How Christians Are “No Part of the World”

CHRISTIANS everywhere are familiar with Jesus’ statement in prayer to Jehovah God: “They [Jesus’ disciples] are no part of the world, just as I am no part of the world.” (John 17:16) What does this mean? What constitutes the “world” of which Christians must avoid becoming a part? In what way must Christians keep themselves separate?

The apostle Paul told Christians that they should not be making use of the world as do others, “for,” he said, “the scene of this world is changing,” like the fast-changing scenes in a stage play. (1 Cor. 7:29-31) And the apostle John described what Christians are to avoid about the world when he wrote: “Everything in the world​—the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the showy display of one’s means of life—​does not originate with the Father, but originates with the world.”​—1 John 2:16.

Certainly the immorality and the greediness that promote stealing, extortion, murder and other crimes, as well as the pursuit of materialism, arise from “the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes.” And aiding and abetting such wrongdoing is the world’s tendency toward “the showy display of one’s means of life,” which begets a lust for power, prominence and status. It fosters pride, nationalism and racism, resulting in hatred, wars and revolutions.

The Christian, therefore, must avoid all these manifestations of the world’s wrong desires. Not only are these things displeasing to the Father, Jehovah God, but, as the apostle says: “Furthermore, the world is passing away and so is its desire, but he that does the will of God remains forever.”​—1 John 2:17.

In following Jesus Christ, his disciples obey his command to be “no part of the world.” It is essential for the Christian to have no part in the world’s religions or in its political or military affairs. Christians are neutral. They avoid interfaith movements or participation in any strife or wars between the world’s factions. This is because the world, due to following wrong desire, is the enemy of God. It has become the tool of God’s worst enemy, Satan the Devil. He is called “the god of this system of things” and his enmity toward God and Christ is revealed in the fact that he has “blinded the minds of the unbelievers, that the illumination of the glorious good news about the Christ, who is the image of God, might not shine through.”​—2 Cor. 4:4.