“…be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” – Christ Jesus – (Golden Text: John 16:33)

“OVERCOME” – To conquer, vanquish, subdue, surmount, get the better of, gain the superiority, be victorious; prevail, get the victory. “WORLD” – The carnal state or corruption of the earth; a secular life; the world’s pleasures and interests. (1828 Dictionary & Strong’s)

Some insights from three periodical articles, all entitled “I Have Overcome the World,” that I found helpful:
• “The larger meaning of this statement is found in the distinctive teaching of Christian Science. . . the victory over sin, sickness, and death which Christ Jesus achieved. . . . His overcoming of ‘the world’ included humanity’s every foe, and the acme of spiritual understanding is reached when we so participate in the Christ-life that we are able consciously to include the defeat of our individual enemies in the one glorious conquest of Christ, Truth. The Christ triumph is thus thought of. . . as a continuous, all inclusive fact which the Galilean Prophet realized for himself, and which we are each to realize for ourselves. . . . The Christian’s ‘triumph’ is to bear witness that every foe to health, freedom, and spiritual advance has been brought into subjection. . . .” (CSS, 2/8/1908, John B. Willis)
• “To have overcome the world means to have overcome all error, all material sensuousness, all belief that matter and its phenomena are real. . . . Jesus’ life was. . . the one perfect example to be followed in the overcoming of the world. . . . John’s words in Revelation come to him with deep meaning and inspiration: ‘He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.’ What a wonderful promise this, to him that overcometh; he shall inherit all things, and know himself as the son of God!” (CSS, 4/17/1926, Duncan Sinclair)
• “All manner of worldliness, all manner of material believing, all manner of sin – these constitute the ‘world’ which has to be overcome. . . . Only by the understanding of the one Mind, its allness and perfection. . . will the unreality of all material and evil thinking be discerned, and the perfection of real being demonstrated. Only thus will ‘the world’ be overcome.” (CSS, 6/9/1934, Duncan Sinclair)

“The world conquers me when it draws me away from God, when it makes me its slave, when it coaxes me to trust it. . . . when it comes between me and God, when it fills my desires, when it absorbs my energies, when it blinds my eyes to the things unseen and eternal. I conquer the world when I put my foot upon its temptations, when I crush it down, when I shake off its bonds, and when nothing . . . prevents me from cleaving to my Father with all my heart, and from living as His child here.” (McLaren Commentary)

“The Christian Scientist has enlisted to lessen sin, disease, and death, and he overcomes them through Christ, Truth, teaching him that they cannot overcome us” (’01: 15: 7-9); “Truth is always the victor”! (S & H, p. 380:4)