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Prayer
Last week we examined Christian identity and John’s understanding of the position of the believer.
We also saw how John was encouraging the believers to grow up into Christ.
To grow up into mature manhood and obedience of faith.
The passage for this week and two weeks from now will show us the reason why he begins by reminding them who they are.
This week is about not loving the world and the next is about the anti-Christ.
1 John 2:15 (NKJV)
Do not love the world or the things in the world.
The Pitfall of Loving the World
Also known as the pitfall of taking the bait!
Now a couple of things to call to mind.
Defining “Love” properly
We need to remember what we talked about a couple of weeks ago...
When John says love, he does NOT mean a feeling toward something else.
Love begins in our thought processes, and moves to our affections, and finally is shown in our lives.
This is the kind of love that regards something as precious.
Love is more than a feeling.
Its the kind of love which has an attitude of preciousness toward an object.
The warning here for John is simple: don’t regard the world as precious.
Don’t set your heart and your affections on this world.
Don’t love the things that are opposed to God and His kingdom.
John goes on and says that...
The Warning of Taking the Bait
John is warning these believers not to regard as precious this world or anything in the world.
The warning for these believers is that everything that is in this world is not of the Father.
Meaning, that if they seek to set their hearts upon something that is not of the Father, it will lead the destruction.
When we see a warning in Scripture, we need to understand what it is trying to do in us.
The purpose of warnings in the Scriptures is like a “Curved Road Sign Ahead”
The warning from John to us is to look out!
There is a love that God hates.
Don’t set your heart on something that is not of the Father.
Don’t set your affections on something that isn’t lovely.
Don’t regard something as precious that is evil.
We need to love what God loves.
And we need to hate what God hates.
The secular lie is that this world is neutral.
News flash, there is nothing in this world that is neutral.
Politics
Public Education
Medical World
Everything we interact with in a normal day, is a part of this world system.
Don’t take the bait!
So before we go any further, we need to define, “the bait”
Defining the Bait “the world”
1 John 2:15 (NKJV)
Do not love the world or the things in the world.
What does John mean when he says “the world”?
Now to be fair, John uses this word multiple different ways.
Defintion #1
He uses it describe the world and universe in Genesis, John 1:10
It can be referring to universal understanding of the world, or the entirety of the cosmos without comment on the moral bend.
This is anything that we have in the world that James actually tells us to be thankful for because it comes from God.
SO James’ warning is that they be not deceived but actually give thanks for the good gifts all around them.
This is NOT how John is using “the world” here...
Defintion #2
Another way he describes the world is the need for Christians to evangelize the world.
He uses it to describe God’s love for the world, John 3:16
Definition #3
But what John is describing here is different from other places he uses the word.
When John says “Do not love the world”
What he has in mind here is EVERYTHING which is in rebellion to God.
The idea here is of the world of men in rebellion against God and therefore characterized by all that is in opposition to God.
This is what we might call “the world system.”
It involves the world’s values, pleasures, pastimes, and aspirations.
Another translation says, “Do not set your hearts on the godless world or anything in it.”
At the end of 1 John he says, 1 John 5:21
1 John 5:21 (NKJV)
Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
An idol can be defined as anything which has our ultimate love and affection.
It is not simply a big pole of wood that we sacrifice to, it is anything that we place as primary or ultimate in our lives.
Here it in another place...
James 4:4 (NKJV)
Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
Here’s the thing: the human race has been in a war since the beginning of time.
There has been a war far greater than anything that Hatfield’s and McCoy’s could imagine.
It has been a war between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent.
Two Categories of People
A war between the seed of Adam and the seed of Satan.
The Father is opposed to the seed of the serpent.
This seed of the serpent is in complete rejection of the Father and His plans and purposes.
The two categories are of unbelievers and believers.
Those who are opposed to God and His mission; and those who are in submission to God’s mission.
Those who love the world; and those who love God.
What Jesus is saying here is that everyone only has one master.
Now respectively, Christians can be ensnared in this world for a season.
Don’t take the bait!
But that is why John is warning us.
Part of the definition of the bait “the world” is what John describes this world to be like...
So there are three components which make up “the world”
The Desires of the Flesh
Now the word for desire in the New Testament is generally a neutral word.
But the context tells us how to understand if it is good or a bad thing.
We see an example of a good desire.
A desire to serve the people of God.
So desire ISN’T the problem here.
We don’t try and get rid of desire.
To desire is to be human.
But every human desires something, the question is: what are you desiring?
For John, the desires of the flesh could also be understood as the desires which come from the flesh.
Which is showing us that these desires are a BAD thing.
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