Where the Heart Is...

Garden story

There is a man who lives in a small town somewhere in the heartland of America. It is a place where the soil is good and many things grow. And this man has a pretty good size garden in the back of his yard. He has all sorts of different crops that grow in this garden, and it flourishes and does very well because the climate is just right for agriculture.

But somewhere into the growing season he starts to notice that his vegetables are being eaten right off the plants. Sometimes the entire plants are eaten. And so, he takes the time to build a fence enclosing the entire garden to keep out anything that might come foraging. But the problem persists and plants still show signs of being eaten by some kind of creature. He thinks, maybe it’s deer that are coming into his garden and his fence is not tall enough to keep them out. So, he goes and invests more time and more resources into redoing his fence so that it is higher and will deter anything bigger like the deer. But the problem still goes on. So, he thinks maybe it’s rabbits or gophers who find a hole or squeeze beneath the gate and somehow find a way in. So, he goes back and makes sure that his fence is secured all the way into the ground all the way around the garden with no holes. He remakes the gate so that it is tight right down to the ground and has no possible way for anything to squeeze through.

And still, his plants and vegetables are suffering damage. He wanders out back to his garden and sees day after day that something is finding a way to get into his fence and feast on his crops. It cannot be birds, because it is the leaves and stalks that are being chewed, not just the crops and seeds. He checks and double checks everything. But the man is simply baffled. He has no idea what is getting into his garden, or how this creature is able to do it.

Do you know what it is? There was a rabbit that lived in the garden. When the man built the fence, it didn’t keep the rabbit out because the rabbit was already in. in fact, by placing the fence around the garden the man was actually helping the rabbit by putting up a boundary that would protect the rabbit from any other predators. His attempt at a solution was only making the problem worse.

This man spent all his time trying to solve a problem that was destroying his garden. When in fact, the problem was right in front of him the whole time and he never saw it.

Context: John says that there is a difference between living in the light and living in darkness. Somehow living in the light means your life looks different. We can spend so much time trying to pursue that on our own and trying to figure out what that means. But so often, the problem is actually right in front of us and we never even see it. And so, we fight and struggle to fix our lives on our own. But in Christ, God provides us a better solution.

Passage

1 John 2:15–17 (NIV)

15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. 16 For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.

There is a problem with this passage that requires some extra thought. If we glance over these words too quickly, we might jump to the wrong conclusions. Let’s remember it is the apostle John who is writing these words. It is John who is telling the people of the church “Do not love the world.” But wait, it is this same John who wrote in his gospel perhaps the most recognized Bible verse in America—John 3:16. “For God so loved the world.” In one letter John writes that God loves the world so much that he will give anything for it. Then in another letter John writes to instruct the church to be careful not to love to world. So, God loves the world, but we are not supposed to love the world? Maybe the meaning of this passage is not so simple after all.

Today we are considering just these three verses from 1 John 2. And we need to ask a few tough questions. What does John mean when he says that we are not to love the world? And what does John mean that we are to love the Father? Here’s the thing. I think the answer to both those questions means just as much for us in the church today as it did for John’s original audience two thousand years ago.

Love for the World

Agape

So, let’s start with love for the world. We need to focus on two words in particular: love and world. Some of you may know that the Greek language has several different words that all translate into English as love. In this passage John uses the highest of all meanings for love; he uses the Greek words agape. This is not the kind of love that talks about affection or good feelings or pleasure. Agape is a sacrificial love. It is a love that gives. It is a love that is steadfast. It is a love that holds strong commitment. It is a love that does not let go.

I love to go play a round of golf. But that’s not agape. Trust me, I do not have any strong commitments to my golf game. I do not make sacrifices for my level of golf. If you’ve ever played a round of golf with me you know this is true. But in a completely different way, I also say that I love my family. This is a completely different kind of love. I do hold strong commitments to my family. I do make sacrifices for my family. My love for family is steadfast. It does not let go. This is agape.

John is saying, don’t love the world like that—agape. Don’t love the world in such a way that you sacrifice important parts of your life for it. Don’t love the world in such a way that you cannot let go. It’s okay to have some affections in this world. It’s okay to take some pleasure in the good things of this world which God provides. But agape kind of love is reserved for something different.

Kosmos

This brings us to the second word to which we need to pay some closer attention. World. It is the Greek word kosmos. This one is tricky because kosmos can have different nuances depending upon the context of the passage. Generally, kosmos refers to the created universe. In some instances, the context can narrow the meaning a bit to refer only to the parts of the natural world that have fallen into sin. How do we know the difference? One clue in this passage is the inclusion of other words that tip the nuance in a particular direction. John uses three examples of what he means by the kosmos. These examples show us what in particular we should not love in this world. John’s use of the word ‘flesh’—Greek sarx—is almost always a reference to the natural world that has fallen into sin. He talks about lust of the eyes. And he also talks about the pride of life. There are two Greek words for life. Zoe refers to the life of the soul. Bios refers to the physical life. John uses bios to describe the kind of pride which we should avoid.

What kind of love for the world is John talking about? It must be different than the world he refers to in John 3:16. Maybe there’s something somewhere else in scripture that can help. In fact, there is. In fact, maybe John had these words of Jesus in mind when he wrote this letter.

Matthew 6

Matthew 6:19–24 (NIV)

19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

24 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

I think that what John refers to as love for the world and what Jesus refers to as treasures on earth are the same thing. In both cases here, what John and what Jesus are talking about are things in this world that are temporary, things that are here for a moment and then gone. Things like money, or power, or positions, or prestige, or status. And what both John and Jesus are saying is that when you and I have an agape kind of love for things like these, then we cannot truly love the Father. When we have a steadfast devotion and an unrelenting commitment to things like money and power and prestige, then we cannot have any kind of steadfast devotion to our heavenly Father. An unrelenting commitment to one automatically cancels out any kind of unrelenting commitment to the other.

Treasures on Earth

What do you think Jesus has in mind when he talks about treasures on earth? Since I think John has a connection in mind with these passages, I think we can use them together to help figure this out.

Hoarding wealth | Cable shows | my house | Apple

The easiest explanation might be the one Jesus gives to conclude his teaching in Matthew 6. You cannot serve both God and money. Let’s dig a little deeper in to this. Is money itself the problem? I don’t think that’s what Jesus is saying. Money by itself has a useful economic function. So, there is no sin by itself in having or using money. What Jesus specifically says is that we should not store up these treasures. Here again, let’s dig a little deeper. Does this mean we should not have savings accounts at the bank? Again, no. I don’t think this is what Jesus is after. Maybe it would be better to think of it in terms of hoarding.

Maybe you’ve seen some cable television shows about people who have a problem with hoarding. They fill their houses to overflowing with things that they absolutely do not need and could not possibly ever use. But somehow, they have convinced themselves in an unhealthy way that they DO need all of this. So, they cannot stop themselves from piling up all this stuff.

You and I so very often treat money that way. Let’s be honest about that. We’re Americans. It’s what we do. We hoard wealth. We take more wealth than what we actually ever need to comfortably survive while about two-thirds of the rest of the world’s population lives in poverty. And we convince ourselves that it’s not a sin by using softer words like ‘affluence’ to describe it.

Sometimes I think it is a sin that I live in a house that is over 2000 square feet. Big enough that each of my children has their own bedroom. When more than half of the world lives in a one-room home, if they have a home at all. But here is my confession. Here is where this becomes a sin for me. I’ve convinced myself that I need it. That I cannot live without it any other way.

Steve Jobs brought Apple computers back to the top of the technology world. He did it not just by creating new products. He did it by brilliantly executing a marketing strategy that revolved around one mission. To convince you that you could not live without the latest Apple product that you never knew you needed. Another confession. I fell for it. I have an iPhone and a MacBook computer.

You and I live in a world that is stuck on a track in one direction. So often the lives of so many people revolve completely around the love—the hoarding, the storing up—of all these temporary and momentary things of wealth. Sometimes it becomes the singular mission of our lives. Douglas county ranks as one of the highest per capita counties in the country for income. Yet a national survey compiled over the last ten years shows that for the area of Douglas county the highest concern and cause of anxiety for this county was financial stability. We have more money here than most other Americans, and yet our greatest anxieties are over money.

And this is the community in which we live. Our agape love for the things of this world—our hoarding up of treasures on earth—only seem to result in creating more problems. It only seems to produce more stress and more anxiety. What we need is a different way to go. We need a different way to view what is truly important in this world. We need a different focus on what our treasures should truly look like. We need saving from ourselves. From our own greed. From our own sin.

Love for the Father

And this is where Jesus comes in. When our hearts are focused so intently on loving the things of this world we cannot love God. It’s not that we deny God. It’s just that we relegate God somewhere beneath the first loves of our heart. So, in the health & wealth gospel that you find on cable TV or Christian bookstores, you find a version of religion in which God only serves the purpose of giving you what it is your heart truly desires—money and wealth. But Jesus comes to turn that around.

Proper place | Love for Father puts other things in place

You see, what God offers us in Jesus is a better way to position the loves and the passions of our hearts. John says that if we truly love the Father with an agape style love, then all these other material concerns of this world will find their proper place. Because only when we have a proper love for God first does our relationship with money and wealth find its true meaning. And it’s not to hoard up these things for ourselves, but rather, to see these things as good gifts from our heavenly Father. And we are stewards—caretakers—of those good gifts. And our place in having those things is not to hoard them up, but to use them and enjoy them for God’s purposes and for God’s pleasure, and for God’s glory.

A love for the Father sets us on a new track. It creates a new boundary for how we see all the things of this world. For how we use all the things of this world.

And so now I take another look at the 2000 square foot home in which I live and ask a different question. Instead of convincing myself that I need this and cannot live without it, I ask how I can use this blessing to further the mission and purpose God has placed upon me as a disciple—as a follower of Jesus. I am a steward of these blessings; how can I use them for God’s good purposes in this world? And you know what? Maybe the answer to some of these questions will be that it is in fact more than what I need. And the answer is to downsize and get rid of a few of my possessions. Maybe the answer will be to use the wealth that I have been given differently, because I no longer see it as my wealth—it is God’s gift to me to use for his purposes, for the shalom flourishing our God’s world.

Heart devoted to God directs how to see & use treasures

You see, a true love for the Father does not throw away all these other things of the world. It’s not a zero-sum game in which choosing one completely dumps all of the other. Rather, the one to which our hearts are devoted will direct what it is we do with the other. So, when our hearts are devoted to God, that directs what it is we should do with our earthly treasures.

Treasures in Heaven

And here’s the part where all of this comes home. Jesus comes and gives us a new place to devote our hearts—to the heavenly Father. He offers us a better way to live. He provides access to this through his grace alone. He adopts us into his covenant family and sets us on a new path. We don’t have to audition. We don’t have to first prove ourselves worthy. This new life in Christ is freely offered to us. The invitation is always there no matter what.

Earthly treasures become heavenly treasures

And when we begin to walk this path, when we begin to live this new life in which our hearts are devoted first-and-foremost to the Father, then something amazing happens to our earthly treasures. All of those things take on a new meaning and a higher purpose. In fact, we could even say that our earthly treasures become treasures in heaven.

Follow me on this. When things like money and possessions are hoarded and stored up just for me and what I want because those are the things that I love most, then those things are earthly treasures that will never last and will pull me away from true love of the Father. But when that very same wealth and those very same possessions are placed under God’s domain and seen as good gifts from him, then they take on new purpose and new meaning. They transform from being earthly treasures of my own love into becoming heavenly treasures used for the eternal purpose and glory of God.

Our hearts have great power. Where our hearts direct passions, our lives will follow. John tells us to be careful where our hearts are directing us.

Today, take stock of what your treasures on earth might be. And turn your heart toward the Father. And turn those earthly treasures into heavenly treasures.

God invites you into a new way of living. He sets a new boundary around the garden of our world for us to enjoy living for him. It is for our good and for his glory. Be careful today that you do not take anything inside of that boundary that doesn’t belong, that only ends up consuming and destroying all that God has provided in the garden of our lives. And instead, take and use everything that God has given so that the world in which we live may flourish and grow according to his good design and purpose, using all the good treasures that God has given to us.