Overcoming the World

The writings of the Apostle John gives prominence to the idea of overcoming the devil and world system and the old human nature termed our flesh. We are engaged in a spiritual war consisting of many battles. We can overcome the world, the flesh and the devil in union with our Lord Jesus. We conqueror only because Jesus overcame and our faith is in him. However we cannot be passive in this battle. Our faith must be active in the war. The Lord has gifted us with necessary actions that equip us and build us up. These consist of reading the Bible for understanding of the writer's thoughts, praying which is talking to God as expression of our relationship to him and other believers. A major means is attendance and active involvement in the corporate worship of our God and Savior plus active fellowship with our spiritual family, fellow believers. 1 John 5:3-5 For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, for whatever is born of God conquers (overcomes)  the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith.  Who is it who conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? NRSV

Bible Insights with  Wayne Conrad
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Transcript

 Title:  Overcoming the World

Date: February 16, 2026

Scripture: 1 John 5:1-5

AI TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to Bible Insights with Wayne Conrad. God's word is a lamp to our feet and a light on our path. 

Today's topic is overcoming the world. We are engaged in spiritual warfare. Every Christian, every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, whether they know it or not, whether they're conscious of it or not, are involved in spiritual warfare. We have enemies that are arrayed against our souls and against our minds. They are the world that is the system of thought that's anti-God, that's anti-Bible, that's anti-Christ, that's anti-humanity made and refashioned in the image of God.

These are our enemies because they're under the control of Satan, who is designated as the God of this world. The Apostle John wrote three brief letters to the churches that were under his charge in Asia Minor. They bear his name, 1 John, 2 John, and 3 John.

In reading from the first letter, in what we designate as the fifth chapter, this is what he writes. And I'm going to read it from the new, interlinear based, revised standard version of the Bible. And the reason is because it gives more literal meaning of the verb tenses. You can pick up the verb tenses better. Anyway, here's the translation.

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. And everyone who loves the parent loves the child. Now literally it's everyone believing that Jesus is the Christ of God has been born and everyone loving the one having given birth loves also the one having been born of him.

By this we know that we love the children of God. When we love God and obey his commands. So we can't love the children of God if we don't love God. For the love of God, now this is interesting because it tells us what the love of God is. For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments.

And his commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God conquers the world. Now that's interesting. Notice it says in his commandments, well, he's talking about the commandments that are revealed for us primarily in the New Testament because the New Testament commandments about our relationships with God and our interrelationships with fellow believers and our interrelationships with the world of those outside of Christ are detailed for us in the New Covenant writings, many of which are related to more Moral or longer commandments may be first given in the old covenant, but it's under the new covenant that we really understand how we obey the commandments of God. But these commandments are not burdensome because they are a reflection of relationship. And if it's a relationship of love, then we don't consider the things that demonstrate our love for one another and demonstrate and express our love for God to be a burden. We in fact find them to be a pleasure and a delight and a refreshment to our soul and body. This is why the body of Christ and participating in the life of the church in his worship services is so important to the Christian.

He writes, for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world. Now the word conquers here is the word overcomes literally this is what is literal in verse four for everything having been born of God overcomes the world and this is the victory the one having overcome the world the faith of us you see you have to smooth it out and so he smoothed it out but they substituted conquers for the word the more literal word overcomes And I like that word overcomes because it gives us more of that active involvement that's so necessary in the life of the Christian. But who is it that overcomes the world? But the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. So, the scripture is saying that a Christian is an overcomer.

Now, being an overcomer carries with it both a past tense idea in the fact that because of our union with Jesus Christ, who has already overcome the evil one, in him, we are overcomers. But because we are involved in a relationship of an interim period between the first and second coming of Christ, Spiritual warfare is continuing here on this planet with those who are born of God through their faith in Christ. So, we share in the victory of Christ on the cross, but that victory is not something that we experience passively. I mean, how do you experience anything passively? Not very much. We experience it actively.

So, I'm talking about the fact that we have relationship with God, we have relationship with our fellow believers, and it's within the relationship that we must overcome and are overcoming when we express our faith, expressing our faith in loving actions that reveal our relationship. There's practical things we need to say about this but let me say a few general things first.

We can overcome the world only because Jesus overcomes, has overcome the evil one. He overcame the world in the days when he was here among us in the flesh. He trampled Satan underfoot. when he rose from the dead after experiencing death on the cross, death which is the penalty of sin. So, Christ taking our place, entering in basically to the warfare with the enemy of our souls, overcame by the shedding of his blood and entering into this very state of death and then coming forth from it in his glorious resurrection from the dead. We are engaged in active spiritual battle as those who belong to him in this particular frame of life in which we now live. We're engaged in an active spiritual battle against the dark forces of evil in the world.

And those dark forces are not just political. They're not just geographical. They are dark forces in the world, in our own societies, in our own families, in our own lives. The forces of evil come to us in a battle that engages our mind by invading it with thoughts contrary to the thoughts and the truth of God. The world seeks to shape us into its form, and I'm afraid We're too willing, many Christians are too willing to simply let that happen because they're passive rather than active in their Christian life.

Look, we cannot be passive. We must be active. We can't just be on the defense. That is when I feel and I'm well aware that I'm being in conflict with the enemy, we must take the offense against the enemy. We must do those things necessary that ward off the forces of evil that are arrayed against us.

Look, if we just practice a passive Christian life, we're sort of sitting ducks, as they say, in the hunters. I'm afraid the devil will get us every time. He just has to wait a little while. When we're real passive and have a no, I don't care attitude, and he definitely will be the one who wins. Look, God in his grace has given us ways to be growing as Christians and to be overcomers in this spiritual battle.

We call them spiritual disciplines. Some people have trouble with the word discipline. Sorry about that. You know, discipline doesn't mean necessarily spankings, although it can include that. But it means doing those things that help us maintain our health and our strength. So, it's engaging, if you please, in exercises. It's spiritual exercises that involve the mind, can involve the body. spiritual disciplines.

Another word we have for this is means of grace. Now, you know, that's in the creeds and the catechisms and we might scratch our head with that because, you know, its using religious terminology, means of grace. So, what does means of grace mean? Well, it means the practice of regular activities involving the Christian mind and heart and soul and spirit and body that expresses our love relationship with God and our relationship with other believers. Our love for the children of God, of which we are one. We are brothers and sisters in the family, and we love the other members of the family. Then how does this work? Well, Christians must be engaged actively with the word of God.

Now, in the early church, they didn't have printed Bibles. There was the scrolls of what we call the Old Covenant or the Hebrew Bible that were read in the churches. in the synagogues and in the churches. And as the letters of the apostles were written and their associates, what would constitute the New Testament, they were read and received and understood to be the word of God.

People would memorize some sections that were heard. They would hear them read. They had to meditate on them. They had to think about them. And that's what we need to do, we read the Bible. Don't just read the Bible, it's like a verse a day. Or taking our little list of things to read and we just read through it. We're just reading the words but we're not engaging our mind in the thought. What is it saying? It's better to take one paragraph or two paragraphs and really understand what it's saying than to read a whole book and not really know what I just read.

Read the Bible. It's important to read it every day if possible. It's not that that's necessary, but the more we read the Bible, the more we can understand it, the more we can engage it. And pray. Prayer is talking with God. It's communicating with God.

Don't make that something hard. Just acknowledge Him. Acknowledge His presence. Speak to Him reverently. Express love for Him. Think about one of His attributes and give Him praise for it. And then think about the Word, what He's revealed to you. And then lay before Him your means of grace, your means of... Things that you need him to tend to in your life and in the lives of others. Pray, speak to him. Meditate on his word. Meditate, meditate. That's another word that can sort of escape us. I don't need you to sit in a corner chatting. What I need you to do is to think. Let your mind involve itself with the word.

This obviously takes some seriousness. Meditate on the word and it's absolutely crucial that we join in the Christian worship weekly, that when the church gathers together to sing the praises of God, to present to him our prayers, and to engage ourselves with the word and the celebration of the gospel ordinances of the Lord's table, that we be present every week without fail. That is a low expectation. If you love God and love His people, then you want to meet with Him in the congregation of believers. We don't just let this happen. We plan for it to happen. We go to bed in time. We get enough rest. We get up in time to get dressed. We take it as the most important appointment of the week. God, it's worth you that. Christ is worthy of that. If you love him, he's worthy of that. And the people of God, they need the encouragement that your presence can bring.

Look, don't be judging the service by, oh, well, I got something out of that, or I enjoyed that song. Don't think of it in entertainment means. Think of it in means of spiritual nourishment and spiritual exercises where we engage in the relationship that God's established for us. So, fellowship with believers, not only in the church services on Sunday, but fellowship with believers in between. And discuss the faith with fellow believers.

These things are active, not passive. Stay on the offensive. I need you to be ready for the defense. But you know, the best defense is an offense. You don't wait to be attacked. Do the attacking. Take the sword of the spirit. and go into spiritual battle. If we're just passive, the devil will knock us down. We do have this hope, though. Christ has conquered. And you see, it's our faith in him, the conquering one, that makes all the difference. In preparing for this podcast, I did just a little brief survey. You say, oh wait, the whole Bible ain't? No, just to the book of Revelation. No, not just the whole book of Revelation, just chapters two and three.

The letters to the seven churches, they're so informative. Every one of them, God, the Lord Jesus speaks of those who overcome. In Ephesus, to the one who overcomes, I'll give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. to Smyrna, the church that was so afflicted with persecution, to the one who overcomes, who conquers. The one who conquers, the one who overcomes will never be harmed by the second death. They may have to die for the faith. but they'll never be harmed by the second day. To Pergamum and Thyatira, those churches that were afflicted with a lot of assault of Satan and sin within the congregation itself, but they had people in those assemblies who overcame. To the one who conquers, to the one who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna and a white stone with a new name written on it. To Thyatira, to the one who conquers, to the one who overcomes and who keeps my works to the end, I will give him authority over the nation. To Sardis, that was a church that was considered to be basically dead, but you see there are people alive even in the dead churches.

He says to the one who overcomes will be dressed in white clothes and I will never erase his name from the book of life but will acknowledge his name before my father and before his angels. to the church of brotherly love, Philadelphia. He says to the one who overcomes, I'll make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he'll never go out again. And I'll write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God in my new name. Ah, the mighty name of Jesus.

Until they ought to see it, the church that comes to so many lukewarm people, maybe somewhat like our own. to the one who conquers, I'll give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I also overcame or conquered and I sat down with my father on his throne. Look, let anyone who has ears to hear listen to what the Spirit is saying to you, to me. Be an overcomer. You can be and you are in Jesus Christ. What is it that overcomes? our faith in Jesus Christ, our Lord. 

This has been Wayne Conrad with Bible Insights.