Who Do You Love?
Journey through 1 John • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Introduction
Introduction
We have been taking a journey through the book of 1 John together. Since we skipped a couple of weeks let me take a few minutes to get us caught up with where we left off.
We have seen that fellowship with God requires that there is no room for hatred in our heart toward our brother:
The one who says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in the darkness.
But there is one sense in which we are not to have love at all!
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
A very simple imperative is therefore given to us: "Do not love the world..." But do we understand the meaning of this command? Do we appreciate the importance of this command? Today, I will attent to Shed some light on what John is saying, and maybe even Provide some motivation to seriously heed what he commands in this passage.
So then, let me begin by posing a question to you. Why would Jesus even command this in the first place? Why should you and I not love the world?
Because of What the World Is
Because of What the World Is
This passage lets us know right up front doesn’t it?
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, and the boasting of life—is not from the Father but from the world.
What is the World?
What is the World?
Before we go on, we must define what John means by “world” here. The “world” in this passage is NOT the “physical world”. We’re not talking about the creation that God made in Genesis. Because God Himself declared that it was “very good”
So God saw everything that He made, and behold it was very good.
So there was evening and there was morning—the sixth day.
We’re also not talking about the “human world” or in other words, mankind in and of itself, because Yeshua made God’s feelings about mankind clear.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
What we’re talking about then, is the values of society - the world of “sin”, and the world of “evil”. We’re referring to the “sphere” in which sin, evil, and Satan dominates
Just as the phrase “the sports world” describes the domain in which sports dominates, so this “world” is one in which sin dominates
I took a class at the University of Arizona when I was a freshman, it was called “Western Civilization in the Arts” It was a required class and it was taught by a cohort of professors who represented each of the various fine arts. As a result, the lectures themselves were quite entertaining, as artists have a flare for the dramatic. The one thing that I took away from that was that the art of the culture always portrays or in the case of music and poetry, praises what the society values. That being the case, all one has to do is listen to any of the songs on the radio to discover the deep depravity that grips the world today. All we have to do is watch the TV or listen to the radio for a couple of minutes and we will quickly see what exactly today’s society values. I was going to read some lyrics to some current hit songs as a way to demonstrate this, but after reading them, I realized that they were indeed too inappropriate to share.
The Three Things that Make Up The World
The Three Things that Make Up The World
The Lust of the Flesh
The Lust of the Flesh
The first thing that we are told that the world value is “the desire of the flesh” this phrase is actually more accurately translated as “unbridled desires of the flesh” and these are listed out in Galatians.
Now the deeds of the flesh are clear: sexual immorality, impurity, indecency, idolatry, witchcraft, hostility, strife, jealousy, rage, selfish ambition, dissension, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, just as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit God’s kingdom.
What we will see is that these “desires” can be expressed both sexually (fornication, adultery, licentiousness) as well as Socially (hatred, contentions, jealousies).
The Lust of the Eyes
The Lust of the Eyes
The other type of sin called out here is the “lust of the eyes”.
This refers to the unlawful longing for things which we can see
It can be summed up in one word: “covetousness”. A modern day expression could be “materialism”. Again, this can be confirmed by simply listening to the themes of so many songs on the radio today.
How serious is this? Consider
Know for certain that no immoral, indecent, or greedy person—who is really an idol worshipper at heart—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Messiah and God.
Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s judgment comes on the children of disobedience. Therefore do not be partners with them.
The key here is this: “who is really an idol worshipper at heart”. A recent study on marriage found that 80% of all divorces in the west are initiated by women and the number one reason given was that their husband was “no longer trying”. It was further discovered that of those 80% who were women, 90% were already involved with another man prior to filing for divorce. The study further went on to discover that the overwhelming majority of these women who left their husbands for another man did so for a man that was significantly better off financially or who had a job that could be seen to have more potential for growth.
What about the men? Men who divorced their spouses typically began relationships with younger, more attractive women, not many of which ended up in long term relationships.
Given this, what can we surmise? This shows that people are chasing an earthly and temporal inheritance rather than the inheritance in the “kingdom of Messiah and God”. Yet scripture tells us that we are to put such desires to death because these things bring about the wrath of God.
Therefore, put to death what is earthly in you—sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, and greed—for that is idolatry. Because of such things God’s wrath is coming upon the sons of disobedience. At one time you also walked in these ways, when you used to live in these ways.
The Pride of Life
The Pride of Life
John goes on to admonish the reader that we put to death the “pride of life”. What does this include?
For you see your calling, brothers and sisters, that not many are wise according to human standards, not many are powerful, and not many are born well. Yet God chose the foolish things of the world so He might put to shame the wise; and God chose the weak things of the world so He might put to shame the strong; and God chose the lowly and despised things of the world, the things that are as nothing, so He might bring to nothing the things that are— so that no human might boast before God. But because of Him you are in Messiah Yeshua, who became to us wisdom from God and righteousness and holiness and redemption— so that, just as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast in Adonai.”
I believe this would include pride based upon such things as:
Age
Experience
Ancestry
Past accomplishments
Money, position, power
We are instead admonished to boast in the Lord.
Other Considerations
Other Considerations
If we hearken back to our lesson last week and consider the life cycle of the Christian we can see some interesting things.
Each of these three things often strike harder at different times in our life:
The YOUNG are most often affected by the "lust of the flesh"
The MIDDLE-AGED are usually afflicted by the "lust of the eyes"
The AGED are likely to be plagued with the "pride of life"
It’s really funny how the Church loves to condemn people who are in sexual sin, they go out of their way to ostracize those who are engaged in this type of sinfulness, but they welcome with open arms those who fail by way of the social sin such as covetousness that Paul equivocates with the sexual sins and drunkeness.
What we must be very careful to guard against is to fall into the trap, that while we endeavor to fight against immorality, we allow materialism and pride to sneak in “the back door”
Whether it be immorality, materialism or pride, it is still part of the “world” we are not to love! But why? We have noticed other passages which say why we shouldn't, but in our text John gives another reason.
Because of What Loving the World Does
Because of What Loving the World Does
It Keeps Us from Loving the Father
It Keeps Us from Loving the Father
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
In this context we can understand “the love of the Father” means “love for the Father”
Why can we be confident that this means “the Father's love for us”? Well for one, that interpretation is consistent with scripture
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Messiah died for us.
If God’s love is demonstrated toward us while we were yet sinners, when we obviously loved the world, then it cannot mean that we aren’t loved by God. In fact, John is not the only person to say that if we love the world, we cannot love God:
James taught that “friendship with the world is enmity with God”-
You adulteresses! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
Finally, Jesus said that we cannot serve two masters.
“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will stick by one and look down on the other. You cannot serve God and money.”
Our sinful pride may rebel against this thought, but we simply are not able to love the world and God at the same time!
Why Does it Keep us From Loving the Father?
Why Does it Keep us From Loving the Father?
To answer that, we must answer a different question. What does it really mean for me to love the Father? According to John, it means that I keep His commandments.
For this is the love of God—that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.
But more importantly it’s what Jesus taught
“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me. He who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him.”
If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
So then, by extension...
If We Love the World, We CAN’T Keep God’s Commandments.
If We Love the World, We CAN’T Keep God’s Commandments.
Why, because if you are driven by “the lust of the flesht o commit fornication, adultery, etc. then you can't keep God's command not to defraud your brother.
For this is the will of God—your sanctification:
to abstain from sexual immorality;
to know, each of you, how to gain control
over his own body in holiness and honor—
not in the passion of lust like the pagans
who do not know God;
and not to overstep his brother and take
advantage of him in this matter—
because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, as we told you before and solemnly warned you.
If you are overcome by “desire of the eyes” so that you always want more, and to hold on to what you have, then you won't keep God's command to help the needy.
We have come to know love by this—Yeshua laid down His life for us, and we also ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. But if someone has material possessions and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?
If you are filled with “the pride of life” so that you consider yourself more important than others, you will not be able to keep the command to imitate Christ.
Do nothing out of selfishness or conceit, but with humility consider others as more important than yourselves, looking out not only for your own interests but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves, which also was in Messiah Yeshua,
So it is impossible to faithfully serve God, thereby showing our love for Him, if we allow ourselves to “love the world”! But John gives us another reason why we should not “love the world” and that brings us to our final point, and that is.
Because of Where the World is Going
Because of Where the World is Going
The World is Passing Away
The World is Passing Away
To put it bluntly, the World is dying as evidenced by the rot in society’s morals.
This is true in regards to our individual lives.
For,
“All humanity is like grass,
And all its glory like a wildflower.
The grass withers, and the flower falls off,
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. What is your life? For you are a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
But It is even truer concerning everything that we leave behind.
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. On that day the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the elements will melt and disintegrate, and the earth and everything done on it shall be exposed.
But He Who Does the Will of God Lives Forever
But He Who Does the Will of God Lives Forever
The contrast then is that he who does the will of God will be blessed to enter the heavenly kingdom.
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
But that’s not all, even his “works” will follow with him.
Then I heard a voice from heaven saying,
“Write: How fortunate are the dead—those who die in the Lord from now on!”
“Yes,” says the Ruach, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them.”
Putting it All Together
Putting it All Together
Isn’t our ultimate goal as Christians to hear those very precious words from our savior?
His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You were faithful with a little, so I’ll put you in charge of much. Enter into your master’s joy!’
Even if we could gain the whole world in this lifetime would it have been worth it?
For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world but forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
Yet most people are selling their soul to the devil and this world for a whole lot less!
Let's give serious heed to John's admonition, and make sure that our affection is in the right place: loving the Father by keeping His commandments!
We’ve been asking a lot of questions today, so I will end with a final question. Are you keeping the commandments of God?
And Yeshua came up to them and spoke to them, saying, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, immersing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Ruach ha-Kodesh, teaching them to observe all I have commanded you. And remember! I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Let us pray
