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 enjoy