A Study of the Book of 1st John
“Back To the Basics”
Sermon # 5
“Beware of the World”
1 John 2:12-17
John has been talking about how one can know that they are saved. Having established that one is saved John begins to talk about progress in the faith or spiritual maturity. Far too many seem to think in terms of salvation as a goal. But salvation is not a destination it is the beginning of a lifetime journey. In fact the New Testament is full of the idea of progress. In Hebrews 6:1 (NLT) we read, “So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don’t need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds and placing our faith in God.” The Bible very clearly teaches that the goal of Christ’s coming is not merely to bring people to salvation but also to bring them into full maturity.
But sometimes when we compare ourselves with what we read of the spiritual maturity of those who have done get works for God, we feel almost despondent. We feel like the great Christian song writer Amy Carmichael when she wrote, “I feel that I shall never be like that. But (we forget that) they won through step by step by little acts of the will - little denials of self - little inward victories by faithfulness in very little things. They became what they are. No one sees these little hidden steps. They only see the accomplishment…” [Amy Carmichael as quoted by: Tim Hansel, Holy Sweat, (Dallas: Word Books Publisher, 1987) p. 130.]
John now turns his attention from tests to determine whether one is saved to encouragement to continue growing once we are saved. In verse twelve, John says, “I write to you, little children, Because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake. (13) I write to you, fathers, Because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, Because you have overcome the wicked one. I write to you, little children, Because you have known the Father. (14) I have written to you, fathers, Because you have known Him who is from gthe beginning. I have written to you, young men, Because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, And you have over-come the wicked one. (15) Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. (16) For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. (17) And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”
There are three things that John wants to reinforce with his reader, there is some-thing to remember, something to resist and reasons to resist.
First, Remember To Grow (2:12-14)
“I write to you, little children, Because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake. (13) I write to you, fathers, Because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, Because you have overcome the wicked one. I write to you, little children, Because you have known the Father. (14) I have written to you, fathers, Because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, Because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, And you have over-come the wicked one.”
John begins by talking to three different groups of individuals; little children, young men and fathers. The question is; “Are these words directed to three age groups or is John talking about three stages of spiritual growth?” I believe that it is the latter. These categories have nothing to do with age or gender. It is possible for someone to be sixty or even seventy years of age and still be spiritually a child and it is possible for a female to be a “father” in the sense of being spiritually mature.
I believe that the three groups are: Spiritual Infancy – “little children” – (paidia) little child, refers to one who has just been born. It’s great to have spiritual children around, but we don’t want them to remain children. Our goal for children both physically and spiritually is for them to grow up. Here John says that all believers no matter where they are in their journey of spiritual growth have been forgiven of all their sins; Spiritual Adolescence – “young men” – This term is used in a generic sense meaning both young men and young ladies. John is speaking to those whose theology is pretty much in place and who have a mature love for the truth; Spiritual Maturity – “fathers” speaks of a level of maturity at which believers do not merely understand doctrine intellectually but they have come to know (ginosko) it from experience. These are believers who have been through the fire and come out still trusting in God’s goodness and grace.
John wants his readers at whatever stage in the Christian life they are at, to consider what God has done for them.
What John is saying is; To the New believers; remember that your sins are forgiven and you know God. Knowing that God has forgiven all your sins and that he is your heavenly father is foundational to your spiritual life. To the Growing believer; you are learning to live in victory over tempta-tion, continue to take in the word and grow strong. To the Mature believer; you have come to a point in your walk that you realize it is all about simply knowing God.
Wherever you are in your Christian walk
God wants you to be encouraged and continue to grow more. The only way that a believer can progress from spiritual infancy to adolescence to maturity is through the transforming application of the Word of God in their lives.
Remember To Grow and ….
Secondly, Resist The Lure of This World (2:15-16)
With the pervasive influence of modern media bombarding the believer from every side, the tug of the world is greater now than it ever has been. What is under discussion is worldliness. The problem is that worldliness has often defined in an unbiblical way. It may be defined as becoming involved in politics or even sending your children to public school. All sorts of things have been defined as worldliness by Christians at one time or another. The problem is that that many of the definitions have gone too far off course.
•An Exhortation (v. 15a)
John now moves to a word of exhort-ation, it begins with a command, “Do not love the world or the things in the world.” The verb is present tense so it could be translated “Stop loving the world” or “Don’t go on loving the world.” How is it that John tells us that God loves the world (John 3:16) yet here we are challenged not to love the world (kosmos). The answer is found in the fact that the New Testament word “world” has at least three different meanings.
It sometimes means the physical world, the earth (Acts 17:24).
In this sense of the word Christians are to be thankful for the world and take care of it as God’s gift.
It also means the world of humans, mankind.
It is in this sense that we are to under-stand its use in John 3:16 which reads “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” So we are commanded to love people, obviously loving people are not what John is concerned about. When the word is used in this second sense Christians are to love the World and seek to evangelize it, because God loves mankind.
But it can also be used in the sense of world system.
We use the word in that sense when we talk about the world of sports, the world of finance, or the world of politics, etc. It is not that there is a separate world in the physical sense but that it is an organized system, made up of its own activities, purposes and system of values. What John is saying is that the world has its own system of values and we must not be fooled - the world is seriously hostile to the Kingdom of God. When the word “world” is used in this third sense, the Christian is to reject the world and conduct their lives according to a completely different set of values. A Christian is of necessity a member of the human world, and he lives in the physical world but he is to find his values in the spiritual world system. [drawn from Warren Wiersbe. Be Real. (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1984) pp. 66-67]
It is always our tendency to love the world. There are two choices that stand before everyone - even in the church. Either we love the Father or we love the world.
•An Explanation (vv. 15b-16)
There is a three-fold description of what John see as the pressure that this world exerts upon anyone who tries to live for God; the lust of the flesh (physical pressure), the lust of the eyes (mental pressure) and the pride of life (spiritual pressure). Each of these in its own way appeals to the normal appetites and tempts one to satisfy them in forbidden ways.
Lust of the flesh
Paul gives us an idea of what the “flesh” is all about in Galatians 5:19-21 (NLT) “When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, (20) idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, out-bursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, (21) envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.”
This refers to any way in which we take good nature desires to an extreme. John has in mind any desire, sinful or otherwise that draws us away from God or at least makes continuing fellowship with him impossible.
Lust of the eyes – is the greedy craving
that wants whatever it sees. While lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes both deal with desire to have what you do not presently have, the pride of life refers to sinful pride over what you do have.
Pride of life – this is pride in what one
has or does, it is a pride which leads to over-confidence that makes one lose any notion that they are dependent on God.
One example of these senses being a gateway to sin is seen in the life of Eve as recorded in Genesis 3:1-6, “Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”
(2) And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; (3) but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’” (4) Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. (5) For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (6) So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, (Lust of the flesh) that it was pleasant to the eyes, (Lust of the eyes) and a tree desirable to make one wise, (Pride of Life) she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.” In this biblical account we see each of the three different ploys this world exerts upon anyone who tries to live for God. We see, the Lust of the flesh – in that it was good for food and the Lust of the eyes in that it was pleasant to look at and we see the Pride of Life in that it was desired to make one wise.
We see these same three in the tempt-ation of Jesus in the wilderness in Matthew 4:1-11, Satan said, “command that these stones become bread” (4:3) (lust of the flesh), Satan “showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory” (4:8) (lust of the eyes) and Satan offered “all these things I will give you” (4:9) (pride of life).
“Worldliness is the lust of the flesh (a passion for sensual satisfaction), the lust of the eyes (an inordinate desire for the finer things of life), and the pride of life (self-satisfaction in who we are, what we have, and what we have done).
Worldliness, then, is a preoccupation with ease and affluence. It elevates creature comfort to the point of idolatry; large salaries and comfortable life-styles become necessit-ies of life. Worldliness is reading magazines about people who live…(lifestyles of the rich and famous)… and wanting to be like them. But more importantly, worldliness is simply pride and selfishness in disguise. It’s being resentful when someone snubs us or patron-izes us or shows off. It means smarting under every slight, challenging every word spoken against us, cringing when another is preferred before us. Worldliness is harboring grudges, nursing grievance, and wallowing in self-pity. These are the ways in which we are most like the world.” [Dave Roper. The Strength of a Man, quoted by Steve Farrar. Family Survival in the American Jungle, (Multnomah Press, 1991) p. 68]
Resist The Lure of This World and…
Third, Reasons Not To Love The World (2:15b-17)
John now gives two solid reasons that giving in to the allure of this world is not a good idea!
•It Excludes Love Of The Father (vv. 15b-16)
“If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. (16) For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.” Worldliness is a matter of the heart. John points out that love for the world and love of the Father are incompatible. To the extent that a Christian loves the world and the world system, he does not love the Father. Love for the world and the things of this world are love stolen from the Father. In Matthew 6:24 Jesus warns the one cannot have two primary objects of devotion in our lives, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” Jesus did not say, “you should not serve God and Mammon,” but “you cannot serve” serve them both. The question becomes, “Will you live for God or will you live for the world and its fleeting promises?” You can’t take a little of both! It’s either/or not both/and.
There is clearly an unmistakable line of differentiation between the things of God and the things of this world. Even a brief consideration of the cultural agenda of our world shows how aggressively hostile to biblical Christianity it is, just one example is the obvious all out attack on the traditional family by attempting to expand marriage to include a relationship between two men or between two women.
•This World is Temporary. (v.17)
“And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”
This is an exclamation; he is saying the world is right now in the process of passing away. 2 Peter 3:10-11, “… the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. (11) Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness.” This world is on its way out. Based on the certain knowledge that this world will not last, it is the ultimate in foolishness to pin one’s hopes on this world system, however attractive it may seem to be.
When we pin our hopes on what this world has to offer we are in much the same situation as the passengers aboard the Titanic. We are having a great time but this great time may be shorter than we think!
Conclusion
So the question this morning is, “What are you pinning your hopes on? To what purpose are you living your life?” Be sure that you have pinned your hopes on some-thing that will last!
As Christians we have to live “in” the world physically but we are commanded not to be “of” the world spiritually. We are like scuba divers in that we must survive in an alien environment but we can never afford the luxury of being careless. The world gets into the Christian through his heart. So be careful what you give your heart too!
“Beware of the World”
1 John 2:12-17
First, Remember To _______ (2:12-14)
Secondly, Resist The _______ Of This World
(2:15-16)
•An Exhortation (v. 15a) “Stop loving the world”
or “Don’t go on loving the world.” The New Testament word “world” (cosmos) has at least three different meanings.
It sometimes means the physical world, the ________ (Acts 17:24).
In this sense of the word Christians are to be thankful for the world and take care of it as God’s gift.
It also means the world of humans, _______.
In this sense Christians are to love the World and
seek to evangelize it.
It can also be used in the sense of world _______.
•An Example (vv. 15b-16)
Lust of the _______ (Galatians 5:19-21)
Lust of the _____
_____ of Life - pride in what one has or does,
Secondly, _______ Not To Love The World (2:15b-17)
•It ______ Love of the Father. (vv. 15b-16)
To the extent that a Christian loves the world and the world system, he does not love the Father. (Matt 6:24)
•This World is ___________. (v.17) (2 Pet 3:10)
