The Highway Forums General Discussion Open Forum You Might Want To Stand

Wow I planned to post a nice patriotic tune and I've been treated like some criminal. Amazing.

Hmmm no 'likes' but then not a single complaint and over 100 views.:)

I hope you'e enjoyed this rousing rendition as much as I have.

Love Not the World

Do you profess to be a Christian? Then love not the world!
You say, being a Christian doesn't call us to change our affections? Love not the world! Examine yourselves in light of the Scriptures and see if there is any way in you that you have need of renouncing. Repent therefore, and love not the world.

1 John 2:15-16 (ASV) Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the vain glory of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

"Love not. He had said before that the only rule for living religiously, is to love God; but as, when we are occupied with the vain love of the world, we turn away all our thoughts and affections another way, this vanity must first be torn away from us, in order that the love of God may reign within us. Until our minds are cleansed, the former doctrine may be iterated a hundred times, but with no effect: it would be like pouring water on a ball; you can gather, no, not a drop, because there is no empty place to retain water.

By the world understand everything connected with the present life, apart from the kingdom of God and the hope of eternal life. So he includes in it corruptions of every kind, and the abyss of all evils. In the world are pleasures, delights, and all those allurements by which man is captivated, so as to withdraw himself from God.

Moreover, the love of the world is thus severely condemned, because we must necessarily forget God and ourselves when we regard nothing so much as the earth; and when a corrupt lust of this kind rules in man, and so holds him entangled that he thinks not of the heavenly life, he is possessed by a beastly stupidity.

If any man love the world. He proves by an argument from what is contrary, how necessary it is to cast away the love of the world, if we wish to please God; and this he afterwards confirms by an argument drawn from what is inconsistent; for what belongs to the world is wholly at variance with God. We must bear in mind what I have already said, that a corrupt mode of life is here mentioned, which has nothing in common with the kingdom of God, that is, when men become so degenerated, that they are satisfied with the present life, and think no more of immortal life than mute animals. Whosoever, then, makes himself thus a slave to earthly lusts, cannot be of God." John Calvin - Commentaries on The First Epistle of John

"It is useless to urge those who are still of the world not to love the world. We can never hope to pluck figs from thistles or grapes from thorns. Only when people have overcome the wicked one, know the Father, know the son, have the remission of sins, can we admonish them as John does here.

John uses [Grk. agapan], the love that indicates direction of the will and intelligent, purposeful choice, and not love [Grk. filia] which is used to denote natural, friendly affection. John might have used the latter. James 4:4 reads "The friendship [Grk. filia] friendly affection) for the world is enmity against God; whoever then intends to be a friend [Grk. filos] of the world establishes himself an enemy of God." What James inserts by means of the "intends to be" lies in the verb that John uses, namely intention, purpose, choice, will.

World [Grk. kosmos] (originally: ornament, order) has a variety of meanings in the New Testament: the universe, the earth, the whole human race, the ungodly that are far from God, finally, in the ethical sense, all that is opposed to Christ on earth. John refers to this last, not to the world as God made it but as the wicked one corrupted all that is in it so that it now lies in the wicked one (5:19), is ruled by him as the prince of the world, as a kingdom that is opposed to the Father and the kingdom in which Christ rules with grace. As children of God we have been delivered from the world in this sense, have conquered the wicked one; the world, in the sense of corrupt, ungodly men, hates us, knowing that we do not belong to their number, John 15:18, 19. Luther: "To be in the world, to see the world, to feel the world, is a different thing from loving the world; just as to have and to feel sin is a different thing from loving sin." John might have used the decisive aorist imperative which is used in so many New Testament admonitions. He uses the present imperative which forbids a course of action. This matches the idea of the verb, for loving is continuous.

"Nor the things of the world" points to the individual deceptive treasures, pleasures, honors of the world, its wealth, its power, its wisdom, etc. We are not forbidden to admire, appreciate, use aright the natural things of this earth such as relative, friends, fatherland, the beauties and the grandeur of nature, home, occupation, and the thousands of useful, attractive, valuable things which God has put all around us. But whatever in is connection, tendency, and influence is hostile to God, to Christ, and to his kingdom, however alluring or attractive it may otherwise appear, is 'a thing of the world,' to which we must be hostile since we belong to God, to Christ, and to his kingdom."—R.C.H. Lenski

"As a deeply concerned pastor, John includes warnings as well as encouragements in his letter. Here he warns his 'little children' not to love 'the world'. In his Gospel, John tells us that God 'so loved the world…' Jn 3:15. There 'the world' stands for fallen sinful humanity, a world that God amazingly loves and that Christians, as God's children, should also love.

Here 'the world' has a darker, more sinister meaning. It stands for an organized system that hates and openly defies God and his Son (see John 15:18-25). John actually defines what he means by 'the world' in verses 16-17. The world that Christians are not to love is the world where 'the desires of the flesh', 'the desires of the eyes', and 'pride in possessions' dominate the horizons of life and define the shape of life. This world Christians are to avoid, resist and reject (see also 2Tim 2:22). John is not advocating monastic withdrawal from the world. God's people are always to be salt and light in the world (see Matt 5:13-16). What Christians are to avoid is sharing in the sinful, God-dishonouring ambitions, desires and activities of this fallen world.

John's warning to his 'little children' is very solemn: 'If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.' Pastors who love their congregations will speak pointedly when the occasion demands it. One of the marks of a Christian is that he or she has come to perceive the shallow and sinful attractions of the world for what they are, attractions that are 'passing away' (v. 17). The new eyes that enable us to see in Jesus the grace of God, also enable us to see in the world the snares of the devil. It is more than possible that lying behind these verses, John has the opening verses of Genesis 3 in mind. There, God's man and woman were seduced by the very things John highlights here. Consider these three marks of a world that is even now 'passing away":—Ian Hamilton

"First, there are 'the desires of the flesh'. The world John is commanding us not to love is the world where selfish craving is pursued and praised. John is not condemning pleasure; he is condemning a system that makes 'my pleasure' and not God's glory the chief pursuit of life. This was precisely Eve's downfall. She put her own desire above God's revealed will. The point is not that our bodies are evil or that sex is bad, because God gave us our bodies, made us sexual beings, and 'richly provides us with everything to enjoy' (1Tim 5:17). But when we make God's good gifts ends in themselves, we make our pleasure and satisfaction the goal of existence. In short, we make pleasure our God (2Tim 3:4). This is the world depicted in the TV 'Soaps', in teenage, and so-called 'adult' magazines. It is a world where God, his son and eternity are dismissed, and selfish desire is king. The reality, and tragedy, of course, is that when God, his Son and eternity are ignored selfish gratification leaves people unsatisfied and aching for more (Eccles 3:11). We are spiritual creatures and only the living God can satisfy our longing for life.

Second, there is 'the desires of the eyes.' John probably has in mind here our native fallen tendency to be beguiled by appearances: 'It looks good; it must therefore be good.' We live in a superficial age, an age where outward appearance and presentation matter more than substance. This was part of Adam and Eve's downfall too. God had forbidden them to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen 2:17). But when 'the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes…she took of its fruit…' Gen 3:6. The world of advertising in particular is geared to seduce us through images that bypass our minds and beguile our eyes. John warns us to beware of this seduction. All that glitters is not gold!

Third, there is 'pride in possessions.' The world Christians are not to love is the world that makes a man's life to 'consist in the abundance of his possessions' Lk 12:15, that says 'I am what I am, not by the grace of God, but by my own achievements, and here they are.' Jesus himself counsels us not to 'lay up treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal' but to lay up 'treasure in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also' Mt 5:19-21

It is possible that John is also thinking here of Gen 3. The word translated 'possessions,' can be translated 'life' (as in the AV). In the Garden, Eve saw 'that the tree was to be desired to make one wise' Gen 3:6. She was reaching out in her pride to take possession of what she thought would enrich her life. But what she thought would make her 'wise' brought her death.

Satan never wearies of tempting us to believe that life can be found outside God''s will and ways. It is little wonder that our Lord Jesus calls him 'a liar and the father of lies' and John describes him as 'the deceiver of the whole world' Rev 12:9. Satan was bold enough to try and tempt our Lord himself with these very temptations Mt 4:1-11, but to no avail.

One of sin's 'fingerprints' is its consuming passion to praise self. How rarely do we hear the greatly gifted acknowledging that every ability they possess is the gift of God's grace. Paul needed to ask the Christians in Corinth, 'What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it? 1Cor 4:7. If self-praise is a mark of a fallen, God-denying world, it is a sin that needs constantly to be put do death in everyone who professes to belong to Jesus Christ Rom 8:13.

John is not content merely to tell us not to love the world; he gives us three compelling reasons why we should not love the world.

First, 'If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him' v 15. You cannot, whatever you may think, love God and the world at the same time Mt 5:24; James 4:4. The fundamental issue has to do with the first commandment Ex 20:3. God will brook no rivals, and especially rivals that deny and despise him. A man who truly loves his wife does not enjoy the company and promote the interests of anyone who despises her and treats her with contempt. Perhaps it would be good to pause here and ask yourself this question: 'Is God's love truly in me?' If it is, you will not love the world.

Second, 'The world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever." Robert Burns, in his poem Tam O'Shanter, captured precisely what John meant in the first part of verse 17:

But pleasures are like poppies spread,
You seize the flow'r, its bloom is shed;
Or like the snow falls in the river,
A moment white, then melts for ever.

It is the essence of folly to love what is in the process of 'passing away' and heading for eternal oblivion.

Fading is the worldling's pleasure,
All his boasted pomp and show.
Solid joys and lasting treasures
Non but Zion's children know.

John Newton,
Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken

Third 'but whoever does the will of God abides forever.' More positively, John highlights the glorious future that lies before 'whoever' makes God's will and not the world's ways the object of their desire. To abide forever, is to live in unending communion with God in the glory of his nearer presence Jn 17:3.

Once again God's Word confronts us with two ways to live. There is a broad way, apparently spacious and inviting, but that leads to destruction. And there is a narrow way, apparently hard and uninviting, but that leads to life Ps 1; Mt 7:13-14. John is warning his readers to choose the narrow way that leads to life."—Ian Hamilton, 'Let's Study: The Letters of John'