Not Of This World

"But He continued, 'You are from below; I am from above.  You are of this world; I am not of this world."  John 8:23 (NIV)

The Apostle John, who referred to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved, recorded these words of Jesus as He explained to the Pharisees and the Jews in the crowd that He was going to leave, and go to a place where they could not find Him, and where they could not go.  Jesus was referring to His death and ascension to heaven.  He told them that they could not go with Him because they would die in their sins. (John 8:21)  Jesus told them that He was not like them.  He came from heaven, He was not of this world.

Jesus, The Christ, said that He was not of this world. (John 8:23)  He also said that His kingdom was not of this world. (John 18:36)  Because His spirit indwells us, (John 6:56, John 14:17, Romans 8:11, 2 Timothy 1:14, and 1 John 4:12-15), as believers, we are not of this world either. (John 15:19)  We are in this world, but we are not of this world.  We do not belong to the world, we belong to Christ.  Therefore, we should not love the world, or worldly things, and the world will not love us. (1 John 2:15)  We should not conform to the world. (Romans 12:2)  We  should love The Lord with all of our heart, mind, and soul; and we should expect that the world will hate us for doing so. (Deuteronomy 13:3 and John 15:18)  We are not of this world.