Title: Loving the World
Text: 1 Jn 2:15-17
We have seen in the previous messages from this epistle John has presented what we might call tests of true faith. Written with a two-fold purpose to refute those who deny the validity of true gospel message. Those who have cast doubts on the sufficiency of Christ's atoning sacrifice and resurrection and also as a way for members of the church to evaluate the genuineness of their own faith.
The verses we look at this morning present another one of those tests. Do we love the World? John gives a very forceful and very pointed statement of fact in the second sentence of verse 17 - "If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him."
A person who professes faith in Christ can examine the truthfulness of that profession by examining his or her life to determine if they love the world.
I know I've talked about it before, but we want to see how John uses the word world in this passage. It could at least at first glance be confusing, especially to new believers. After all in his gospel in one of the most well known passages in the Bible Jesus Himself said that God loved the world so much he gave His only Son for it. In that passage the world represents humanity, men and women created in the image of God. It tells us that God loved humanity so much that even in their sinfulness He was willing to go to the greatest extent of love to redeem them from that sinfulness..
In this passage John uses world in a different context. John isn't referring to the creation itself, but to a world view, a perspective towards life, a philosophical outlook, that is diametrically opposed to God. It is a world view that at the very least minimizes the place of God in life, a practical agnosticism that says acknowledges the possible existence of God and says its ok to believe God exists as long as it doesn't affect your decisions. In other words keep Him at home, don't bring Him into the market place where you work or play. It is a system that distorts the self-revelation of God to man it creates a ethereal god that has no form or substance or will other that the will of the individual. And, it is a system that deny's God all together. Those are very broad definitions any and all views that stand contrary to God's revelation of Himself are part of the world that John refers to here.
Paul in His letter to the Romans says that we must not be conformed to this kind of world, "but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect." Rom 12:2 (NAS)
John breaks these world views down to three basic categories in verse 16. The first of these is the lust of the flesh. The flesh here refers to the seat of our desires and urges. It has to do with feeling, touching, tasting, smelling, hearing and seeing. These desires of the flesh are natural and normal, but they must be controlled. I saw a Bible teacher on the television while on vacation last week, and I have no idea who she was, I didn't recognize her and didn't watch but a moment of the broadcast, but she asked a question which is applicable here, "do we mind our mind or does our mind mind us?" Lust an obsessive desire to fulfill the desires of the flesh, runaway desire as one writer put it. It is minding our minds rather than controlling our minds.
Paul lists the desires of the flesh in Gal 5:19-21 "Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality." The first three refer to sexual immorality. Included within the definitions of these words are adultery, prostitution, homosexuality, premarital relations and all types of sexual vice. The Bible places great emphasis on sexual immorality not because it is more heinous than other types of sin but because these more graphically display the characteristics of self-centeredness and rebellion against God and His intention and purpose for humanity. They represent a love of sin so reckless and bold it ceases to care what God or man thinks. They speak directly to sexual license which characterizes modern society.
The passage continues listing idolatry, anything that takes the place of the true God, sorcery, which conveys the idea of the occult but also refers to drug use, It is a translation of the word pharmakeia. enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, and envying, all dealing with personal relationships.
The last two are drunkenness, and carousing referring to alcohol abuse which in Paul's day, just as in ours, is a major contributor in marital infidelity, spouse and child abuse, the destruction of families and many other moral problems within society.
The lust of the eyes is the next category in John's definition. We talked about this on Sunday nights while we were studying discipline. Again it is not seeing that is wrong, but seeing and desiring things again directly forbidden by God to fulfill our own desires. The eye symbolizes that which pleases the mind or inner life. The lust of the eyes, like that of the flesh goes beyond simple need. Dr Ray Steadman said it like this: God has given us the gift of acquisitiveness, i.e., the desire to own things, to possess things as our own. But the lust of the eyes pushes that into greed that is never satisfied. We want more, more, more! This results in the common phenomenon of "keeping up with the Joneses," the desire to have things we do not need, bought with money we do not have, in order to impress people we do not like! God has given us a love of beauty, but the lust of the eyes perverts this into vulgarisms, the love of the erotic, pornography and idolatry, that covetousness of another's body which the Scripture labels outright idolatry.
What does the Lust of the eye include? There is the lust of the eye for sex (Matt 5:28; Rome 1:26-28; 2 Pet 2:14); the lust of the eye for evil. ( Matt 6:23); the lust of the eye for the possessions of others or covetousness (Lk 12:15); the lust of the eye for pleasures and possessions (Ecc 2:10); the lust of the eye for drugs and alcohol (Pr 23:29-31; Isa 5:11); and the lust of the eye for other gods (Lev 26:1; Acts 17:29).
The final category is the Pride of life. When we talk of pride in this case we are not talking about self-esteem, but arrogance. It is self-glorification generally at the expense of other people. It is the feeling that somehow you are a better than other people.
Pride of life involves self-centeredness and self-sufficiency. It is a person who is focused on self and is the center of everything; a person who is arrogant, conceited, and boastful.
This is the world that stands in opposition to God. The world that is dominated by the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life and John makes it clear that if any man loves the world the love of the Father is not in Him. A clear test of faith. But, Christians often get caught up in this kind of worldliness.
George Barna in His book The Frog in the Kettle, tells a parable about boiling a frog. The way to boil a frog is not to put him in a pot of boiling water. If you drop him in the boiling water, he'll jump out before he's boiled. So you put him in a pot of cold water, and he's perfectly comfortable. Then you put him on the stove, and little by little the water gets warm. It's very pleasant at first. By the time it gets a little warmer, he is swimming around like he is in a frog Jacuzzi. But finally, when it's boiling, it's too late.
The parable gives us great insight into how Christians adopt a sinful lifestyle. We don''t dive right in. We slowly wade in. We start at the shallow end of the pool. And slowly we find ourselves getting in deeper and deeper. But it is so slow that we hardly realize it, until it is too late. That's also true for churches. We find ourselves accommodating the world without realizing how much we are becoming like the world.
The bad news is if it doesn't bother us it is an indication of the pretense of our profession of faith - the Father is not in us we simply don't care. The good news is that genuineness of our faith is proven when we finally hear and heed the call of the Spirit of God within us. He tells us to we're not in a Jacuzzi, but in a boiling pot and we can jump out before it's too late. That's why John has written this, so we can hear and examine and make necessary corrections.
John wrote in verse 17 "And the world is passing away, and {also} its lusts; but the one who does the will of God abides forever." (NAS)
Prov 14:12 says There is a way {which seems} right to a man, but its end is the way of death. (NAS) That's the way of the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life will all pass away and nothing will remain.
Martin Luther wrote, "I have held many things in my hands and I have lost them all. But the things I have placed in God's hands I still possess." The greatest thing we can place in God's hand is our lives. Where is your life this morning? In the hand of God or in the world?
We are in the world, but we must not be of the world. We must allow Him to take our lives, to lead us, teach us, mold us and make us into people who are pleasing, obedient and useful to Him. Will you allow Him to take your life today?
