“Do Not Love The World ”

Thank you, Dawn.

If you've got your Bibles flip over to 1 John Chapter 2, it is on page 1021 if you are using the pew Bible.  A word of thanks to you for allowing me to be gone last Sunday and the first half of this week.  I was in Corbin, Kentucky preaching in a revival for my brother-in-law.  He's pastor of a small church there called Calvary Baptist Church and I was able to be a part that from Sunday morning until Wednesday night, so I appreciate you guys allowing me to go and do things like that.  I don't have the opportunity to do those very much, but I do enjoy those when I have the opportunity and I enjoy doing that for family.  It is always a joy to be with family, to encourage them, as well as to be a part of their church, to kind of get faces to people that we're praying for and that kind of good stuff, so I appreciate you allowing me to do that.

1 John 2, starting verse 15:

1Jn 2:15  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.

1Jn 2:16  For all that is in the world--the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions--is not from the Father but is from the world.

1Jn 2:17  And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

For the high school students these past few Wednesday nights, we've been trying to uncover what it really means to be a worldly person or really trying to have a Biblical understanding of what worldliness is, and so what we've just basically done is we've taken some of those well known passages of scriptures throughout the New Testament that address the issue of the world and we try to define what it means to be worldly based on the context of where that word shows up.

The first place we started in James where you guys may be kind of familiar with this one, it's in James Chapter 4 where it talks about "friendship with the world is enmity with God," and when we studied that passage of scripture, we just kind of came to a conclusion that for us to understand what it means to be a friend with the world, we've got to answer the question of what we're doing with the sin that still remains in us.  That's what James is after in James Chapter 4. And depending on what you're doing with the sin that still remains in us determines whether you are a friend of the world or not, so are you feeding this flesh that still remains in you, or are you in the process, by the power of the Holy Spirit killing it, and that would kind of help you whether you are a friend of the world or whether you are not a friend of the world.

Then we went to this very familiar passage of scripture which most of you probably are familiar with if you were brought up in church, in John Chapter 17, where it just talks about "you being in the world but not of the world" and I know we've got some crazy things as far as a definition of what that may look like, but we just tried to stay as simple as possible and try to define our understanding of that passage based on what the context is in John Chapter 17, and here's what we came up with.  That if you are of the world, then that basically means this: You are embracing the message of this world and you are living that message out.  The world is giving all of us a message, and if you're of the world, then you're embracing this and you are centering your life around that message.  And so we came to this passage of scripture just a few weeks ago, and this one's a little bit more difficult to get around than those other two passages of scripture.  John is pretty straightforward in his command on our lives.  And this is a command that is not an option, it's not a command that "I hope you embrace this."  This is a command that John is laying before us as well as he's laying before the original readers of this letter and basically saying this, "You must obey this command.  This is not an option for your life.  This is for your good if you obey this command."

I recognize that some of you are here this morning and this may have been like the first time you've come back to church in a long time, and maybe you were invited by your friend to come and, I probably would guess that your friend is going, "Oh, man, this may not have been the best message to bring my friend to" and they might be kind of crawling under the pew, or putting their head down a little bit, but here's just how I want to preface that because sometimes Christianity does have some very odd characters and some of those are somewhat rightful and sometimes you might be walking here, and this may be the first time coming back to church in awhile, and maybe you're someone that's here who has never embraced Christ as your Lord and Savior and just kind of really trying to figure out this whole issue of Christianity, and maybe your character of Christianity is that we're always preaching what you should not be doing, you know, we're always kind of hammering you, "Stop lovin' the world! Stop  doin' this, stop  doin' that!  Goodness, gracious, quit doin' that."  And maybe you're walking in here, once again, hearing the same message that probably sent you out of the church, or you kind of said, "Yeah, Christianity is not really for me," but here's what I pray that you will do with this message.  I pray that you will see the goodness of God in this.  And I pray that all of us will.  Whether you are a follower of Jesus Christ or whether you are not a follower of Jesus Christ, God's commands for us were never meant to be something that's burdensome to us.  God's commands for us are:

As we see in the Book of Galatians and in the Book of Romans, are to help expose sin in our lives so that therefore we can see the goodness of God that is being shown to us through the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ, and even in a command that is as strong as this command that we see in 1 John Chapter 2: 15, to not love the world.  We see the goodness of God in this as that God does not want you to waste your life!  He doesn’t!  He wants you to spend your life on something that will last, that will matter, that will have significance, and in reality if we're all honest with ourselves this morning, that is what every single person's heart in this room gravitates toward.  We want to invest our time in something that is going to last and we are seeking after that!  And we don't want our joy to be hindered by us investing our time in something that will never fulfill, and that's the goodness of God in this command because John is telling us to not love something that will never fulfill.  And I pray that if that is you this morning, you are just kind of coming in for the first time in awhile, and I pray that if you're the friend that invited your guest, I hope and pray you kind of get unslouched and just understand that this is part of the goodness of God here that is being expressed to us.  Because he is saving us from wasting our time on things that are fleeting and really don't matter.

So, this is what I want to do this morning.  It's pretty straightforward in this text.  All I want to do is simply look at the command that is being given here, just like we read in Verse 15; that is a command from John, it's in the imperative language.  And then all I want to do, after we talk about the command, is simply this, because that's what John does, he kind of states his argument.  He gives us reasons why we should, and not really should, why we must obey this command, so I just want us to kind of camp out on the reasons, and hopefully at the end of the deal we can bring some application in our lives to where we can begin to identify possibly a love for the world in our own hearts this morning.

So, let's take a look at this command in Verse 15.  Let us read it again:

1Jn 2:15  Do not love the world or the things in the world.

The first thing that we must do is we've got to define the world and what that means here because if you'll go to John Chapter 3, Verse 16, which is the one of the most familiar passages that most of us in Christianity know, says this:

Joh 3:16  "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

So, we've got to kind of understand what it's saying there.  John 3:16 says that God loves the world and then we've got a command here in 1 John 2:15 to not love the world, and so those seem to be apparent contradictions there.  But if you look at the passage of scripture, you will understand that the way that John is using the word world  in John Chapter 3, verse 16, is very different than the way John is using the word world in Verse 15.  Because the way we can define the world that John is using here in verse 15 of Chapter 2 is simply this:

It's a system of beliefs that is ruled by Satan and that hates God.  It is any attitude, it is any action, it is any thought that is hostile toward God.

That is what John is commanding us not to love, and therefore commanding us to hate.  This system, this system of beliefs that is in direct hostility toward God.  It's any action, it's any thought, it's any kind of attitude that we have within us that is in direct hostility toward God, that is what John is referring to when he's talking about the issue of world.  And so he gives us this command, this understanding about what world is, and the command is simply this: Not to love it!  There's no…. it doesn’t take an amazingly smart person to understand what John is saying here.  Basically what John is asking and commanding us to do is that our affections, our passions, the seat of our emotions, to not be spent on the system that is in direct hostility toward God.  John's command is this: That we not find our affections and our passions in this world, the very system of beliefs that hates God.

Now, the difficulty of this command is not in its understanding.  Most of us are pretty well educated people in this room, and I think most of us in this room understand what John is saying here.  The difficulty is not in the understanding of the command.  I believe this is where the difficulty lies:  The difficulty lies within all of us in identifying within our hearts this love for the world.  That is the difficulty!  It's not in understanding of the command, it's more in the application of the command to where we identify, and every single one of us in this room including myself, this tendency to love the world.  If you're familiar at all with this book you would understand who John is talking to.  John is talking to a group of people who are asking this simple question and that is this, "How can I know for sure that I'm a follower of Jesus Christ?  How can I know for sure that I have eternal life?" which is probably a question that many of us in this room have at least asked one time in our life, and so what John does in this small little letter in 1 John is simply just kind of write to this group of people to give them assurance that they truly do have eternal life.  And he does this by kind of laying out specific tests so if you say that you're a follower of Jesus Christ this is one way to identify whether you have eternal life; this is another way to identify you have eternal life, and one of those tests is simply what is said here in Verse 15, to not love the world.

So what we see here is this: When John is writing this letter to a group of people to help them determine whether they know for sure that they have eternal life or not, what is he writing here in Verse 15?  He is not just writing to a group of people that find themselves in passionate love for the world.  When we read this verse, Verse 15 here, our minds usually go to this, "John must be addressing a group of people who are just like seeking after the world, loving the world, desiring after the world."  But in reality, who he is addressing are those people who are genuine followers of Jesus Christ!  Where do we get that?  Well, look at Verses 12, 13, 14.  Look how he describes this people that he's talking to.  Verse 12, the second half of that says:

1Jn 2:12  I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name's sake.

1Jn 2:13  ……. because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father.

1Jn 2:14  I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.

And then, verse 15:

1Jn 2:15  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.

You see, what we see here, as I remember hearing from C.J. Mahaney is this, is that we see John giving this Godly affirmation.  He is basically saying this: I am pointing and showing evidence of the grace of God in the work of your life.  You are a genuine follower of Jesus Christ, and then, in Verse 15, we get this godly exhortation: "You are a genuine follower of Jesus Christ; do not love the world."

So that tells us this: As difficult as it is for us to identify in our hearts this love for the world, we've got to embrace this fact based on what we see from this passage of scripture and that is simply this, all of us in this room are susceptible and are guilty of loving the world. 

You see, John is not addressing a group of people that are just like so evident that they're worldly.  He's addressing a group of people that is evident that they are following after Jesus Christ, that there is evidence of the Word of God in their life, which tells us this, that every single one of us is susceptible, as well as, guilty of not doing this command.  You see, I think that's why we have a tendency to want to gravitate toward an outside set of rules isn't it?

I don't know about you, but I grew up in a tradition, whether it was outwardly spoken, it was definitely something that you kind of knew, and that was simply this, that the way you define whether you are a worldly person or not is by the way you look.  So, if you had your hair cut a specific way, then you wouldn't be defined as a worldly person.  If you didn't have an earring in your ear, you would not be defined as a worldly person.  If you didn't have tattoos all over your body then you would be defined not as a worldly person.  If you dressed a certain way, there was just like this dress that kind of set you apart, that showed you that you weren't a worldly person, so what I grew up in a tradition is that everything determined whether I'm a worldly person or not was always outside of me, wasn't it?  So, if I did not look like this, or if I did not dress like this, or if I had my hair cut like that, then I can rest assured that I am doing this command, I am not loving the world! I am not a worldly person at all!  And see, I would argue that that's not what John's saying here.  I would argue that the way that we can determine whether we're a worldly person is not by pointing on the outside, but looking on the inside.  Are you with me here?

Do you see how sometimes even like, let's just say for instance if you are in the housing market.  It's just interesting how this is so subtle in our hearts that we don't even realize it.  If we're in the housing market looking for a house, we have a tendency to kind of in our minds, maybe we don't articulate this out loud, but in our minds we might walk through there and say, "If I get a house that only has 4 bedrooms, then I probably would not be classified as a worldly person, but if I jump over and get a house with 5 bedrooms and probably 3 ½ -4 baths, then I'm probably a worldly person."  Or, if you in the car shopping market, we have a tendency of playing these little things in our minds where, you know, as long as I stay in the arena of Ford and Chevrolet, then I'm probably not a worldly person, I'm just a good ol' American person, but if I jump over and get a Mercedes or a Volvo, or a Lexus, then probably I would be a worldly person, that's what people would probably see me as.  Or if you are in the market of looking for a home entertainment system, you know, if you and buy the top of the line Bose system, "Well, you're a worldly person!" But if you go and get the redneck version that you get at Wal-Mart, Panasonic brand, the Phillips brand, then you can rest assured you don't love the world!

See, what John's trying to argue for us is this, worldliness is not defined by what lies outside of us.  Worldliness is defined by what is inside of us.  John is arguing this, listen, you can live in a tent, you can have one set of clothes and you can have no car and you can love the world. 

I love what F. F. Bruce says about this: "Worldliness, this love of the world does not reside in things."  It doesn’t!  We don't define whether or not I'm worldly by looking outside of me, it does not reside in things, but it does reside in this, listen to what he said, "But it does reside our concentration, our affections, those are in here, they are inside here, that's why the command is "Don't love the world."  Don't put your affections, your passions, you joy, that's in here, but it does reside in our concentration and our affections on things.  Do you see the difference there?  That's why I think our hearts gravitate to try to find this rule or this code of conduct here that if I don't do these things, then I can say that I'm not in love with the world, but in reality you can deceive yourself and find yourself in passion, in love with this world, because it's not about this outward form here, it's about what's inside of us.  It's our concentration, it's our affections, it's our passions. 

So, basically what I'm trying to say in this little first part is this, that when we try to identify this element of love of the world, we do not do this, we do not go and look at our things, we look inside and we ask hard questions.  What brings me joy?  What brings me passion? What excites me?  That's what John is doing here.

And then he gives us a couple of reasons why we must not love the world, why this must be a thing that we do not do, and not only reasons, but I would argue that these are kind of warnings for us and warnings for his original readers here. So the first reason is this, is that it's incompatible.  It cannot coexist.  Love for God and love for the world cannot coexist.  It cannot fit into your life.  There is no way.  How can you love something that is in direct hostility toward God? How can you embrace something that is indirect enmity toward God?  You cannot have both of these loves here.  What John Piper says here, "Love for the world pushes out love for God, and love for God pushes out love for the world."  You cannot have both!  And that is what John is arguing.  They cannot coexist. 

Look at the last half of verse 15:

1Jn 2:15  ….. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

It cannot coexist, cannot be there, well why?  Why is this? Why can't the love of the Father be in him? This is why, verse 16:

1Jn 2:16  For all that is in the world--

And so what we see here is we see kind of like John kind of encompassing in very broad categories all the things that are in the world.  This is not an exhaustive list of what's all in the world, but he kind of sums them up in three little headings here, look what he says here….

1Jn 2:16  For all that is in the world-- the desires of the flesh

And what John is after there, as what most of us in this room know and understand, that when you embrace Christ as your Lord and Savior, the penalty of sin, the power of sin, the position of sin has all been taken care of, but the presence of sin is still there.  It is still within you, and so there are these desires that rise up in us that are at war with God!  That's what he's kind of classifying here as part of the world.  Look what else he said:

… and the desires of the eyes

These are things that are brought in front of us to where our eyes are drawn to and say, "Man, I need that! I want that! " And so it stirs up in this heart, this heart of coveting.  We see that in Genesis, I think it's Genesis Chapter 2 where Eve is tempted.  It says in that passage of scripture where "the fruit was pleasing to the eye." It's going to give me something that God has not given me, you know what I'm talking about here, that's what temptation does.  That's what sin does, it promises something that God is not doing, so it's a desire of the eyes.  There's something out here that I want, I need, I gotta have!  And look what else he says….

 and pride in possessions--

So once we get this, what do we do with this? We boast in it!  We say, "Wow, look what I have done!  Look what I have gained!

And so, what we're seeing here is this.  This is kind of a summation of all that is in the world, desire of the flesh, desire of the eyes, and pride in possessions.  And look what John says in the last half of verse 16:

1 John 2:16 …..this is not from the Father but is from the world.

The reason why you must obey this command is that it is incompatible, these two loves cannot coexist.  Because if you're a follower of Jesus Christ, the Spirit of God dwells in you, and what the Spirit of God is doing is the opposite of these things.  Do you see that?  The Spirit of God is giving you the capacity to kill the desires in your flesh, to not feed it.  It's giving you the capacity to kill the desires that are within you.  It is giving you the capacity to see when temptation comes before our eyes, we think, "Man, I've got to have this!  Oh, this looks so good! God's withholding something from you." What the Spirit of God does for us is to help us see the truth, the lie that is behind that sin so that we embrace the truth that God has everything that I need, all that I want is met in Jesus Christ.  That's what the Spirit of God is doing in us.

And then when we look at our possessions, or we look at our things, or we look at our status, what the Spirit of God is doing in us, not so that… He's teaching us not to boast in these things, but He's teaching us humility, isn't he?  He's teaching us how to look at these things as ways and means by which we glorify our great God and say "Wow, this is not as a result of me, this is the evidence of the goodness of God in my life.  This is the evidence of the grace of God."  So it's bringing about humility in my heart, not boasting. 

But John is basically saying this, the Holy Spirit will not give you affections for the world.  It cannot happen!  Because love for God pushes out love for the world, or love for the world pushes out love for God.

That's why I think it's also a warning here.  We cannot call ourselves a follower of Jesus Christ, we cannot sing about our love for God when the pattern and the general direction of our life shows a love for the world.  It cannot happen.  These two loves cannot exist together.  And it’s a dangerous place for you to be.  It's a warning here basically to say, Do not fool yourself. If you find that the consistent pattern of your life has been marked by love for the world, it doesn’t matter  how many times you are baptized, or how many times you walk down an aisle, there is a good chance that the Father's love does not dwell in you, and that is a big deal!  It is something to be alarmed about.

The first reason why is that it is incompatible.  These two cannot coexist.  The second reason why, it's foolish.  I don't usually don't use this word, and I do not teach my children to use this word, but for our purposes this morning, and I hope and pray you guys will not be offended by this, because I think that this is what John is really saying here.  He is saying that it's stupid, and it is!   I mean, think with me.  What would you call a person, if your friend went out and bought stock in a company that you told them that was going to go bankrupt within a month?  If they did not listen to your advice, did not listen to your instruction and decided, You know what, I know more than this person, I'm going to go buy stock in a company that is getting ready to go bankrupt.  What would you call your friend?  You wouldn't say, "Well, he's a good guy, you know, gosh, a little not bright, but he's just a good ol' guy."  No, you would call him a moron, for crying out loud!  [Laughter]  You would say, "You're the dumbest person on the planet, for crying out loud!"  What would you do if your friend went and bought a house that was infested by termites?  After the inspection, the guy comes up to him and says, "Listen, dude, you do not want to buy this house. This  house is completely invested by termites!" And then your friend decides to buy the home.  Would you just say, "Oh, wow, that was just not a very wise decision."  No, you would call him stupid!  You would! You would say, You're a moron!  You're a complete idiot!  And I think that's what John is saying here. 

I don't mean to be offensive or derogatory.  I'm just trying to state the truth of what John is saying in this passage of scripture.  Why would you put your affection and love in something that is passing away?  Why?  It's foolish!  It's dumb!  That's what John is saying.  Look at verse 17:  This is the second reason; the first is it is incompatible, the second reason is this:

1Jn 2:17  And the world is passing away along with its desires.

Why would you want to set your heart on something, your affections on something that will not fulfill?  It will not last.  It will, I promise, not because I know this, but because the Word of God is consistently showing this.  We see this in examples and examples throughout the Old Testament.  The life that ignores this reality will end in misery, it will end in loss, it will end in heartache, so why, why would you give your affections to something that will not fulfill? It's foolish!

But, look at the contrast….

1Jn 2:17  …. but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

John is saying this, there is no future in worldliness, but there is future in godliness. See the warning is simply this, do you want to die with this world? Do you, because that's where it's going.  You love this world, you put your affections on this world, then, guess what, you're going to die with this world because this world is passing away.  It will not last!  Or, do you want to live forever with God?

And that happens when you do the will of our Lord.    The command is pretty simple, it's pretty straightforward.  The command is this, that we do not love the world.  We do not find our affections and our passions in this world.  Why? Why do we need to do this? Why must every single person in this world obey this command?

1.                 Because those two elements cannot coexist in your life.  You cannot have love for the world and love for God, either one pushes out the other; it cannot coexist.

2.                 It is passing away, it's passing away.

So what do we do with this? What's our response to what John is telling us to do?  First of all I want to address those who may not be a follower of Jesus Christ here.  You may have never put your faith and trust in Christ.  This is what I encourage you from this passage of scripture is, as we said at the very beginning, I pray that you would see the goodness of God in this passage of scripture. What God is trying to speak to your life and open your eyes to is this reality, that what you are loving, what you are chasing after, what you are pursuing after, it will end in loss.  It will end in misery, it will end in heartache.  It will never give you what you think it's going to give you.  It is a fleeting promise.  It is here for a moment and then it's gone away.  And what John is commanding and urging you to do is to repent and embrace this person named Jesus Christ, who can give you all that your heart desires because that is what you were created for, you were created for Him, not this world.

But, for most of us in this room, I realize that most of us in here are followers of Jesus Christ.  We have probably put our faith and trust in him.  I pray, first of all, that we all will admit and embrace this reality because John tells us to.  I pray that all of us will understand that we are all susceptible to this love.  We are all susceptible and possibly many of us in this room are guilty of not obeying this command and right now, even as we speak, you are in love with this world.  You may have never spoken it, you are not out here sharing it with your friends, you are not broad-siding it above everybody, putting it on a big billboard saying, "I love the world, I love the world," No! But it's in your heart, you know it, it's what gives you passion, it's what excites you, it's what gives you joy!  And what John is telling us to do this morning is to stop!  Because love for the world and love for God cannot coexist in your heart.  So, it tells me this, that even though you may say you are a follower of Jesus Christ, if the pattern and the consistency of your life has always been love for this world, you need to take a reality check because there's a good chance, a good chance, that the love of the Father is not in you, and that's a dangerous place to be.

But some of you in this room have shown just like these people that there is evidence of the grace of God in you, that there is genuine belief in Jesus Christ and it's been seen in your life, and so here are a few questions that I would encourage us to ask ourselves this morning.  You might want to write these down, and maybe today, this afternoon you can ask yourself these questions so that you can see whether or not you are doing what John has commanded us to do in Verse 15.

1.                 The first one is this, a very simple question, but it's simply this, what am I passionate about? What am I passionate about?  C.J. Mahaney says this: "Presence of worldliness can be detected by an absence of passion for Christ." Did you hear that? "Presence of worldliness in our hearts can be detected by an absence of a passion for Christ."  So, if this is you this morning, if you find yourself walking in here this morning having no desire for the things of God, but a genuine follower of Jesus Christ, there has been a genuine conversion in you, but right now, right now, as you sit here you think, "Man, I just do not feel a passion for Jesus at all." That's possibly the reason why is because you're loving this world.  There is something in this world that is igniting your passions and the Holy Spirit is just wanting to illuminate your heart so that you can see what that is, repent of it, so that this love for the Father can be embraced in your heart and come back into your heart.  So, answer the question, What am I passionate about?

2.                 Is there something in this world that is attractive and I pursuing it? Is there a forbidden relationship that you know you should not be engaging in? And it's attractive, Wow, I want that!  Is there possibly a status that you're seeking after from your job, or maybe there's just an attitude that is dwelling in your heart that is just not honoring to the Lord.  Is there something in this world that is attractive and I am pursuing after it?

3.                 Am I being influenced with someone who loves the world?  Am I being influenced with someone who loves the world? And here's where I would include our media habits.  We are bombarded with media here, television, movies, music, cellphones, internet, it's just amazing, how much media that our hearts can be exposed to, and you've got to ask yourselves this question, not to, you know, the answer is to kick TV out of your house or to stop  listening to the radio, but you've got to be a critical thinker when it comes to media intake.  You've got to be someone that uses their brain and simply ask this question, "Is what I'm watching, is what I'm listening to, is it influencing me to love this world?  Is it drawing my heart to embrace things that are in direct hostility toward God?  And if there is, or if there are, I'd encourage us to make some changes.