Love Not The World
1 John 2:15-17
Considering that she was a devout Roman
Catholic, Mother Theresa is certainly highly esteemed by
Protestants. Hypocrisy is the tribute vice pays to virtue, and
perhaps this explains it. For American Protestants, by and
large, have very little in common with Mother Theresa - for we
love the world she shunned.
(1 John 2:15-17 NIV) Do not love the world or
anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of
the Father is not in him. {16} For everything in the world--the
cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of
what he has and does--comes not from the Father but from the
world. {17} The world and its desires pass away, but the man who
does the will of God lives forever.
Do Not Love the World
It is a fundamental principle of Christianity
- though too seldom stated explicitly these days - that the
Christian is an alien, just passing through this world. He is
not to fall in love with the world, or the things of this world.
Why?
(John 15:18-21 NIV) "If the world hates you,
keep in mind that it hated me first. {19} If you belonged to the
world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong
to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is
why the world hates you. {20} Remember the words I spoke to you:
'No servant is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me,
they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they
will obey yours also. {21} They will treat you this way because
of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me.
The test of our belonging to Christ, it would
seem, is our love of the world. Most of us have far too much
difficulty with this concept. How often have you complained of
what the world has done to you? Yet for many of us, the question
is not, "How can I avoid being entangled in this rotten system?"
- but "How can I get ahead in it?" C. S. Lewis tells the story
of one of his students who came to him and opened the
conversation with a diatribe on the state of education in
Britain - and finished it by asking if Lewis had any influence
to get him a better position in that system. How many of us have
done the same thing - I work for a lousy company; how do I get
the next promotion in it?
Turn this around. You have a choice between
two doctors. Dr. A drives a Chevrolet, and loves his job for the
chance to bring healing. Dr. B drives a Mercedes and can't wait
to get to the golf course. Which doctor do you want prescribing
your pills? Which attitude do you have on your job?
The world - perhaps I should call it "the
system" - says you only go around once, this life is all there
is, grab it while you can. It's Satan's playground. The question
really is, do you want to buy into it?
Suppose you don't. How do you avoid it -
after all, it's very impressive and constantly advertising.
The things of the world
Begin by understanding this. "The world" that
John is talking about here does not mean simply the physical
planet. God created all things good, and God desires that you
have things that are truly good. But the things of this world
have been twisted by sin. Is food good? Certainly. Is too much
food good? Not according to my doctor. Is it good that I should
stuff myself when others starve? Not according to my Lord.
So then, to avoid the love of this world we
must see the temptations of this world, recognize them, and deny
them.
Temptations
John divides these temptations along the
general lines that Satan used in the Temptation in the
Wilderness: flesh, world and pride. But he gives us an
interesting new view on them.
Cravings
Doesn't that word almost summon up the image
of - chocolate? Indeed we are dealing with the sins of the flesh
here.
Most of us, when we hear "sins of the flesh,"
instantly conjure up the word "lust." It's an exquisite word -
for while it is usually meant in the sexual sense, it has
overtones of other sins of the flesh. But do understand that it
certainly does mean craving after sex. Be clear on the point:
God intends sex as a wedding gift to a married couple -
California law notwithstanding, gay rights not included. Let us
label perversion for what it is. Be equally clear that adultery
and fornication are included as well.
But there is a social side to cravings as
well. The sins of the flesh also include:
Anger. Is there anything so tasty as
wrath recalled? Do we cherish our loved ones as much as we
do our feuds with relatives?
Sloth. That's the scholarly word for it;
it means laziness and indifference. It goes by a new name
now: Tolerance. I don't care what goes on around me, do your
own thing. "I don't care" sums up sloth very well.
Gluttony. Most of us understand that
stuffing ourselves too full is sinful - or at least
fattening. But do we also recognize gluttony in other
things? The woman who cannot have too much jewelry; the man
for whom only the finest of wines will do? These too are
gluttony.
Some thing the sins of the flesh are
strongest in youth. Perhaps. But then perhaps some of us never
grow up.
Lust of the eyes
I see it, I want it. John defines it well
here. If the sins of the flesh are supposed to bedevil the
young, the sins of the world - the lust of the eyes - are to
bedevil the middle aged. There are two we need to see:
Greed. We don't like the word - so we
will substitute others. But it comes to the same thing: the
endless acquisition of more "stuff." When asked "How much
money is enough?", J. Paul Getty replied, "more." That's
greed - sheer acquisitiveness. It doesn't even need to be
good stuff - as long as there is more. If he has it, why
can't I?
Envy. If greed is the sin of the "haves",
then envy is the sin of the "have-nots." Since I don't have
it, why should he?
Pride
John uses the word "boasting" here - it
literally means "ostentation" - to denote pride. We take pride
in two kinds of things:
The things we have - our possessions, as
sign of accomplishment; the trophy wife, as sign of our
greatness as a man; our trophies, whether from the job or
the golf club.
The things we do - our position in life
(I'm a very important executive, you know), the great things
I do for charity (God owes me for all this, you know).
It is, as C. S. Lewis remarked, the
completely anti-God state of mind. For it says that I am better
than you are - and as I look down on you, I cannot look up to
God.
This is said to be the temptation of the
elderly Christian - for it comes at a time when accomplishments
have been made - and perhaps when the other temptations have
been defeated.
Socially Respectable Sins
Of course, as good Christians, we would never
condone such things - right? Or would we?
Lust - she was such a shrew of a
wife, and his new lady is really fine looking; you can
understand the divorce.
Anger - let's just call it righteous
indignation, shall we?
Sloth - hey, I can tolerate anyone's
beliefs; after all, one religion's just as good as another,
right? If it feels good to you, then go for it.
Gluttony - look, it's just that I
have a taste for the finest things in life. After all, a man
should know good wine from bad.
Greed - such an ugly word; really,
didn't you mean "entrepreneurial spirit?"
Envy - actually, it's really nothing
but a longing for social justice. Why should the rich have
all that stuff? Aren't their sins my excuse?
Pride - the chief value of America.
You think not? Listen to a post-game interview some time.
Why?
Why is it that we cannot love the world, the
things in the world and not love God also? After all, is it
really impossible?
The Two Masters Principle
Christ put it this way:
(Mat 6:24-33 NIV) "No one can serve two
masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he
will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot
serve both God and Money. {25} "Therefore I tell you, do not
worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your
body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food,
and the body more important than clothes? {26} Look at the birds
of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and
yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more
valuable than they? {27} Who of you by worrying can add a single
hour to his life ? {28} "And why do you worry about clothes? See
how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.
{29} Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor
was dressed like one of these. {30} If that is how God clothes
the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is
thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of
little faith? {31} So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?'
or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' {32} For the
pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father
knows that you need them. {33} But seek first his kingdom and
his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as
well.
How is this so? Remember that John has
already taught us that to love God means to keep his
commandments. His commandments include avoiding these things of
the world - we are cautioned on all of them many times in both
Old Testament and New Testament. So then, to love the world is
to disobey God - and thus to show completely that we do not love
God. The two loves are mutually contradictory. To attempt it is
spiritual bigamy.
Eternal and Temporal
We must remember that we are, for a while,
hybrids. We are both spiritual (and thus eternal) and physical
(and thus temporal). Ultimately there will come a separation of
the two - sooner than some of us think, for who knows the hour
of his death? - and when that happens we will discover that we
have already made a choice. We will have chosen either the
things of God or the things of the world, and on that choice
will rest our eternity.
"He is no fool if he would choose to give the
things he cannot keep to buy what he can never lose." That's the
choice. To love the things of this world, and cling desperately
to them even in our dying moments, or to trade these transitory
things for eternal things. The problem is, we don't have
eternity to decide. We have now.
Even at that, we will not always have "now."
The time is coming when our Lord will return. At his return, all
choosing is over; the decision is made. It is well said that God
sends no one to hell; he simply identifies the road on which
you're travelling.
