The World: One Enemy We're not to Love!
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Introduction
Introduction
Bottom Line: The world system is a dangerous spiritual enemy that lures Christians into loving it instead of God.
Bottom Line: The world system is a dangerous spiritual enemy that lures Christians into loving it instead of God.
Our primary passages for understanding the world are James 4:4-6, 1 John 2:15-17 and John 15:18-25.
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. 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. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.
1. The exhortation: Don’t love the world or the things in the world.
1. The exhortation: Don’t love the world or the things in the world.
a. Don’t love
a. Don’t love
The verb for love here is agape and is used here in the sense of “to strive after,” “to try to get” as in when Jesus said the Pharisees “love the important seats in the synagogues,” Luke 11:43; You can also think of it as “to prefer,” in the sense of liking things better than the things of God, as in when Jesus said “people love darkness instead of the light,” John 3:19. It’s what they prefer.
APPLICATION: What are you striving after in this life? What do you prefer? Is it God and the things of God or the world and the things of the world? To answer that question let’s look at the next part of the exhortation.
b. The world.
b. The world.
The world or world system is the transitory system of beliefs, standards, values and priorities accepted, embraced and promoted by the culture and society in which we live. It is opposed to God, influenced by the flesh and controlled by Satan.
The Greek word translated world is κόσμος. It’s used in different ways in the Bible. Sometimes it refers to the planet on which we live,John 12:26, Jesus came into the world.
Sometimes it is used to refer to the people who live on the planet as in John 3:16.
And sometimes it’s used as we’re using it today to refer to that system or world order that is alienated from and opposed to God.
c. The things in the world:
c. The things in the world:
i. The desires of the flesh, what the flesh desires, Galatians 5:19-21
i. The desires of the flesh, what the flesh desires, Galatians 5:19-21
ii. The desires of the eyes, what the eyes desire. Matthew 6:22, Psalm 101:3, Job 31:1-8
ii. The desires of the eyes, what the eyes desire. Matthew 6:22, Psalm 101:3, Job 31:1-8
“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light.
I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless. I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not cling to me.
The lust of the eyes has respect to seeing, consequently the lust to see, and to see that which is the object of such lust. Hence Spener explains correctly: “all sinful lust which seeks for enjoyment in the very seeing,” and so does Huther: “the desire of seeing that which is unseemly, and the sinful gratification afforded by seeing it.” Lange, J. P., Schaff, P., Brain, K., & Mombert, J. I. (2008).
The world promotes its values visually to entrap us.
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iii. The pride of life, the life that causes people to boast. James 4:13-17, Luke 12:16-21
iii. The pride of life, the life that causes people to boast. James 4:13-17, Luke 12:16-21
Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.
Arrogance that comes from having what one needs to sustain life; hence, ‘property,’ ‘possessions,’ ‘riches.
2. First reason for the exhortation: Love for the Father and the world cannot go together.
2. First reason for the exhortation: Love for the Father and the world cannot go together.
a. The world hates the Father, Jesus and His followers John 15:18-25
a. The world hates the Father, Jesus and His followers John 15:18-25
“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’
b. The best that the world offers falls short of what God offers.
b. The best that the world offers falls short of what God offers.
The world’s peace John 14:27
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
ii. The world’s wisdom 1 Corinthians 1:20-21
Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.
iii. The world’s strong 1 Corinthians 1:27
But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.
c. The world is controlled by the evil one. 1 John 5:19, Ephesians 2:2
c. The world is controlled by the evil one. 1 John 5:19, Ephesians 2:2
We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.
d. The one who loves the world lives in hostility to God. James 4:4-6
d. The one who loves the world lives in hostility to God. James 4:4-6
You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”
3. Second reason: Loving the transitory world doesn’t make sense for one who lives forever.
3. Second reason: Loving the transitory world doesn’t make sense for one who lives forever.
a. The world and its desires are passing away. 2 Peter 3:10
a. The world and its desires are passing away. 2 Peter 3:10
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.
b. The children of God remain forever. John 3:16, John 5:24.
b. The children of God remain forever. John 3:16, John 5:24.
APPLICATION: Do you have a favorite paper plate? I don’t mean style or color, I mean one actual paper plate you have used and treasured for years? That question doesn’t make sense, does it? Why would anyone value something that you know is of no worth after using it once? You wouldn’t. Look around you. Everything you see is a paper plate. Think about everything in your life, except people. Your home, your car, your photos, your bank account. All paper plates. Your coin collection, your awards, your most prized possessions.
4. The keys to overcoming the world.
4. The keys to overcoming the world.
a. Remember Jesus has already overcome the world. John 16:33
a. Remember Jesus has already overcome the world. John 16:33
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
b. Our faith in Jesus will overcome the world. 1 John 5:4-5
b. Our faith in Jesus will overcome the world. 1 John 5:4-5
for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
c. Continually renew your mind with God’s truth. Romans 12:1-2
c. Continually renew your mind with God’s truth. Romans 12:1-2
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.