Morning Meditation
Love That Cannot Mix
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. 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. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. 1 John 1:15-17
I sometimes wonder what Christians think when we read these verses. They seem very straight forward and plain in vocabulary and yet it seems that a large majority of those who profess Christ as Lord are indeed "in love" with the world. The passage begins plainly, "Do not love the world." We must first admit that this is a command and not a suggestion. We either follow the commands of Christ or we are not His disciples. If any man should argue that these words come from John and not Christ let us remember that the Bible was written by Holy men who were taught by The Holy Spirit. This is in fact an inspired command. Do not love the world.
However as Proverbs says, "the heart is deceitfully wicked, who can know it." It may be that we can easily deny that we love the world and still enjoy it. Scripture does not even give us this wiggle room. "Do not love the world," is quickly followed with, "or the things in this world." The things in and of the world are those things that are not of God but of man.
John goes further to describe exactly what things are "of the world" so that we may not be confused or claim ignorance. The world and things of the world include the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. These three are the anti-trinity of satan. It is through these means that satan works toward his end goal.
Lust of the flesh includes anything that would gratify our physical desires that does not glorify God. That is indeed a grand sweeping statement but it must be considered by all of us. Anything worldly that our flesh desires, craves, is addicted to or shows no self control toward is Godless.
Likewise the lust of the eyes includes anything that would bring darkness into our sights instead of light. "God is light and in Him is no darkness," John says, and those who walk with Him walk in the light.
Our minds easily apply things like pornography, alcoholism, overeating, and foul language to these passages and therefore many of us justify much of the sin in our lives away if we do not struggle with these things. However, do we struggle with these things? Is not much of what we see on the television screen pornography and yet we continue to watch? Is not alcoholism and overeating and foul language in almost every TV show, movie, magazine and internet video that we watch or read?
If we say we do not love the world and yet one glance at our lives shows that we live just like the rest of the world and own everything the world owns and are entertained in the same way as the world are we telling the truth? If we say that we do not love the world but have adopted the world's view of education, politics, career-mindedness, and the world's view toward children and marriage then are we not living examples of 1 John 1:6?
"If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth."
It is of course the final mention in this anti-trinity that is at the root of all the others, the pride of life. It is pride in our lives and of our lives that whispers to us, "I don't love the world. All the things I have are fine and good. I don't think any of my life hinders me from a right relationship with Jesus Christ." It is our pride that deceives us to believe that we can serve both God and our own lusts. It is our presumption of God that deceives us to believe that we can love both God and mammon. Of course in plain language once again John leaves us no wiggle room.
"If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him," and "the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever," seem to give us the absolute completion of the passage. Our affections toward our Savior cannot be mixed with affection towards the world. A half-hearted commitment is not commitment at all. Jesus stated in the Gospels that we must love Him more than our selves, more than our parents, more than our spouses, more than our wealth and so on. He is simply stating a fact that a man cannot walk with one foot in one direction while the other foot goes in a different direction. The man who attempts this will eventually give into the foot that steps strongest or he will stumble and fall.
Our love for Christ must be first and it must be the source of our love and ability to love anything or anyone else. The brighter a light shines the more the darkness retreats and is banished. If our love for Christ is supreme then our love for the world and the things of this world must then fade and finally fade away.
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. 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. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. 1 John 1:15-17
I sometimes wonder what Christians think when we read these verses. They seem very straight forward and plain in vocabulary and yet it seems that a large majority of those who profess Christ as Lord are indeed "in love" with the world. The passage begins plainly, "Do not love the world." We must first admit that this is a command and not a suggestion. We either follow the commands of Christ or we are not His disciples. If any man should argue that these words come from John and not Christ let us remember that the Bible was written by Holy men who were taught by The Holy Spirit. This is in fact an inspired command. Do not love the world.
However as Proverbs says, "the heart is deceitfully wicked, who can know it." It may be that we can easily deny that we love the world and still enjoy it. Scripture does not even give us this wiggle room. "Do not love the world," is quickly followed with, "or the things in this world." The things in and of the world are those things that are not of God but of man.
John goes further to describe exactly what things are "of the world" so that we may not be confused or claim ignorance. The world and things of the world include the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. These three are the anti-trinity of satan. It is through these means that satan works toward his end goal.
Lust of the flesh includes anything that would gratify our physical desires that does not glorify God. That is indeed a grand sweeping statement but it must be considered by all of us. Anything worldly that our flesh desires, craves, is addicted to or shows no self control toward is Godless.
Likewise the lust of the eyes includes anything that would bring darkness into our sights instead of light. "God is light and in Him is no darkness," John says, and those who walk with Him walk in the light.
Our minds easily apply things like pornography, alcoholism, overeating, and foul language to these passages and therefore many of us justify much of the sin in our lives away if we do not struggle with these things. However, do we struggle with these things? Is not much of what we see on the television screen pornography and yet we continue to watch? Is not alcoholism and overeating and foul language in almost every TV show, movie, magazine and internet video that we watch or read?
If we say we do not love the world and yet one glance at our lives shows that we live just like the rest of the world and own everything the world owns and are entertained in the same way as the world are we telling the truth? If we say that we do not love the world but have adopted the world's view of education, politics, career-mindedness, and the world's view toward children and marriage then are we not living examples of 1 John 1:6?
"If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth."
It is of course the final mention in this anti-trinity that is at the root of all the others, the pride of life. It is pride in our lives and of our lives that whispers to us, "I don't love the world. All the things I have are fine and good. I don't think any of my life hinders me from a right relationship with Jesus Christ." It is our pride that deceives us to believe that we can serve both God and our own lusts. It is our presumption of God that deceives us to believe that we can love both God and mammon. Of course in plain language once again John leaves us no wiggle room.
"If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him," and "the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever," seem to give us the absolute completion of the passage. Our affections toward our Savior cannot be mixed with affection towards the world. A half-hearted commitment is not commitment at all. Jesus stated in the Gospels that we must love Him more than our selves, more than our parents, more than our spouses, more than our wealth and so on. He is simply stating a fact that a man cannot walk with one foot in one direction while the other foot goes in a different direction. The man who attempts this will eventually give into the foot that steps strongest or he will stumble and fall.
Our love for Christ must be first and it must be the source of our love and ability to love anything or anyone else. The brighter a light shines the more the darkness retreats and is banished. If our love for Christ is supreme then our love for the world and the things of this world must then fade and finally fade away.
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