The Bible is alive with references to the world as the field of redemption and action.
“You are the light of the world.”
“Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”
“This Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world.”
“For God so loved the world.”
“The Bread of God is he who gives life to the world.”
“That the world through him might be saved.”
“He is the Christ, the Savior of the world.”
“I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.”
“These who have turned the world upside down have come here also.”
“Your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.”
“God in Christ reconciling the world to himself.”
“Do you not know that saints shall judge the world?”
Surely we need to catch the concept of the world as the “field” of conquests for God.
The Bible is a world book.
God is the God of all the people in the world.
Jesus is the Redeemer of the whole world.
It is impossible for us to think of him as giving salvation to only a particular race or to a corner of the globe.
The Gospel is for all!
Some time ago I read about a dinner that supposedly took
place where William Thackeray and Thomas Carlyle were guests of the
“One fact about him,” a painter said, “is his glorious coloring.”
“And his glorious drawing is another fact about Titian,” gave out a second.
Then one added one thing in praise and another, and another, until Carlyle interrupted them to say with egotistic emphasis and deliberation: “And here sit I, a man made in the image of God, who knows nothing about Titian and cares nothing about Titian—and that’s another fact about Titian!”
Thackeray was the one who responded. “Pardon me,” he said, “that is not a fact about Titian. It is a fact—a very lamentable fact—about Thomas Carlyle.”
It is not a mark of a really great man to despise any other man, simply because he is not interested in him, or knows nothing about him.
If we do the bidding of Christ, we will carry the Gospel to the whole world without making any distinctions.
The Gospel is for all!