Do Not Love the World
1 John 2:15-17
15 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.
I ran into quite a dilemma this past week. Karen and the kids picked a good amount of strawberries to freeze and to eat fresh. Of course when you have fresh strawberries you absolutely have to make some shortcake. So we made the shortcake, prepared the strawberries, poured in some milk and sugar—and, we just happened to have some whip cream in the house at the time, so we topped off our strawberry shortcake with a good spoonful of whip cream. I only do this at home so I don’t embarrass my family, but once in a while when I am eating something really good—you know like a great steak, or in this case, strawberry shortcake, I enjoy the food so much that I start to pound the table. Can you imagine the scene—we’re all devouring our heaping bowls of strawberry shortcake and I am pounding the table in gastronomic delight. It doesn’t sound like much a dilemma yet, does it? My dilemma happened when I sat down to study this passage in 1 John. “Do not love the world or anything in the world.” One of my first thoughts was, “But Lord, I really love strawberry shortcake!”
Is that what this verse is teaching? Does God want me to hate strawberry shortcake? I am obviously using an extreme example and I don’t think God is demanding that I give up on strawberry shortcake (at least I hope not!), but as a believer, what does this command mean? It means something, in fact, it means something much more radical than the average Christian is willing to consider. But how do we know if we love the world or not? But this is not a simple question, because the Bible tells us that “every good and perfect gift comes from the Father.” Therefore we know that God gives us good gifts for our enjoyment and pleasure. Is it possible to love these gifts from the Lord and not love the world? We live in the world twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. We are literally immersed in this world, therefore, how do we live in this world and even love some things in this world without falling in love with the world?
First, let’s make sure we understand what it is we are not supposed to love. In other words, what is the world and why are we not to love it? Love for the world is a substitute for loving God. Verse fifteen says, “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” If you love the world it pushes out your love for the Father. You cannot love the world and love the Father at the same time. This is why Jesus said that we cannot serve both God and mammon. There is only room for one master in our lives. Let’s say you were working full-time at Walmart. Walmart then is your boss. After a while you weren’t sure of you wanted to work at Walmart so you applied and got a job at Nelson’s. But the problem is that you never quit your job at Walmart. When you compare the work schedules between the two jobs you see that they are in direct conflict with each other. You decide to work at Nelsons on Monday and Tuesday. You like the new job really well, but you get a nasty phone call from your boss at Walmart wondering why you didn’t show up for work the last two days. You feel a little guilty and don’t want to lose your job at Walmart so you work there on Wednesday and Thursday. But guess what? Now your new boss at Nelson’s calls you and is really upset that you didn’t show up for work. So you decide to show up at Nelsons on Friday, but now your Walmart boss is mad again. How long are you going to last trying to balance both jobs? How long will you be able to continue your little charade? In effect, you have two work masters and both masters and they are in direct conflict with one another. I wish that we could more readily see that this is exactly what is happening in our lives. Either Christ is our master or the world is our master, but we don’t see this as clearly as we would with the illustration of working two jobs. We foolishly think that w can hold on to a little of both masters. We like Jesus so we don’t want to let go of that “job”, but on he other hand, Jesus seems like a tough boss because sometimes he asks us to do really hard things that the world does not ask us to do, so we don’t want to let go of our loyalties to the world either. What if you invited your boss from Walmart and your boss from Nelsons to lunch and said to them “C’mon guys, can’t we work out this our little differences? I like both jobs, so why can’t I work full-time for both of you?” Assuming you didn’t get fired by both of them on the spot, they would say to you—“Choose who you are going to serve. Choose your boss because you can’t have two bosses. This is what John is saying to us—choose your master. Either the Lord is your master or the world is your master—but it is impossible to have two masters. Choose your master.
But loving the world or loving God is more than a simple choice between two masters because the two masters are not equal choices. It’s not a choice like choosing between Walmart and Nelsons. Which one has the best medical insurance? Which job has the best retirement plan? The kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world are not two equal choices. Look at verse sixteen again. 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. The kingdom of God and the kingdom of the world are not two equal choices but are two opposing choices. In every conceivable way, these two kingdoms are in direct opposition to one another. James 4:4 says that friendship with the world is hatred toward God. These are not two equal choices. The kingdom of the world has a master and his name is Satan and this master rules with a hideous fury. The world is the totality of all that is opposed to God. There is Christ and there is ant-Christ. There is God and there is anti-God. Everything in the kingdom of the world wars and fights against everything in the kingdom of God. These two kingdoms are not equal choices—they are sworn enemies.
Aldrich Ames… is considered to be the most dangerous spy in American history. As a CIA agent he was paid 4.6 million dollars for giving top secret information to the Soviet Union. The information Ames provided led to the compromise of at least 100 U.S. intelligence operations and to the execution of at least 10 U.S. sources. He is currently serving a life sentence, and interestingly, he was born in River Falls, Wisconsin. His treasonous acts cause him to be hated even more than our sworn enemies. I can understand why a Muslim terrorist would want to come to our country and try to kill us. He believes we are the enemy and therefore seeks to destroy us. I don’t like his desire to destroy us but at one level I understand it. But a spy like Ames is the ultimate enemy because he betrayed us from the inside out. He pretended to be on our side yet all the while he was working for the enemy. You see, he is not just a turncoat. He didn’t just switch sides but he tried to live in two kingdoms by betraying them both. The Soviet Union paid him large sums of money in exchange for top secret information but he continued to live in this free country and use his ill-gotten wealth to pursue American materialism. Americans hate him now because he is a traitor but the Soviets also hated him because he was living a life of materialism and freedom which was in direct opposition to the communist philosophy. The Soviets tolerated him and gave him money but they hated him.
This is why love for the world is forbidden—because love for the world is treason. When we love the world we are no better than Aldrich Ames. We pretend to follow the kingdom of God but we are more than willing to betray our King Jesus by working for the enemy. And like Ames, we are not turncoats. We don’t actually switch sides and join the enemy. We are far too smart to switch sides and swear allegiance to the enemy. We like God’s kingdom too much and feel it has a lot to offer us. So instead we selfishly pursue what we think is the best of both kingdoms. Ames did not want to live in the Soviet Union. He wanted the freedom and wealth that only America could offer him but only his treacherous acts could provide him with the wealth to live a lavish lifestyle. This is what Christian treason looks like—we feign allegiance to the kingdom of God but we love the treasures and pleasures that the world has to offer. We try to live in both kingdoms but fail to realize that every ounce of love for the world is a high act of treason and betrayal.
Love for the world is treason toward God and if we are honest, every Christian commits these acts of treason and betrayal. When we see this treason we must develop a response to living in enemy territory but we must be careful how we formulate this response because we can fall into other problems. For example, some Christians fall into the error of isolationism. They know that the world is a bad place so they retreat from the world and isolate themselves from all evil influences. If you carry this to the extreme it really will mean the end of strawberry shortcake! During his missionary travels Hudson Taylor, in one village he encountered a Buddhist holy man. The local villagers considered him a holy man because he was living inside a small brick building with no windows and no doors. There was only a small opening in the wall where food could be passed to him. They considered him to be a holy man because he had literally walled himself off from the outside world. They falsely reasoned that if they could keep the evil on the outside of the man, the inside of the man would be pure. It doesn’t work this way, does it? On one hand we are to remove the worldly influences from our life. If I immerse myself in the world I will be tainted by the world. That much is true, but the opposite is not true—an absence of worldly influence will not guarantee personal purity.
This is what Martin Luther attempted when he lived as a cloistered monk. He separated himself from worldly influences but he was still battered by his own sin. So he denied himself food and laid naked on a stone floor to try and kill these sinful desires. But it didn’t work. And if had read the second chapter of Colossians he would have known this. Paul wrote, Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: 21 “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? 22 These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. 23 Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. (Col. 2:20-23) This error of isolationism is a form of legalism. A legalist makes their own list of do’s and don’ts and they try to follow this severe list and they do their best to make sure everyone else is following their list. But it doesn’t work. Many of you have come out of legalistic backgrounds, so let’s look again at verse 23 and see if this doesn’t describe the error of legalism. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. Doesn’t that sound like legalism to you? I love how Paul describes this because not only does he call it false humility and self-imposed worship, but he says it doesn’t even work. You can wall yourself up in a hole and you will still be plagued with your own sinful cravings and self-boasting.
But
partly as a response to legalism, far too many Christians have swung the
pendulum so far to the other side that the wind up in materialism. They realize
that legalism ultimately does not work so why not just jump head first into the
world and go for a swim in the material ocean of the world? This is how you end
up with the example I shared last week from Christianity Today, when the church
joins forces with Hollywood to change the world. This movie opened up on Friday.
Have they succeeded in changing the world yet? Maybe it’s too early. How about
if we let the movie play for afew more weeks to see if they can change the
world? This is materialism and the highest degree of treason. Are these are only
two options—legalism or materialism—self-imposed worship or self-indulgent
living? Whatever you do, don’t make the mistake that there is a happy medium
between these two options. We know that we don’t want to be a legalist and we
don’t want to be a materialist—so we land somewhere in the middle. This is not
an options because the whole thing is an example f materilistic worldview.
Legalism is anti-materialism and the other end is pro-materialism—but it’s all
in the realm of materialism. One one extreme you join the world and on the other
side you retreat from it—but neither option works. We need a different way. We
need a better way.
Let me show you that way by comparing two verses.
1 John 2:15 Do not love the world
John 3:16 For God so loved the world
To the casual observer this may seem like a conctradiction. Is God allowed to do what we are forbidden to do? We know that everything in the kingdom of the world is opposed to everything in the kingdom of God. The world is the sworn enemy of God. The world is ant-God, anti-Christ and is filled with treachery, betrayal and burning hatred of God. We are not to love this world that hates God, yet God does love this world. And when we understand how bad the world really is, we begin to understand John 3:16 in a new way. As one commentator put it, the love of God for the world is not so amazing because the world is so big but becase the world is so bad.[1] Who among us would be willing to serve out the life sentence of Aldrich Ames? Not me! That guy is one bad dude! I have absolutely no desire to serve out his life sentence in prison. But before Christ saved me, I was far worse than Aldrich Ames. I betrayed the Almighty King. I committed high treason. I stabbed the Lord in the back. I crucified him on the cross. It is the cross of Christ that empowers us to obey this command not to love the world. Let me explain three ways that John 3:16 is the answer to 1 John 2:15.
First of all, the cross transforms us from the inside out—something that mere isolation can never do. Running from sin cannot cleanse us from sin—only the cross can do that.
Second, only the cross can empower us to love our enemies. We are not be be friends with the world, but like Jesus, we are to be a friend of sinners. If you isolate yourself from the world you cannot be a friend of sinners and if you immerse yourself in the world you cannot be a friend of God. But the cross shows us how to hate the world that hates God but at the same time love the people in the world for whom Chrst died.
Finally, the magnificance of the cross destroys the allure of the world. As the wonder of the cross becomes more and more amazing, the attraction of the world becomes less and less alluring. As long as the kingdom of the world and the kingdom of God appear as two equal choices, we will always struggle with loving the world. The reason we love the world is not because we love the world so much but because we love the cross so little. We should not ask why the world has such a powerful attraction on us but rather why the cross doesn’t have more attraction than it does? God so loved the world becasue the world was so bad, and this is what makes his love so amazing. Are you bored with the cross? Then it’s no surpirse that you love the world. Is salvation merely something that happened to you a long time ago? Then don’t be surprised when you love the world. When we are drawn to the world we are like moths drawn to a flashlight. We see that little light and it’s all we want. But the love of God demonstrated at the cross is like the light of ten thousand suns. Why would you be drawn to a tiny flashlight when you have infinite light drawing you toward it? The glory of the world will never decrease until the glory of God increases. The fleeting treasures of the world will hold onto you until the matchless treasure of Jesus Christ grabs you by the heart. The world will continue to look good until Jesus Christ looks magnificent. The world appears glorious because God does not. The world is your treasure because Jesus is not. God so loved the world so we don’t have to love it.
Rich Maurer
June 24, 2007