Love not the world 1 John 2:15-17

Introduction

A few weeks ago we looked at Johns admonition to the different groups of the church, the little children, the fathers and the young men and how each of the groups are vital for a healthy church.

John then turns to our priorities. In the busy world we live in its easy to get our priorities out of wack. Before we know it we are out of love with christ and in love with the world.

John is warning the church of the first century to love God more than anything, but we need this reminder in the 21st century. God must be first place in our life, he has to have the preeminence. If we love anyone or anything more than God we have made them/it our idol.

Lets look what John has for us this morning.

Verse 15

Love not the world

The greek word used for love here gives a context of a deep level of affection

Why is the world in the mess its in? Because we have a deep level of affection for the wrong things. We have embraced the things of the world rather than God.

The word world here is kosmos and it means the world system with its possessions, positions, and pleasures

John here is telling us that we shouldn’t have a deep level of affection for the created things

Romans 1:25 “Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.”

Notice that this command isn’t relative, but absolute. It is black and white, there is no grey. The bible doesn’t say don’t love the world too much, but rather don’t love the world at all

Romans 12:1–2 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

Jesus gave himself to deliver us from the world

Galatians 1:4 “Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father:”

Neither the things that are in the world

We are not only not supposed to love the world, but also we shouldn’t love the things in the world, John Phillips said this “doing so creates a vicious cycle — a love for the world begets a love of the things of the world, and a love of the things of the world begets an increasing love of the world.”

Think about the parable of the rich man in Luke 12:16-34 -Turn

He was so in love with all the stuff he had accumulated, but he left it all behind when he died.

Mark 8:36 “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”

If any man love the world, the love of the father is not in him

Spurgeon said this “If Christ is not all to you He is nothing to you. He will never go into partnership as a part Saviour of men. If He be something He must be everything, and if He be not everything He is nothing to you.”

James 4:4 “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”

Matthew 6:24 “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”

Galatians 1:10 “For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.”

We are to be in the world but not of the world

Verse 16

For all that is in the world

The lust of the flesh

Satan has been using this tactic since the garden of Eden

Genesis 3:6 “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.”

He even tried this tactic on Jesus

Luke 4:2–4 “Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered. And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread. And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.”

Remember the Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak, Jesus showed us how to overcome the lust of the flesh, the word of God

The lust of the eyes

Genesis 3:6 “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.”

Luke 4:5–8 “And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.”

The Pride of life

Genesis 3:6 “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.”

Luke 4:9–13“And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence: For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee: And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.”

Is not of the father, but is of the world

the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life do not come from from the father, but rather the devil. He uses these tactics every day to blind unbelievers from their need for a saviour and believers from their need to love Jesus more than anything.

Jesus was a perfect example of how to overcome this temptation.

Verse 17

And the world passeth away and the lust thereof

The world has been passing away since sin entered into the world and will eventually be burnt up.

Romans 8:22 “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.”

The whole world will eventually turn back to into dust the basic element from which it was formed

Matthew 24:35 “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.”

1 Peter 1:24–25 “For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.”

But he that doeth the will of God abideth forever

Even though our physical bodies are now under the curse, those who do God’s will in accepting Christ will receive new bodies, eternal in character when Christ returns

Philippians 3:20–21 “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.”

Conclusion

As believers we must give God the proper place in our life. When we put the world or the things that are in the world above Jesus, our priorities are out of wack.

Matthew 22:37 “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.”

Are you more in love with the world or with Jesus, because the answer cannot be both