Short and to the point. I like that friendofJC. I was just thinking, how can I make what I want to say short? So here's my short version.
Pamela, I think "as He is so are we in the world" is saying we will walk where He walked, we will do what He did, we will say what He said, endure as He endured and we will overcome the world as He overcame the world; all within the invisible spirit realm of heaven.
Joh 14:12 "I assure you: The one who believes in Me will also do the works that I do. And he will do even greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.
If John 14:12 doesn't give me faith, then I am still dead in my sins. However, if I can believe, then He is raising me to life and I will see Him as He really is, even before I phsically die.
I can and will have pain, fear, anxiety, depression, pressure, stress, regret, sickness and sorrow in a world designed to bring these negative things into the light so I can see and feel them so I will know He is Lord. But inside I genuienly believe God is doing it for my good. I just gotta wait it out and hope it doesn't harden me to the point I blame God. I'm somewhat sad to say, but I think it will break me at the cost of all the desires of my heart.
Job 14:11,12 sound awefully similar to Revelation 21:1.
Job 14:11 As water disappears from the sea and a wadi becomes parched and dry,
Job 14:12 so man lies down never to rise again. They will not wake up until the heavens are no more; they will not stir from their sleep.
Rev 21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea existed no longer.
Ray taught on this here:
https://bible-truths.com/lake9.htmlJesus could live "on earth" and "in heaven" at the same time! But carnal men live in the heaven of their minds all the time. Man's heaven is a place of spiritual delusion; whereas God's heaven is a place of spiritual enlightenment.
"And I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the EARTH [of man] and the HEAVEN [of man] fled away; and there was found NO PLACE FOR THEM... And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. And I saw a NEW heaven and a NEW earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea." (Rev. 20:11, 16 & 21:1).
It would be mind-boggling enough to think that the entire UNIVERSE could "flee away," but it would be quite another to then suggest that, "there was found NO PLACE FOR THEM." That would be absurd if taken literally. ALL THESE THINGS ARE SPIRITUAL! In the white throne judgment there will be no more a place for the flesh, for the carnal mind, for man's heaven. There will truly be no place found for them. They will be annihilated in God's "CONSUMING FIRE" (Heb. 12:29 & I Cor. 3:15)!
God will give man a new earth and a new heaven, and as for the great sea of carnal, God-defying humanity, "...and there was NO MORE SEA."------------------
The Kingdom of Heaven is sometimes referred to as the Kingdom of God.
Luk 17:21 ...the kingdom of God is within you.
Whatever rules or reigns within you, rules you from within. Like when Adam disobeyed God when he obeyed the voice of his wife Eve, of whom Adam said of Eve: "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh" (Gen 2:23). We can see this was a type of the spiritual condition of our heart, because Eve was in Adam and they were one.
Rom 13:14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no plans to satisfy the fleshly desires.
Eph 2:3 We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and by nature we were children under wrath, as the others were also.
Col 3:22 Slaves, obey the lords according to flesh in all respects, not with eye-service as men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God.
As Ray always pointed out from the Scriptures, first the physcial, then afterward the spiritual.
Eph 2:14 For He is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility. In His flesh,
Eph 2:15 He did away with the law of the commandments in regulations, so that He might create in Himself one new man from the two, resulting in peace.
Eph 2:16 He did this so that He might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross and put the hostility to death by it.
Remember, Jesus calls us His flesh (Eph_5:30), and in His flesh He did away with "the law of the commandments in regulations", which is another way of saying, Jesus set us free from from the law of sin and death so we could obey Him and live now, rather than obey our flesh and die a second death in the lake of fire.
Rom 8:1 Therefore, no condemnation now exists for those in Christ Jesus,
Rom 8:2 because the Spirit's law of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.
Rom 8:3 What the law could not do since it was limited by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending His own Son in flesh like ours under sin's domain, and as a sin offering,
Rom 8:4 in order that the law's requirement would be accomplished in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Now can you see how as He is so are we in the world?
1Co 15:45 So it is written: The first man Adam became a living being; the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.
1Co 15:46 However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual.
1Co 15:47 The first man was from the earth and made of dust; the second man is from heaven.
1Co 15:48 Like the man made of dust, so are those who are made of dust; like the heavenly man, so are those who are heavenly.
1Co 15:49 And just as we have borne the image of the man made of dust, we will also bear the image of the heavenly man.
It really is all one. We just gotta believe the Scriptures, but not by man's wisdom, but by comparing the spirtual with the spiritual.
So what does that mean, as He is, so are we in the world?
1Jn_4:17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.
Maybe it's the same as this:
Joh 16:33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.
God's judgments come in the form of tribulation. When we believe God's trials and tribulations are a manifest token of jugment, then we can have peace, because we know He is dealing with us as sons and daughters.
If you're asking specifically what it means by "the world", then to me that means "the way of the world". Strongs and Thayers Greek dictionaries say something similar.
Strongs:
κόσμος
kosmos
kos'-mos
Probably from the base of G2865; orderly arrangement, that is, decoration; by implication the world (in a wide or narrow sense, including its inhabitants, literally or figuratively [morally]): - adorning, world.
Thayer:
1) an apt and harmonious arrangement or constitution, order, government
2) ornament, decoration, adornment, i.e. the arrangement of the stars, ‘the heavenly hosts’, as the ornament of the heavens. 1Pe_3:3
3) the world, the universe
4) the circle of the earth, the earth
5) the inhabitants of the earth, men, the human family
6) the ungodly multitude; the whole mass of men alienated from God, and therefore hostile to the cause of Christ
7) world affairs, the aggregate of things earthly
7a) the whole circle of earthly goods, endowments riches, advantages, pleasures, etc, which although hollow and frail and fleeting, stir desire, seduce from God and are obstacles to the cause of Christ
any aggregate or general collection of particulars of any sort
8a) the Gentiles as contrasted to the Jews (Rom_11:12 etc)
8b) of believers only, Joh_1:29; Joh_3:16-17; Joh_6:33; Joh_12:47 1Co_4:9; 2Co_5:19
Maybe it's just me, but that word "adornment" and "decoration" is somewhat telling and hints to the following verses. Interestingly, Thayer's second (2) definition also cites 1Peter 3:3, which, as odd as this sounds, makes me doubt that is what it's actually talking about. Nevertheless, here are the verses.
1Pe 3:1 Likewise, wives, submitting yourselves to your own husbands, that even if any disobey the Word, through the behavior of the wives, without a word they will be won,
1Pe 3:2 observing your pure behavior in fear.
1Pe 3:3 Of whom let it not be the outward act of braiding of hairs, and of putting gold around, or of clothing, garments of adornment,
1Pe 3:4 but the hidden man of the heart, in the incorruptible adornment of the meek and quiet spirit, which is of great value before God.
Contrasted by:
1Jn 2:15 Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him,
1Jn 2:16 because all that which is in the world: the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
1Jn 2:17 And the world is passing away, and its lust. But the one doing the will of God abides forever.
It's all about phsyical works and outward appearance with not only the world, but especially with the Church. They worship Him in vain with their flesh and with lies. We are called to worship Him in spirit and in truth with meekness.
By the way, there is no need to be sorry Pamela. Discussing these things can be edifying for us. I mean, I always learn new things when members ask questions, because it inspires me to seek answers.
We are on the same page regarding the heavens as man lives in the heavens of their own minds and of course mankind has a carnal mind and it has to 