Overcoming the World.

"For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?" 1John 5:4,5

Overcome means: conquer, defeat, overthrow. This verse says if we believe in God and are His child then we will overcome the world. What a promise! Overcoming the whole world! And we do it by faith alone; faith in the conquering power of Jesus who said: 

"I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” John 13:33

What does overcoming the world mean? I am inserting a commentary from: Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

"I have overcome the world": Satan, the god and prince of the world, with all his principalities and powers, which Christ has led captive, ransomed his people from, and delivers them from the power of; and all that is in the world, the lusts and sins of it, their damning power by the sacrifice of himself, and their governing power by his Spirit and grace; and the men of the world with all their rage and fury, whom he has trodden down in his anger, restrains by his power, and causes the remainder of their wrath to praise him; in all which conquests he makes his people share, and even makes them more than conquerors, through himself: so that they have nothing to fear from the world; nor any reason to be cast down by the tribulation they meet with in it."

We have nothing to fear from the world, for Christ has overcome the evils of it and through him we are overcomers. 

I was surprised at how many verses there are with promises to those who overcome. They are beautiful promises that lift our hearts up and away from this world into the world of God.

 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God. Revelation 2:7

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it.' Revelation 2:17

He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. Revelation 3:21

He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. Revelation 3:5

"He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. Revelation 21:7

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death. Revelation 2:11

He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name. Revelation 3:12

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Romans 12:21

Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 1John 4:4

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:5