A Command to Obey
A Command to Obey
Some time ago a book was written on church life called, "The Frog In The Kettle." Interesting title designed to call to mind how it’s easy to gradually drift into trouble.
The way to boil a frog is not to put him in a pot of boiling water. Put him in a pot of cold water, and he’s perfectly comfortable.
Transition: The parable of the boiling frog demonstrates how we gradually move into places and attitudes that are dangerous………..How we come to love the world.
We don’t dive right in…..slowly wade in. We start at the shallow end of the pool & slowly we find ourselves getting in deeper and deeper.
But it’s so slow that we hardly realize it. Finally, we’re in over our heads, struggling to spiritually survive. That image=fitting description of what can happen in a Xtian’s life.
The question that I’d like to pose to all of us is a question that we must answer over and over again throughout our lives. Who/what are we going to love? Who gets allegience
A Christian must not live with a divided heart. We’re told in this scripture not to love the world.
We mustn’t love the world because of: What it is; What it does to us; What we are; Where the world is going
1. Just what is the world?
The New Testament word world has at least three different meanings.
· It sometimes means the physical world, the earth..
· It also means the human world, mankind: “(John 3:16).
· This world named here as our enemy is an invisible spiritual system opposed to God.
TV announcer, “We bring you the news from the world of sports.” not a separate planet.
It’s an organized system, made up of ideas, people, activities, & purposes. World of finance” and “the world of politics” are also systems of their own.
“The world,” in the Bible, is Satan’s system for opposing the work of Christ on earth.
Turn over to 1 John 5:19: “We know that we are the children of God and the whole world is under the control of the evil one”.
Jesus himself called Satan “the prince of this world”. Bible says our struggle=believers isn’t about flesh & blood but Vs the rulers, the authorities, the powers this dark world…..
Devil has organization evil spirits working with him & influencing affairs of this world.
Just as the H S uses 2 accomplish God’s will earth, so Satan uses people 2 evil purposes.
A Christian is a member of the human world, and he lives in the physical world, but he doesn’t belong to the spiritual world that is Satan’s system for opposing God.
“The world,” then, is not a natural habitat for a believer. The believer’s citizenship is in heaven, and all his effective resources for living on earth come from his Father in heaven.
The believer is somewhat like a scuba diver. The water is not man’s natural habitat. But there is a second—and more serious—reason why Christians must not love the world.
2. We are not to love the world because of What the World Does to Us (1 John 2:15–16)
Verse 15 says, “If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him”.
Anything in a Christian’s life that causes him to lose his enjoyment of the Father’s love or his desire to do the Father’s will is worldly and must be avoided.
John points out world system uses 3 devices to trap Christians: the lust flesh, lust of eyes.
“The flesh” doesn’t mean “the body.” It refers to basic nature of unregenerate man that makes him blind to spiritual truth…it’s the nature we receive in our physical birth…
Spirit is the nature we receive in the second birth.
A Christian has both the old nature (flesh) and the new nature (Spirit) in his life. And what a battle these two natures can wage! (Gal. 5:17–23)
God has given man certain desires, and these desires are good. Hunger, thirst, weariness, and sex are not at all evil in themselves.
There is nothing wrong about eating, drinking, sleeping, or begetting children. But when the flesh nature controls them, they become sinful “lusts.”
Hunger is not evil, but gluttony is sinful. Thirst is not evil, but drunkenness is a sin. Sleep is a gift of God, but laziness is shameful. Sex is God’s precious gift when used rightly; but when used wrongly, it becomes immorality.
Now you can see how the world operates. It appeals to the normal appetites and tempts us to satisfy them in forbidden ways. In today’s world we are surrounded by all kinds of allurements that appeal to our human nature—and “the flesh is weak”.
The second device that the world uses to trap the Christian is called “the lust of the eyes.” We sometimes forget that the eyes can have an appetite! (Have you ever said, “Feast your eyes on this”?)
There are pleasures that gratify the sight and the mind—sophisticated and intellectual pleasures. Back in the days of the Apostle John, the Greeks and Romans lived for entertainments and activities that excited the eyes.
Times have not changed very much! In view of television, perhaps every Christian’s prayer ought to be, “Turn away my eyes from looking at vanity” (Ps. 119:37.
Do you remember Achan in the 7th chapter of Joshua? He was a soldier that brought defeat to Joshua’s army because of the lust of his eyes.
God had warned Israel not to take any spoils from the condemned city of Jericho, but Achan did not obey.
He explained: “When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and 200 shekels of silver, then I coveted them, and took them”.
The lust of the eyes led him into sin, and his sin led the army into defeat.
The eyes (like the other senses) are a gateway into the mind. The lust of the eyes, therefore, can include intellectual pursuits that are contrary to God’s Word. There is pressure to make Christians think the way the world thinks. God warns us against “the counsel of the ungodly.” This does not mean that Christians ignore education and secular learning; it does mean they are careful not to let intellectualism crowd God into the background.
The third device is the “boastful pride of life”
People have always tried to outdo others in their spending and their getting. The boastful pride of life motivates much of what such people do.
Why is it that so many folks buy houses, cars, appliances, or wardrobes that they really can’t afford? Why do they yield to the “travel now, pay later” advertising and get themselves into hopeless debt taking vacations far beyond their means?
Largely because they want to impress other people—because of their “pride of life.” They may want folks to notice how affluent or successful they are.
Most of us don’t go that far, but it’s amazing what stupid things people do just to make an impression. They even sacrifice honesty and integrity in return for notoriety and a feeling of importance.
The world appeals to a Christian through the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. And once the world takes over in one of these areas, a Christian will lose his enjoyment of the Father’s love and his desire to do the Father’s will.
Worldliness creeps up on a believer; it’s a gradual process. John warns us, “Love not the world!”—but too often our friendship with the world leads to love.
As a result, the believer becomes conformed to the world (Rom. 12:2) and you can hardly tell the two apart.
Sometimes we tend to idolize great athletes, TV stars, or political leaders who profess to be Christians—as if these individuals were able to be of special help to Almighty God.
We must not love the world because of What a Christian Is (1 John 2:12–14)
John calls his Christian readers: “little children... fathers... young men... little children.” What’s he referring to? “Little children” refers to all believers. Literally, this word means “born ones.”
We begin as little children—but we mustn’t stay that way! Only as a Christian grows spiritually does he overcome the world.
John mentions three kinds of Christians in a local church family: fathers, young men, and little children.
The “fathers,” of course, are mature believers who have an intimate personal knowledge of God. Because they know God, they know the dangers of the world.
No Christian who has experienced the joys and wonders of fellowship with God, and of service for God, will want to live on the substitute pleasures this world offers.
The “young men” are the conquerors: they have overcome the wicked one, Satan, who is the prince of this world system. How did they overcome him? Through the Word of God! “I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the Word of God abideth in you” (1 John 2:14).
The “young men,” then, are not yet fully mature; but they are maturing, for they use the Word of God effectively. The Word is the only weapon that will defeat Satan (Eph. 6:17).
The “little children” addressed in 1 John 2:13 are not those addressed in 1 John 2:12; two different Greek words are used.
The word in 1 John 2:13 carries the idea of “immature ones,” or little children still under the authority of teachers and tutors.
These are young Christians who have not yet grown up in Christ. Like physical children, these spiritual children know their father, but they still have some growing to do.
Here, then, is the Christian family! All of them are “born ones,” but some of them have grown out of infancy into spiritual manhood and adulthood.
It is the growing, maturing Christian to whom the world does not appeal.
A Christian stays away from the world because of what the world is (a satanic system that hates and opposes Christ), because of what the world does to us (attracts us to live on sinful substitutes), and because of what he (the Christian) is—a child of God.
There’s a 4th reason we are not to love the world. Because of Where the World Is Going (1 John 2:17)
The only sure thing about this world system is that it is not going to be here forever. One day the system will be gone, and the pleasant attractions within it will be gone: all are passing away. What is going to last?
Spiritual Christians keep themselves “loosely attached” to this world because they live for something far better. They are “n on the earth”.
In Bible times, many believers lived in tents because God didn’t want them to settle down and feel at home in this world. Are you living for eternity or time?
Long after this world system, with its proud philosophies, its selfish intellectualism, and its godless materialism, has been forgotten, and long after this planet has been replaced by the new heavens and the new earth, God’s faithful servants will remain—sharing the glory of God for all eternity.
Illustration: "If I had a brother who had been murdered, what would you think of me if I ...daily consorted with the assassin who drove the dagger into my brother’s heart; surely I too must be an accomplice in the crime. Sin murdered Christ; will you be a friend to it? Sin pierced the heart of the Incarnate God; can you love it?"