1 John 2:12-17-Sermon 3
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Title: Be Careful What You Love
Exegeticla Idea: Every believer has a new status and relationship to the world. So don’t love the world, which is in rebellion to God and is passing away.
Big Idea: Because of who you are, be careful what you love.
12 I am writing to you, little children,
because your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake.
13 I am writing to you, fathers,
because you know him who is from the beginning.
I am writing to you, young men,
because you have overcome the evil one.
I write to you, children,
because you know the Father.
14 I write to you, fathers,
because you know him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men,
because you are strong,
and the word of God abides in you,
and you have overcome the evil one.
15 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. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
Open with the story of the top of my stairs about verse 17.
The two states of a human
A growing christian
A person passing away with the world
When we look at scripture to define a biblical christian, we see defining characteristics and verbs more so than events and moments in time.
That does not mean memories and starting points are not important.
But to be saved begins to be unpacked by three important words.
Justification
Sanctification
Glorification
This verse should define if you have been justified, with the growing effects of sanctification and the hope of future glorification.
9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
So let’s start at Romans 10:9,
Two things, do you believe the gospel story (define)
Have you made Jesus Lord of your life.
That means you are saved.
That means all three parts apply to your life.
You may remember the day you were saved. You may not.
But you can drop an anchor right here.
I believe the gospel and I have made Jesus Lord.
I am saved.
Now, lets break down the two states of humanity from the beginning.
12 I am writing to you, little children,
because your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake.
13 I am writing to you, fathers,
because you know him who is from the beginning.
I am writing to you, young men,
because you have overcome the evil one.
I write to you, children,
because you know the Father.
14 I write to you, fathers,
because you know him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men,
because you are strong,
and the word of God abides in you,
and you have overcome the evil one.
John may or may not be writing to actual fathers, young men, and children, but it is pretty much agreed that the state of the people he is writing is important.
What they represent.
Older
Middle
Child
He begins to point us to the path that a believer should be following.
It is perfectly normal and to be expected for a person to not know much when they first become a christian and are a child in christ.
He says two things to the child
You are forgiven
You know the Father.
This is why I started with Romans 10:9 because there needs to be that anchored dropped.
Find total comfort and peace in finding Christ.
You are saved.
You have nothing to worry about.
If you are saved.
Do you struggle with that?
Catch me sometime and we can work through that.
I even have a pamphlet i wrote because i was dealing with it so much over the years. You are welcome to one.
You are not alone. Many people struggle with this.
Do you know what it means?
Rarely but sometimes it means you need to be saved.
Most of the time, i have found it means you need to move to the next stage John gives.
Young men - this middle stage where you are indeed learning and growing in your knowledge of the Bible
BUT…..
YOU HAVE TO START WINNING BATTLE WITH SIN.
You wont win all battles.
At first you may not win a majority of them.
But you have to start winning the battle with sin.
We talked about this a little last time with the sin guilt cycle.
It is huge in the fight with sin.
You can do it, the Spirit is literally helping you.
But you have to at least start fighting.
Make a plan, execute the plan. Involve others in the fight.
The last stage, Fathers, does not happen by accident.
You do not just wake up one day and people come to you for spiritual advice and see you as a mature christian.
Theres years of searching and wrestling with the Bible as you fight as hard as you can to kill your sin, all the while watching God work in your life, trusting him to work more with each time you see him work.
I am convinced that any skill takes more work and reps than talent.
Its the same with spiritual maturity.
Reps, Reps, Reps
You do not become mature and grounded in your faith because of natural talent.
Your natural talent will ALWAYS take you down the other path.
Let’s move over to the other path,
15 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. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
There is a contrast here
There can only be agape love for God or the world.
Agape love is that sold out, die for you, totally committed love that God has for us.
I am a Literature major at heart.
I love to write and read.
Those were my subjects in school.
One of the reasons i love the bible is because of the depth and richness found in there.
I have read a lot of the Quran (english translation) and The book of mormon at one time.
The Quran is not as bad as the book of mormon,
Book of mormon seems like a 3rd grader wrote it,
Theres no depth to it.
But not the bible,
The bible is one of the most rich bibles i have ever read.
Maybe one day we can talk about some of those.
The passover lamb is one example.
But within this passage is a very rich illustration of what is happening to the world.
Look back at verse 17
17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
The language passing away is taking from how a Greek person would describe a river.
(Show video of River while talking about this)
Mississippi River is 2340 miles long
It takes a molecule of water 90 days to travel the MS River
That is 26 miles a day.
That is 1.08 mile an hour.
Source: https://experiencemississippiriver.com/interactive-tools/fun-facts/#:~:text=It%20takes%2090%20days%20for,Mississippi%20River%20drops%201%2C475%20feet.
When you cross the MS river bridge in Memphis, sometimes it looks like it moving fast, sometimes it doesnt.
But if you were standing on the bridge watching the water go by, in an hour, it would be an entire mile away.
Some rivers move even faster.
Water just buzzes right by.
This river represents junk.
Anything that is not eternal is passing away like this.
Anything that pulls you in too is what John is talking about here.
You do not have to sell everything and move into a monastery,
But you cannot let things grab you and pull you into the river.
All that is fine and dandy, but how do i know what will do it?
John helps us by laying it out in verse 16.
We will close with this
16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.
three things
desires of flesh - what we feel
desires of eyes - what we see
pride - what we stake our pride and hope in
Heres what John is trying to show us,
Anything that enslaves the way you feel
Anything that enslaves the way you see
Anything that enslaves your hope
Is leading you down the river away from the Lord.
May spend time illustrating these three.
Need to think that through
If you are saved, theres hope. You will not get dragged down the river.
But it does not relieve you from getting rid of that mess.
(give time of reflection on what passions of feelings, eyes, or pride you need to repent of)
Exegete
Exegete
v12-17
12 I am writing to you, little children,
because your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake.
Reassurance to these disciples and loved ones of John that they do indeed have forgiveness of sins.
It is not because they earned in or deserve it. It is for God’s glory and His name’s sake.
13 I am writing to you, fathers,
because you know him who is from the beginning.
I am writing to you, young men,
because you have overcome the evil one.
I write to you, children,
because you know the Father.
I want to dig into commentary here, but right off the bat, i notice there is three individuals and they have different levels of discipleship.
John has a pretty intimate knowledge of these folks and their level of knowledge and experience with God.
I have no clue if they are struggling with salvation or not though.
Fathers, Young Men, Children.
The language for what the fathers know is much deeper. They know more about God on a deeper level than others.
Young men have a battle to fight. They have overcome.
Children know the basics and are smart enough to understand the gospel.
14 I write to you, fathers,
because you know him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men,
because you are strong,
and the word of God abides in you,
and you have overcome the evil one.
Theres a basic repeat here. I will read up more to see what the pattern is here. Maybe a song or prayer that John is quoting from and reminding them of?
The Archeologoical study bible (p1864) identifies the “rhetoric” but does not mention a source. It notes the change of verb tense of to write. It does not say why but that it is reflected in both english and greek.
CCexposition commentary (p37-38) points out two possibilities for meaning here of the three persons named (fathers, young men, children) - it could either be those specicifi persons in the chrch with an actual more universal principle for all believiers. Or it could be three different stages of christian growth (child in christ, growing, and mature).
They do not say which they think it is, but emphasize the univeral truth portion.
Jerry Vines (p58-68) in his commentary on 1 John holds to these three persons as times in a believers life.
He also discusses when things go wrong and a person stays a christian infant its whole life, never growing.
15 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. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
verse 17 takes me back to the top of my stairs preparing for a sermon and it hitting me that so many i know are going to pass away with the world.
What does it mean to love the world?
I will probably need to spend time in sermon breaking this down.
Observations from the greek:
He uses the word agape for love here.
He uses the word kosmos here for world. CCEC (p39) says that he is using this word to describe a worldview this time, not the earth or the body of people like in John 3 or other places.
CCEC breaks down
desires of flesh - what we feel
desires of eyes - what we see
pride - what we stake our pride and hope in