Long ago an Eastern King, who was plagued by many troubles
and worries, called his wise men together and asked them to
compose a brief motto that would help him to face times of distress.
He required them to make it brief enough to be engraved on his
ring, and yet so profound and true that it would be appropriate to
every situation. It must be such a universal and enduring truth that
it would be a guide both in prosperity and adversity. This was no
small order, and so the wise men were hard put to come up with
anything that could fit every circumstance. At last, however, the
arrived at a motto of 5 words they felt would meet the need. Those 5
words were, "This too shall pass away." They felt that the
recognition that the circumstances of life are also temporary would
be a great source of comfort.
This story and the motto have been passed down for centuries.
Many poet and philosophers have picked it up and spread its
influence. One day over a century ago and American editor by the
name of Paul Hamilton Hayne came across the legend and published
a story about it. It created such an interest that he wrote a poem
that was widely distributed. It was carried around in pockets and
purses for comfort in times of trial. Since then many have put the
theme into poetry, and one of the best I have read is that by Grace
Noll Crowell. It goes like this:
This, too, will pass. O heart, say it over and over,
Out of your deepest sorrow, out of your deepest grief,
No hurt can hurt can last forever-
perhaps tomorrow will bring relief.
This, too, will pass. It will spend itself-its fury
Will die as the wind dies down with the setting sun;
Assuaged and calm, you will rest again, forgetting a thing that is done.
Repeated again and again, O heart, for your comfort;
This, too will pass as surely as passed before
The old forgotten pain, and the other sorrows that once you bore.
As certain as stars at night, or dawn after darkness,
Inherent as the lift of the blowing grass,
Whatever your despair or your frustration-this, too, will pass.
William Cowper who wrote many hymns sums it all up briefly
in two lines.
Beware of desperate steps; the darkness day,
Live till tomorrow, will have passed away.
Ordinarily the Christian does not gain comfort from a
philosophy growing out of a legend, but in this case the truth of it
happens to be biblical. In Job 11:16 we read of one of his
comforters saying, "Thou shalt forget thy misery, and remember it
as the waters that pass away." We know he was right, and Jobs
misery did pass. There is no doubt of it that life is filled with its
trials and miseries, yet there is also no doubt that they pass away.
There is great comfort in knowing that negative circumstances can
change, and sometimes very quickly. This is helpful, but it is still far
from being the best news that God has for the believer. John says
that the world and its lusts are going to pass away, and elsewhere
the New Testament says heaven and earth will pass away, and tears,
trials and temptations will pass away. But John goes on to improve
on the motto that bad things will pass away. In 5:4 he says that
those born of God can overcome the world while it is still here. We
do not have to just grin and bear it and wait for all evil to pass away
before we can live a victorious life. We can be victorious right now
in the midst of it all.
It is true that it will all pass away, but why not go one better and
make your motto that faith is the victory today. Many Christians
are traveling through life second and third class when God has
made first class provisions through Jesus Christ. Jesus said that we
would have tribulation in the world, but He also said to be of good
cheer because He has overcome the world. His overcoming is
already a fact that we can celebrate right now. John does not say
that the Christian can be victorious over the world, he says that the
Christian already is victorious. Those born of God have a faith that
is victorious over the world, and in verse 5 John implies that no one
but the true person of faith in Christ can overcome the world. By
the world he means all of the forces that oppose God and His
kingdom.
If Christians only believed half of what the Bible says about the
victorious Christian life, the world would be in perpetual revival,
but most are so pessimistic about the power of God that they are
always on the defensive. Victory is almost a foreign word in many a
Christian's vocabulary. It is almost as if we were not interested in
victory, but only concerned that we keep our defeats to a minimum.
It is no wonder that A. W. Tozer doubted that if half of the members
of the Evangelical Church were really born again. How can a man
or woman have begun a new life and yet no different than they were
in their old life? One can hardly claim to have a faith that
overcomes the world if they do not have the power to overcome
themselves.
John makes it clear in 2:16 that the basic battle to be won in
overcoming the world is the battle with the self. The lust of the
flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life are self-centered vices,
and those controlled by these are in bondage to the world. Those
who are slaves to self are not servants of God. The self-centered life
of lust and pride must be brought to defeat before there is any
chance of a victorious Christian life. No victory is so glorious as
over one's self to be victorious. If we are ever going to win victories
over the external forces of evil in the world, we must conquer the
world within first. We must drive out the Canaanites of lust and
pride if we ever expect our desert of depravity to bloom with the
Rose of Sharon. The Lily of the Valley will not grow in soil filled
with the weeds of worldliness. The Bright and Morning Star will
not shine in an atmosphere choked with the smoke and smog of sin.
They only the victory win
Who have fought the good fight and vanquished
The demon that tempts us within;
Who have held to their faith un-seduced by the prize that
The world holds high; Who have dared for a high cause to suffer,
Resist, fight-if need be to die.
Paul said, "I die daily," that is why Paul climbed to such a high
level of victorious living. He recognized that only as he gained the
victory over himself, and as he daily buried the old man, could he
begin to approach the goal of Christ-likeness. The sooner we realize
that the biggest battle of life is the battle within ourselves, the sooner
we will be able to subdue our worse enemy, and be free to live the
victorious life. Longfellow wrote,
Not in the clamor of the crowded street,
Not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng,
But in ourselves, our triumph and defeat.
Let us cease to seek for scapegoats and admit that our basic
problem is within. If faith is the victory that overcomes the world,
and we are not overcoming the world, let us not accuse Satan, or
others, or circumstances, for these are the very forces that can be
overcome. Let us frankly face it and admit that we are still victims
and not victors because we lack faith. We are not overcoming the
world because we are part of the world, and we are not interested in
overcoming it. The enemy is none other than our own uncommitted
self. Edwin L. Sabin tells of his discovery of this in his poem My
Enemy.
An enemy I had, whose appearance
I stoutly strove in vain to know;
For hard he dragged my steps, unseen wherever I might go.
My plans he balked, my aims he foiled;
He blocked my every onward way.
When for some lofty goal I toiled, he grimly said me nay.
Come forth ! I cried, lay bare thy guise!
Thy wretched features I would see.
Yet always to my straining eyes he dwelt in mystery.
Until one night I held him fast,
The veil from off his form did draw;
I gazed upon his face at last and, lo! myself I saw.
Wise men have always been aware of this truth. Shakespeare
knew human nature, and he has Cassius say, "The fault, dear
Brutus is not in our stars but in our selves." Henry Thoreau
remarked, "As long as a man stands in his own way, everything
seems to be in his way-government, society, and even the sun, moon
and stars." James warns Christians not to blame God when they
fall to temptation, for God does not tempt. He says that if we resist
the devil he will flee from us. That leaves only ourselves to blame if
we are not victorious over the world, the flesh and the devil. James
states it clearly that we are tempted because of our own inner lust.
Pro. 16:32 says, "He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty,
and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city." May God help
us to learn this lesson and never forget it, that victory over the world
begins with victory over ourselves.
But you may say with Paul, "O wretched man that I am! Who
shall deliver me from the body of his death?" The answer he came
to that made him more than conqueror is the same we must all come
to today, and that is, "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Faith in Jesus alone enables a person to live victoriously, and once
we have overcome the inner world we are ready to march in
conquest over the external world. Alexander the Great wept
because he had no more worlds to conquer. He was mistaken, for he
never did conquer the inner world. We ought to weep because we
have so many worlds yet unconquered because we have failed to
fight. The Christian conquest of the world is not a matter of blood
battles in which we destroy life and property. We conquer the
world by pushing back its darkness that enslaves the lost, and by
bringing to them the light of the Gospel. We have a message of
deliverance to the captives, and if we are not delivering this message
it is sign that we are still captives to the world.
The victorious Christian is the one who has first conquered self,
and then has moved out to conquer territory outside their own
heart. The Christian should have the same drive as Alexander the
Great, Napoleon, and other world conquerors. We should feel an
inner compulsion to march forward in victory over the forces that
oppose God and His kingdom. Lao Tsze said, "To joy in conquest is
to joy in the loss of human life." This is not so in the Christian
conquest, for when the Christian is victorious people do not lose life,
but they gain it and go from death to life. The Christian conquest of
the world adds life rather than diminishes it. Campbell in his poem
The Battle Of The Baltic expresses a victor's attitude that fits well
into Christian thinking.
"Out spoke the victor then, as he haul'd them o'er the wave,
Ye are brothers! Ye are men! And we conquer but to save;
So peace instead of death let us bring,
But yield, proud foe, the fleet,
With the crews, at England's feet,
and make submission meet to our king."
This is the Christian attitude as he marches forth to conquer.
He does not win by killing the enemy. He wins when he brings the
enemy to the feet of his king, who is Jesus Christ the King of Kings.
If we are not conquering and overcoming the world we need to
reexamine our faith. John says that if we truly believe in Jesus we
are born of God, and those born of God are conquerors and over
comers. Paul even puts it stronger yet and says, "We are more than
conquerors." Lillian M. Weeks has put this concept into a
challenging poetic form. I want to end this message with this poem
as a challenge for all of us to be conquerors who are overcoming the
world.
More than conquerors through Him that loved us,
Read the promise o'er and o'er,
Not almost or very nearly,
But conquerors and more.
When the world to sin would lure me, is there victory for me?
Can I stand against the pressure, and a conqueror truly be?
When the tempter like an angel garbs himself in robes of light,
Can I recognize his cunning-be a victor in the fight?
And when passions rise within me, anger, jealously and pride,
Can I still be more than conqueror, when by these I'm sorely tried?
By myself I'm weak and helpless, and I'll fall in sore defeat,
As upon life's rugged highway with temptation I shall meet.
But with Christ, Oh blest assurance!
More than conqueror I shall be,
As I yield Him full possession,
And He lives and reigns in me.
