Love's Limitations Series

"Atlanta's Race" is the title of Sir E. J. Poynter's most successful paintings. The story

behind the painting is from Ovid's Metamorphoses. Atlanta was the daughter of Schoenus

of Boeotia, and she was famous for her matchless beauty. She was also so swift of foot that

none could outrun her. To everyone who asked for her hand in marriage she gave the same

answer. She would be the prize of him who could vanquish her in the race. Defeat, however,

would carry the penalty of death. Many lost their lives in trying to outrun her. After a lull

there appeared a youth by the name of Hippomenes who challenged Atlanta once more to

race. He knew he could not conquer her by fleetness of foot, so he carried with him three

golden apples, for he had received this advice from Venus:

When first she heads the from the starting place

Cast down the first one for her eyes to see,

And when she turns aside make on apace.

And if again she heads thee in the race

Spare not the other two to cast aside,

If she not long enough behind will bide.

The race began, and he followed these instructions. As Atlanta was about to pass him he

dropped the first apple. She looked down, but ran on. He dropped the second apple and she

seemed to stoop, and when he dropped the third she did stoop to pick it up. It was only a few

seconds lost, but it was enough, for Hippomenes had touched the maple goal, and Atlanta

had at last been defeated. Poynter's painting pictures Atlanta at that decisive moment when

she turned her eyes from the goal and stretched her arm toward the golden temptation

which brought her to defeat.

The painting is an illustration of the danger that faces every believer in the race toward

the goal of Christlikeness. We must be looking always unto Jesus the author and finisher of

our faith, but along side of us runs the world competing for our love, and John says it also

has three golden apples to cast in our path: The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the

pride of life. The world casts these down before us hoping we will take our eyes off Christ

and stoop to gain these earthly prizes and forget the goal.

All of life is a competitive battle between the love of the eternal and the love of the

temporal. One or the other must win, for one excludes the other. You cannot have your

cake and eat it too. Atlanta must either win the race by keeping her eyes on the goal, or she

must sacrifice the race to gain the golden apple. A choice must be made, an John says the

Christian must make this choice as well. He cannot love God and the world, for love must be

limited to one or the other. John knows that Christians will be tempted to stoop and pick up

the golden apples of the world, and that is why he warns them and commands them to love

not the world.

He had just written about love being the very essence of the Christian life, and that to be

without it is to be in darkness. Now, however, he makes it clear that love must have its

limitations, for it cannot be indiscriminate. The object of one's love must be God, and if this

be so there are some things that cannot then be loved, and they are called in one word-world.

Fortunately John goes on to tell us just what he means by the world. He names the three

golden apples of the world's appeal, and he thereby defines the worldliness that we are to

avoid. It is important that we see this clearly lest we misunderstand and pervert the

statement, "Love not the world." Many have done so.

St. Bernard would spend days by the shore of Lake Constance and keep his eyes glued to

his book lest he raised them and see the beauty, and be seduced away from God. John did

not mean the creation when he said we are to not love the world. Jesus loved the world in

that sense, and He said, "Behold the lilies of the field and the birds of the air." The heavens

declare the glory of God and all of nature shows forth His handiwork. The earth is the

Lord's and the fullness thereof. It is not the work of the devil. It is legitimate for us to love

the world in the sense of delighting in God's creation. It can be excessive to the point of

worshipping the creation rather than the Creator, and this of course is folly. But to love and