the believer who shows his love for God
.- Through love for the children of God.
Showing God’s love is the distinctive sign of the Christian, without it, we cannot say that we are born again. According to the apostle John, one of the ways to show love for God is by loving our neighbor. A doctor may not have love and be a good doctor. An engineer may not have love and be a good engineer. But a believer who does not have love for his neighbor cannot be a true Christian.
And it is that the apostle John sees Christian love not as a feeling, but as an attitude of mind, heart and will to put all our talents and resources at the service of our neighbor, in such a way that this redounds to their benefit. , be it spiritual or material, and not expect any retribution from this person for it.
We cannot say that we have put love into practice when we see a person who suffers from hunger or needs and we only say: The Lord bless you! May the peace of God be with you! and not help him in any way with our resources, however limited they may be, to solve his problems.
Those blessings must be accompanied by an act of love, otherwise, we would be falling into the greatest hypocrisy. Thus, our acts of love must be accompanied by serving our neighbors with our resources and talents, especially the children of God, the family of faith.
.- Through keeping his commandments.
The basic reason why we must obey God is because he is the one who produces in us wanting as well as doing, and we cannot be rebellious to our own nature.
Loving God means obedience. We must love out of obedience and obey out of love. I always remember the youngest son of a pastor friend, when his father scolded him and told him, don’t you love me? and the child, honestly, answered him, Yes, but I don’t obey you! What a contradiction!
Obedience leaves a lot to say about the respect and honor that we must pay to God. It means how much we love him and consider what he has done for us and the interest we have in following him.
The Lord Jesus Christ, the example of perfect obedience said “I come to do your will” (Heb 10.9). and in the extreme case close to his death he said: “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me, but not my will, but yours be done” (Mat 26.42)
In such a way, that walking these steps, we can enjoy what overcomes the world, our victory through faith, which Christ has won for us over the power of sin (Rom 7.24-25), temptations (1 Co 10.13 ), the world (1 Jn 5.4-5), the devil (Apc 12.10-11) and death (1 Co 15.22-23) and the practice of love, to be able to say with the apostle Paul “We are more than conquerors”