Fatal Attraction

Fatal Attraction

1 John 2:15-17

Several years ago there was a movie entitled "Fatal Attraction" in which a man finds himself attracted to another woman. He yields to this temptation, no doubt thinking that it will be a brief encounter. Instead, he finds himself trapped in an affair that threatens to destroy his entire life.

Why is it that we are attracted to the very things which can destroy us? Is it because we like to take risks? Is it because we like dangerous excitement? Is it because we’re just plain stupid? Whatever it is, it is true that we are attracted to things that can destroy us. I suppose that we think that the thrill is worth it. How else can you explain bungee jumping otherwise?

Unfortunately, Christians are attracted to the world and worldliness in much the same way. This is why we have this command not to love the world. It is there not to inhibit our adventurous spirit, but to save us from a world of grief.

When I was going up in the 70’s there was a lot of talk in the church world about worldliness. Meaning living, acting, and talking like the world, instead of living, acting, and talking like Christ.. And if you were called worldly that was a very bad thing. This was the tail end of the conservative Christian movement. Where conformity to outward moral norms was expected. The key word is outward. This was the days of preaching on the four H’s. Hair, Hemlines, Hose, and Helivision. I admit there was excesses. It focus primarily on women’s dress. They were to wear dresses or culottes, no jewelry, makeup, and no cutting your hair. Men had to wear long sleve shirts, no shorts, tank tops etc. However, the pendulum has swung to so called internal holiness, that doesn’t affect the external at all. In the name of tolerance, and not judging we have abandoned all standards of holiness. I am using Holiness as the exact opposite of worldliness.

Gallup Poll

Addressing a national seminar of Southern Baptist leaders, George Gallup said, “We find there is very little difference in ethical behavior between churchgoers and those who are not active religiously...The levels of lying, cheating, and stealing are remarkable similar in both groups. Eight out of ten Americans consider themselves Christians, Gallup said, yet only about half of them could identify the person who gave the Sermon on the Mount, and fewer still could recall five of the Ten Commandments. Only two in ten said they would be willing to suffer for their faith.

Erwin Lutzer, Pastor to Pastor, p. 76

Now you can be a Christian and no one could tell unless you told them. We will not be judged by what other Christians thought, what the church taught, or what you thought was right and wrong. We will be judged by God by one thing the Bible. God’s written revelation of what he expects of us. This message came out of my own meditation on 1 John 2:15 and two cross reference scriptures on the topic (James 4:4, Romans 12:2)

I Don’t Love the World (or you don’t love God)

Stop loving this evil world and all that it offers you, for when you love the world, you show that you do not have the love of the Father in you. NLT

Don’t love the world’s ways. Don’t love the world’s goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. The Message

15Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him NIV

One man wrote as a little boy I remember playing hide-and-go-seek one day with my friends. For some unknown reason they stopped playing and did something else while I was still hiding. I was sad enough to weep. Over the years I thought about my emotions on that day. I had almost cried because my friends did not come to find me. You know, life is like a game of hide-and-go-seek between God and us. Only it is God who is weeping, because we have stopped playing the game. God is waiting to be found, but we have gone off in search of the world and are no longer searching for God. That’s criminal: that’s worldliness.

a. What is the world? Not world of People, God so loved the World, Not world of Creation normally,

b. What does it offer? Three categories listed

These are not from God.

c. What is the big deal? ( it show you don’t love God)

d. Why is loving the world foolish? V17 (It is not going to last)

Sometimes we use the terminology, “a worldly Christian.” But that’s really a misnomer when you think about it. Billy Sunday, used to make fun of the term “worldly Christian.” He said, “Why to talk about a worldly Christian makes about as much sense as talking about a heavenly Devil.” When you see a person who claims to know Jesus as their Savior, and yet their lifestyle resembles the world more than it resembles the lifestyle of a believer, then you have a reason to question whether of not that person has really had an experience with the Lord Jesus Christ.