Steer Clear or Sin

1 John 2:15–17 ESV

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 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. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

Introduction

Two weeks ago we started this series entitled, “Beloved”

And through it we are looking at the instructions of John the elder to the body of Christ

John is writing in response to a heredical movement taking place in the johannine community..

and he is reminding the body what it looks like to be a true disciple of Jesus in comparison to the false believers who are present.

Recap

Two weeks ago

we looked at John 4:21 where John reminds the church that we are called to Love people the way that Jesus loves people

John points back to the Gospel of John in chapter 13:34-35 where Jesus commands the disciples to be people of Love..

More specifically, people who love as he loves..

and he reminds us that if we do not love, we are not of God..

And we cannot say we love god, but not our others..

This week

This week were going to turn to chapter 2.. verse 15-17..

and were going to see another instruction of the elder to the body.

And this instruction is found in chapter 2 verse 1..

1 John 2:1 ESV

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

John tells the believers..

As beleivers

We are to steer clear of sin..

Now that may seem rather obvious today in our christian world..

but there was a reason John is addressing this here..

Context

As we talked briefly about two weeks ago..

There was a problem in the Johanine church at Ephesus during 1 John

and the problem was a group of false believers that arisen within the community

and was leading other astray to follow after their bad doctrine..

and this was putting believers as risk of walking away from their authentic relationship with Christ..

The main push of this heretical movement came from a group known as the Gnostics..

Gnostic

Gnosticism was an ancient form of heresy, or ways of believing that were contrary to the truth..

The gnostics believed in personal spiritual knowledge.. or gnosis in the greek..

not faith..

in other words if they knew enough, and knew the right wisdom.. they could transcend to devine levels and be released from there mortal bonds…

For this reason they loved the teachings of Jesus ..

because the believed he possessed divine knowledge that could lead them to divine ascension..

but they did not believe he was the savior..

and would not confess him as the christ..

and did not believe he was divine himself..

and would not confess him as God..

Denied the flesh

One particle thing they denied about Jesus was the concept of hypostatic union..

or that Jesus was fully divine and fully human..

In fact They believed he wasn't human at all

But only spirit only..

This lead them to the belief that the flesh did not matter at all.. because only the spirit did..

and such.. there could be no real thing as sin..

so people were free to do everything they wanted..

because eventually they would transcend out of this flesh..

Community

And they were spreading this message, and more, to the people in the community..

AND ITS IN THIS CONTEXT THAT JOHN THE ELDER WRITES TO INSTRUCT THE COMMUNITY..

and correct this heretical teaching..

And so he says..

1 John 2:1 ESV

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.

and as we come into verse 15-17, John hits the real meat of this issue if you will.

And so were going to spend a few moments looking at this passage and breaking it down..

The Passage

Do not love the world or the things of this world

John starts in verse 15 with..

1 John 2:15 ESV

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.

World

Now, Its important to understand John is not talking about the physical world..

or event he people of this world..

After all, john 3:16 tells us that God himself loves the world..

And he is not talking about the way in which god created life..

Greek

The greek word here is kosmos, and it signifies and ordered system or arrangement.

particularly in the context of this passage.. it refers to a system of values and behaviors opposed to God

in scripture.. the world stands as a symbol of the ways of the flesh and the enemy…

So John is telling.. you cannot love the system of this world.. and Gods ways at the same time..

Dichotomy

The system of this world and the ways of God are diametrically oposed to one another..

they are at odds..

they are two separate masters..

And we can only serve one at time..

Matthew 6:24 ESV

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other….

We have to choose which we will serve, or devote our life too..

Joshua 24:15 ESV

And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

we have a choice in who we dovote our lives too..

Apart

Paul will later tell us to come out from the world..

Romans 12:2 ESV

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

2 Corinthians 6:17 ESV

Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you,

As believers we are to come out of the world in the way in which we live..

And John says.. True believers are epitomized by love for god and love for one another instead of love for this world..

infact..

1 John 2:15 ESV

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.

John makes this so clear that he tells us that if anyone loves the world.. Then Gods love is not in them..

They do not belong to him..

All that is in the world.. is not from the father..

In verse 16, John continues.. and defines what the system of this world is..

1 John 2:16 ESV

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.

Again, John is not speaking in generalities regarding all desire of the flesh, the and eyes..

he is not speaking of the created order or the natural way in which these things occurs ins Gods creation of mankind….

What he is referencing is the perversion of these things..

or what we would call sin..

when these things are weaponized against Gods created ways and his will for humanity..

Opposed

The desire to eat is good..

but the desire to be gluttonous is not..

The desire for your husband or wife is good..

but the desire for someone else is not..

Godly confidence is good..

but arrogant and pride are not..

It is the perversion of such things that become sin..

AND THIS IS HOW IT HAS BEEN SINCE HUMANITY BEGAN..

ITS THE SAME THING WE SEE IN THE GARDEN..

Original Sin

In genesis 3..

the serpent comes to temp eve..

and he convinces her that nothing bad will come of here eating the fruit..

IN other words.. he says… there no such thing as sin.. theres no consequence to your action.. eat it and be well!

and look what verse 6 says..

Genesis 3:6 ESV

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, (Desires of the flesh) and that it was a delight to the eyes, (Desires of the flesh) and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, (pride of life) she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

Did you see it..

the desire of the flesh.. good for food..

The desire of the eyes.. it looked good..

The pride of life.. desire to make one wise..

and she took and ate..

Sin

You see just like the gnostics of Johns day..

telling people there is not such thing as sin or the consequences of sin..

we are living in a day that says you can do whatever you want..

god understands..

or..

Grace.. grace, grace, grace, grace, grace,

dont worry about sin.. you prayed the prayer once!!!!

BUT JOHN SAYS NOT!!!

WE ARE NOT CALLED TO LOVE THIS WORLD

OR THE SYSTEM OF THIS WORLD

WE ARE CALLED TO STEER CLEAR OF SIN..

AND LOVE GOD AND HIS WAYS INSTEAD!

sin

almost all sin can be wrapped us in these three..

the lust of the flesh..

the lust of the eyes..

the pride of life..

In other words..

whatever fells good..

what ever looks good..

and whatever makes me look good.

Theses are the core veins of sin..

and we are called to steer clear from them!!

BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT OF THE FATHER!!!!!

INSTEAD!!!

WE ARE CALLED TO DO THE WILL OF GOD!

But Whoever does the will of God…

1 John 2:17 ESV

And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

If we love God.. then we will do the will of god

IN OTHER WORDS BELIEF MUST MATCH BEHAVIOR

Do you know what its called when it does not? hipocrasy!

If you love god.. you will live in Gods ways..

1 John 5:3 ESV

For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. (ITS A JOY)

Jesus

John 14:15 ESV

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

IF WE LOVE GOD.. WE WILL KEEP HIS COMMANDS.. WE WILL DO HIS WILL INSTEAD OF OUR OWN..

WE WILL LIVE HIS DESIRES INSTEAD OF OUR OWN..

Comands

What does it look like to keep his commands?

real quick.. what does it look like to live gods ways!

Galatians 5:16–18 ESV

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. (Remember what John said?) For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Change the way you walk

that word walk refers to the patterns in which you live..

Paul says.. patteren yourself by the ways of the spirit..

who does what?

testifies of Jesus according to the gospel of John..

And if you will change the ways you walk .. you will not gratify the desires of the flesh..

Disicpleship.

this is the process of disicpleship in our lives..

learning to live the ways the bible tells us to live..

Be led of the spirit

Second.. we have a helper as well..

John 16:13 ESV

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth…

John 14:26 ESV

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

The spirit of God helps us not to gratify the desires of the flesh, if we will listen to him..

he speaks..

He guides..

We know..

and must follow..

Abides forever

1 John 2:17 ESV

And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

If we will learn to live by Gods ways and will..

and do his will..

John says we will abide forever

John 14:1–3 ESV

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

Jesus has prepared a place for those who love him..

who serve him..

who follow him..

Contrary

The gnostics thought head knownledge enabled you to ascend..

but its not head knowledge..

its heart knowledge..

Jesus says a couple verses later..

John 14:6 ESV

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

John 3:16 ESV

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life

Ephesians 2:8–9 ESV

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

It is faith in Jesus

Altar Call

we are called to love god and his ways..

not the ways of this world..

and maybe your here today..

and your thinking..

pastor..

I think i have loved the ways of this world too much..

I need to get back to him..

well there is good news!!

1 John 2:1 ESV

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.