Who do you love?
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God or the World?
God or the World?
Our Text this morning is pretty straight forward. There is only one command.
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.
Do not love the world or the things in the world. Why? Why should we not love the world? Because we can not love God and the world. Right? Listen to the end of verse 15, “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. If you are a child of God, that is a joint heir with Jesus and you are living in the power of HIs spirit. If you are a Christian is this world. Remember what the word Christian means? Little Christ. The world will treat you like it treated our Lord and how did the world treat Jesus? Look at John 15:18 with me:
18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.
The world hates God so If you love God, the world will hate you. Why did the world hate Jesus? Because Jesus is pure light right? And what does John 3:19 say about wicked people and the light?
19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
Before we go on, let’s look at the term world. What are we called to not love? When the New Testament uses the term World. It has three possible meanings. The first is the physical planet. Like in Acts 17:24.
24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,
The second possible meaning is people. What is a good example of this use?
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Our text is not using either of the first two. Let’s look at how my commentary describes the third and final use of the word world.
1–3 John—Fellowship in God’s Family Do Not Love the World (v. 15a)
Sometimes the word “world” is used to refer to the organized evil system with its principles and its practices, all under the authority of Satan, which includes all teachings, ideas, culture, attitudes, activities, etc., that are opposed to God. A fixation on the material over the spiritual, promotion of self over others, pleasure over principle
What are some examples?
The fetus inside the womb is: World says what? It’s a clump of cells. What does God say?
13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
4 Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
Before Jeremiah was formed in the womb, God knew him so when does God say life begins. I would argue at conception.
What is another example, Who can you marry? The world says you can marry anyone OR anything that makes you Same sex marriage. But what does The Bible say marriage is?
24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
2 But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.
Our last example is the world says do whatever makes you happy. My wife’s aunt was at a wedding where they change the, “as long as we both shall live” part of the covenant promise of marriage to, “as long as we both are happy” What does God say?
1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Does that sound like do what makes you happy? It sounds like we are to give our entire lives to the Lord as a living sacrifice.
Another verse that came to mind was Matthew 20:28
28 even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
We are not called to pursue our own interest to do what makes us happy we are called to serve God by serving others.
We need to be careful, We just looked at a few examples and I am sure you can come up with many more. But you need to guard your heart. If you don’t struggle with the examples we looked at, don’t feel like you are better than those that do and certainly don’t judge those that do. Once again this is very easy to say the right thing but what is truly in our hearts. You are not better then those who still love the darkness, God by His grace has called you into His marvelous light. Let our hearts break for the people around us who are still blinded by the evil one. Remember the wicked are not our enemies Satan is. Those who use us and miss treat us are not the enemy Satan is. Our hearts should break that they are deceived. It is only by God’s grace that we are here this morning. There is nothing special about us there is just something very special about the one who called us out of the darkness into this marvelous light. Amen? There is such power in this truth. When you realize that it is only by the grace of God that you no longer love the darkness and you realize that those who do are deceived, when they sin against you, you can have compassion instead of hurt and anger if you can grasp this truth. As they miss treat you they are deceived and you are no better than they are you are just saved by Jesus’ grace and mercy. Jesus set the bar pretty high on how we are to treat those who miss treat us and remember if we are a child of God this world will hate us and persecute us because that is how it treated our Lord. Let’s look at Jesus example how he treated those who miss treated Him. Jesus is the King of King and Lord of Lords right? Some day ever knee will bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord. Correct? Should that have happened the first time He came to earth? Should He have been worshipped the first time? Of course, but people were blind to who He really was, How did they treat him?
27 Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters, and they gathered the whole battalion before him. 28 And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, 29 and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” 30 And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head.
33 And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. 34 And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments. 35 And the people stood by, watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!” 36 The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine 37 and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” 38 There was also an inscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews.”
Look at the heart of compassion our Lord has’ “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” So when you are miss treated and persecuted this is the high standard God has set. Now we in our own power can not accomplish this level of compassion. It is only by the power of the Holy Spirt that we can turn that hurt and pain of persecution into love and compassion for our persecutor why “because they know not what they do” and I don’t think they realize whom they are serving. Let’s look at verse 16, and see what John has to say about the world.
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.
First the desires of the flesh, that is the sinful cravings that originate with in our flesh, it desires self gratification. Our sinful impulses.
Second desire of the eyes. I couldn’t help think of modern day marketing. Does it not, for the most part, use the desire of our eyes to entice us to buy their products? They use covetousness to drive sales.
Last is the pride of life. I need help on this one. I think the first two are obvious. I think we all understand the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes, but what is the pride of life? I went to Pastor John Piper for a little help on this one. To understand this we need to look at the greek word translated life here.
The word for “life” does not refer to the state of being alive but rather to the things in the world that make life possible. For example, in 3:17 it is translated “goods.” “Anyone who has this world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?” Jesus uses the word in Mark 12:44 when he says that the poor widow in the temple “put in everything that she had, her whole living.”
So the first two are us desiring what we don’t have and the last one is us taking pride in what we do have. Remember it is easy for us to say the right thing, “I don’t love the world!” But how do you know if it is true? I want to look at seven signs that you are loving the world from my Bible commentary. So,
What are the telltale signs of loving the world?
First, when the world, or any object in it, so engrosses our thoughts to such a degree that it excludes serious reflection on the things of God, we are guilty of loving the world. When the world is our constant associate, the last companion of our thoughts at night and the first when we awaken in the morning, we are loving the world.
Second, when the things of the world engross most or all of our conversation, we are loving the world.
Third, if we are unwilling to part with it when need be, or to give it or anything in it up to God’s purposes, we are loving the world.
Fourth, discontentment with our portion of the world’s goods proclaims a criminal love for it. If we secretly grieve because we are not blessed with every earthly convenience or delight that others possess, we are loving the world. If we are not entirely willing that God should govern his own world and distribute his own gifts as he pleases and to whom he pleases, it proves that we pay homage to the world, which belongs only to God.
Fifth, when we pursue it with greater zeal and enjoy it with higher relish than we do serving God and enjoying his favor, we are loving the world.
Sixth, if we pride ourselves in earthly distinctions, if we expect great deference and resent the least contradiction or slight from others, we are loving the world.
Seventh, when we seek to acquire or retain its objects in a wrong manner or by unwarrantable means, we are loving the world.
Allen, D. L. (2013). 1–3 John: Fellowship in God’s Family. (R. K. Hughes, Ed.) (pp. 97–98). Wheaton, IL: Crossway.
Why is it so important that you examine yourself this morning? In regards to loving the world? Because you can’t love God and the world and which you choose to love determines your eternal destiny. Look at verse 17 with me
17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
So if you choose to love the world it is passing away and you will pass away with it. It is referring to the second death. You will spend eternity separated form the Love of God. And the warning John has been giving us is what? It is easy to say the right thing, we all know that to love the world is to be an enemy of God. So we know the right answer is of course I love God and not the world but if we examine the list of seven signs earlier are you loving God or the world? I always struggle when someone I know dies. The first question that comes to mind, “Did they know God?” Could I have done more to show them the love of Christ. Because eternity is forever, there are no redos. Let us fight the distraction of loving the world and Seek Lord while it is still day and strive to be the light to those who walk in darkness this morning.
So if you are loving the world this morning there is only two possibilities. One you don’t even know Jesus as your savior and please don’t leave with out Him. Nothing else in life matters until you get this right. But there is a second possibility.
16 So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.
“He loves thee too little who loves anything together with thee which he loves not for thy sake.” ~Saint Augustine