Do Not Love The World
Notes
Transcript
The World Cannot Give you what you Need (v.15).
The World Cannot Give you what you Need (v.15).
What is love?
Love, biblically speaking, can probably be described in terms of active commitment and devotion. It’s an idea that can sometimes get lost in translation as far as modern society is concerned, likely tainted by the influence of French romanticism, complete with its mushy, emotional feelings.
Here, John is speaking in traditional terms: commitment. That’s why Jesus can make statements like those who love Him will keep His commands.
Love cannot be divided.
Either one will love God, or he will love the world, but it can’t be both. World here refers to a value system that embraces the practices and promises of the world instead of single devotion to God. Embracing the world means that we are not embracing the Father. The person who loves (is devoted to) the things of the world, which John will define in the next verse, does not have the love of the Father…in him.
It echoes a sentiment from the SotM where Jesus says we cannot serve two masters for either we will love one and hate the other, or vice-versa. Love, used in this sense, refers to “an attraction to something that one wishes to enjoy.” It’s the temptation to embrace and long for things that are in opposition to God and His will, things of the darkness (as John previously called them.) What John is calling believers out of is a yearning and devotion and seeking after the world’s value system and pleasures, embracing sin as the answer to life fulfillment rather than God.
Needs vs. Desires
It brings up a necessary point of introspection - why would we devote ourselves to the world anyway? It brings up a discussion between what we need and what we want.
Illustration: Blaise Pascal, 1670, God-shaped hole - “What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself.”
Application: We look to the world to fill us, but only love for God can.
The World Cannot Give you what it Promises (v.16).
The World Cannot Give you what it Promises (v.16).
John defines the world.
John clarifies what he means by the world, particularly discussing it in terms of desires. It seems John is thinking of “the lifestyle of those who are guided by…instincts rather than the Spirit.” Remember that desires are not inherently evil, but when they are misplaced, twisted, and indifferent to God, they certainly are.
The desires of the flesh emphasize physical pleasure. The desires of the eyes are are misplaced longings and passions. The pride of life is an arrogant pride that seeks be first place in both position and possessions.
Alternate translations of the world.
Alternate versions of this passage do help to shed a little light on what exactly John is getting at.
The ISV calls the things of the world “the desire for fleshly gratification, the desire for possessions, and worldly arrogance.” The CJB calls it “the desires of the old nature, the desires of the eyes, and the pretensions of life.” The NLT says, “a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions.” Finally, the Message says, “wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important - has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from Him.”
The Genesis 3 and Luke 4 connections of temptations.
But, realize these aren’t arbitrarily made up. There are connections to both Genesis and Luke.
The desires of the flesh arise from the sinful nature and are rooted in our appetites. This could be mostly sexual desire, but it’s not necessary to limit its scope. This could parallel the fact that the fruit of Genesis 3:4-6 was “good for food.” The lust of the flesh was Satan’s temptation of Christ when he told Jesus to turn the stone into bread (Luke 4:3).
The desires of the eyes are short-sighted desires, impulsive and devoid of wisdom, possibly because they arise from faulty theological assumptions and a spirituality devoid of biblical wisdom. The fruit from Genesis 3:4-6 was “a delight to the eyes.” Satan tempted Jesus by showing Him all the kingdoms of the world.
The pride of life places confidence in possessions and social status, much like the man who built bigger barns without realizing his life would end the next day. The fruit from Genesis 3:4-6 was “to be desired to make one wise” and “like God.” Finally, Jesus was tempted by Satan to use His status as the Son of God to cast Himself off the temple because the angels would protect Him.
Again, all of these stem from the world and a value system that runs in opposition to God. God’s people should be marked by holiness, as people who belong to Him. This is a consistent teaching between both Testaments. John’s concern is that people who embrace the world’s system are not separated from the world, giving sufficient evidence that they operate according to the world’s system.
But that’s the catch. We divide our love because we think the world can make good on some promises to bring us actual fulfillment, but they never make good on their promises.
Illustration: Genies in bottles, there’s always a catch.
Application: Sin's promises have always been dead-end lies.
The World Cannot Give you what is Lasting (v.17).
The World Cannot Give you what is Lasting (v.17).
Those who embrace the world will eventually pass away (implied), just as the world is passing away along with its desires. Conversely, the one who does the will of God abides forever, proving the substance of their faith and love through surrender to Christ. Just as God abides forever, so too will the one who does His will.
A temporary world provides fleeting pleasure.
History is not an endless cycle of events. It is moving toward an intended and definite end. The world is passing away. The end of it all is constantly closer than it was the day before. This truth took a quantum leap with the ministry, death, and resurrection of King Jesus. Endless indulgence on the things of this world never satisfies, because the things of this world have no lasting value. Is it any wonder their satisfaction is temporary when the things themselves are temporary?
An eternal God provides lasting fulfillment.
Follow John’s train of thought going back to vv.12-14. If we have been forgiven, we are strong and the word of God is abiding in us. This leads to a break from the world and its values. With this break, the believer embraces God and submits to His will and reaps the blessing of eternity with Him.
Augustine wrote, “Hold fast to Christ. For you He became temporal, so that you might partake of eternity.”
Contrary living to the culture around us.
Dever makes the following observation: “In our age filled with advertising, rock stars, supermodels and celebrities, it is not an overstatement to say that if worldliness means living only to please our flesh and pursue what our eyes lust after - so that we can arrogantly boast about our conquests and accomplishments - the worldliness is a synonym for America.”
Illustration: Is it better to embrace a life of comfort or die a martyr at 29 ? Jim Elliot’s quote is a good reminder here as well: “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep too get what he cannot lose.”
Application: Find your life and lose it, or lose your life and find it? How do we know?
Consider a few of the following:
Is the focus on you or on God?
Is life about comfort now or rewards to come?
Do you life to make your name great or His name great?
Do you live for your happiness in your toys or in your holiness?
Is church life a priority or a negotiable?
Is your physical image a matter of vanity, from your clothes to your physique?
Do you want to be served, or to serve the least of these?
Do you see your spouse as the person to meet your needs, looking to them to fulfill you, or do you serve your spouse, knowing that only God fulfills you?
Do you tend to dominate others to get your way, or do you tend to serve others and keep them in mind?
We could go on, but this scratches the surface of the distinctions that could be made.
With that said…
The temptation would be to take a passage like today's and simply rail on modern vices, destructive flaws in our society. There's probably a time and place for that, for us to be on our guard, but it may be more profitable to consider what those specific vices are in our life and pray for wisdom on how to avoid those roads.
Instead of using this passage as a soapbox to try and call out particular sins, let's think instead of the reigning value system in society today. What lays at the root? Honestly, the things that we see so prevalent in society come from a deeper root issue. They are separated from God and His will. Any value system that originates with man is necessarily going to stand in opposition to God. Honestly, the problem is obsessed with self-autonomy, with being my own boss, at least in the west anyway. Nobody is going to tell us what to do or how to do it, and we're going to be the ones that determine the best course of life, the best path to take.
John hits at the foundation of it all in his first command of the letter: do not love the world nor the things in it. Beware of adopting the world's value system, the world's way of life, the world's attitudes, especially concerning right and wrong.
It's only by surrendering to God, allowing Him the sole place of authority in life, that we will ever find a truly full life. Sure, sin offers momentary pleasure, and it's easy to allow our pride to cave the shouts of the world around us when they decry virtues that are counter to what God calls right and wrong. But those things don't satisfy. There's a reason we always return to the vices, whatever they are, to find satisfaction again. It's because they didn't actually fill the void in the first place.
"If our lives are not directed toward God in our every decision of each day, then even our most passionate efforts and causes amount to polishing brass on the Titanic. We are familiar with the final refrains of C.T. Studd's poem, but consider the last stanza in whole this morning: "Only one life, yes only one / Now let me say, 'Thy will be done' / And when at last I'll hear the call / I now I'll say, 'Twas worth it all / Only one life, 'twill soon be past, Only what's done for Christ will last."