REJECTING WORLDLINESS
1 JOHN 2:12-17
BIG IDEA: Fellowship with God requires that we reject worldliness.
Walking in the light implies fellowship with God. Fellowship with God requires that we:
1. Renounce Sinfulness (1 John 1:5 – 2:2)
2. Obey God’s Commands (1 John 2:3-11)
3. Reject Worldliness (1 John 2:12-17)
Read 1 John 2:12-17. This passage will help us answer the following questions: What is worldliness? Why should we reject is?
The three groups of persons addressed in this passage are parts of one family or community of believers. These groups stand for different levels of Christian maturity or experience in the community.
“Children, fathers, and young men” indicate qualities appropriate to the three stages of life, which ought to be true of all believers. All Christians should have the innocence of childhood, the strength of youth, and the mature knowledge of age.
WHAT IS WORLDLINESS?
When John used the term “world,” he is not thinking of the material universe, its material contents, and the people in the world. The Word of God did not suggest that Christian should hate the material world or its inhabitants or that he should refrain from contact with them.
We cannot be the salt and light of the world when we isolate ourselves from the earth or the people. We cannot avoid the pleasures and comforts of life in the world because God did not intend life to be miserable but very good.
The term “world” refers to an invisible spiritual system opposed to God and Christ. This spiritual system is Satan’s system for opposing the work of Christ on earth. It is the very opposite of what is godly, holy, and spiritual.
Worldliness is a devotion to this invisible spiritual system under Satan and opposed to loving God and doing the work of Christ.
This spiritual system includes traditions, custom, things, and thoughts that belong to darkness or that sphere of human existence that is alienated from God.
Examples:
1. Materialism – a doctrine that the only or the highest values objectives lie in material well-being and in the furtherance of material progress.
2. Atheism – a disbelief in the existence of deity.
3. Libertinism – a belief of a person who is unrestrained by morality; a free thinker especially in religious matter.
4. Relativism – a view that ethical truths depend on the individuals and groups holding them.
5. Legalism – a strict, literal, or excessive conformity to the law or to a religious or moral code.
6. Licentiousness – a belief marked by disregard for strict rules of correctness or moral restrains.
Worldliness is not just a matter of activity but also an attitude. It is possible for a Christian to stay away from questionable beliefs and activities but still loves the world, and endorses its practices. Worldliness is a matter of the heart.
ILLUSTRATION Worldliness is anything that cools my love for Christ is the world. —John Wesley
Worldliness is a devotion to that causes a Christian to lose his enjoyment of the Father’s love or his desire to do the Father’s will. Personal devotion to God and the doing His will are the two tests of worldliness.
WHY SHOULD WE REJECT WORLDLINESS?
A. We reject worldliness because of our CURRENT STATUS AS FOLLOWERS OF CHRIST. (2.12-14)
1. We have been forgiven. (v. 12)
Worldliness is sin. Sin pollutes our lives and separated us from God. Forgiveness restores our relationship with God. Forgiveness erased, cancelled, covered, and cleansed our sins. Forgiveness released us from the penalty and power of sin.
When we come to know God through repentance and faith in Jesus, God forgave us from all our sins. The day when we surrender our lives to God, He forgave us all our sins.
Colossians 2:13-14. …He forgave us all our sins, 14having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.
The experience of forgiveness is the center of their experience of conversion. We know that God has forgiven us because of the freedom from guilt and burden of sin and replacing it with the joy of being cleansed and purified from sin.
Note that the act of forgiveness is expressed by a perfect tense implying that the blessing of forgiveness that we have received in the past and is still effective up to the present time. And we sustained this status of forgiveness by regularly confessing the sins we commit today.
1 John 1:9 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
When we engage again with “worldliness,” we are exposing ourselves to contamination and influence of sin. Reject worldliness.
2. We have known the Father. (v. 13)
As explained in the previous paragraph, knowing God refers to a spiritual relationship with God. Again, it is in the perfect tense suggesting a past knowledge of God which still remains and grows.
It is an established relationship with God through Jesus which continues to develop in the present. Worldliness may restrain the growth of a Christian. It weakens our spiritual stamina.
Hebrews 12:1. Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
Worldliness is an extra but unnecessary baggage of our spiritual journey. It makes our spiritual journey tedious and exhausting.
Read Hebrews 12:2. 2Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3. We have overcome the evil one. (14)
The victory has already been won, although there is still fighting to be done. John is thinking of the victory over the evil one which takes place at conversion, a victory due to the power of Jesus who conquered Satan by his death and resurrection.
Read Hebrews 2:14-15. 14Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
This verses show that:
Jesus shared our humanity.
By His death he destroyed the devil.
The devil holds the power of death.
Effect of His death: freedom from fear of death.
The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ provided victory over the devil and his terror. Christ sacrificial death provided forgiveness of sin and peace in our hearts and minds.
When we engage in worldliness, we are actually surrendering the victory that Christ achieved. Although he cannot change the fact that he is a defeated enemy of God. We are also giving the devil a new foothold in our lives that may cause misery in our lives.
Ephesians 2:1-10. As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.
4But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast.
10For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Believers have experienced the knowledge of God and of his forgiveness in Christ, and they have been given the spiritual strength to conquer the evil one. But we cannot rest on the past laurels conferred upon us. We must reject worldliness.
ILLUSTRATION One historian says that the average age of the world’s great civilizations is a duration of about two hundred years each. Almost without exception, each civilization passed through the same sequence.
From bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to great courage, from great courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to leisure, from leisure to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence to weakness, from weakness back to bondage.
Makes sense, doesn’t it? Starts and stops at bondage. Why? Because it is rotating on the axis of depravity.—Lloyd Cory, Quotable Quotes
As followers of Christ, we can avoid this cyclical movement of our spiritual life when we value our current status as Christians – we have been forgiven, we have known the Father, and we have overcome the world.
B. We reject worldliness because of the CONCERNS WHEN WE LOVE THE WORLD. (2.15-17)
James 4:4. 4You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
Why is friendship with the world hatred toward God?
1. Worldliness demands its own loyalty. (2.15)
The text says that “if we love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” It is a fact that love for the world and love for the Father are incompatible. They are mutually exclusive. Authentic love for the Father and worldliness cannot coexist in the same person at the same time. Worldliness will take your loyalty and commitment from God to the devil.
Matthew 4:8-10. 8Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9“All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” 10Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”
Worldliness is against godliness. If you are on God’s side, you cannot compromise and hang out with worldliness.
2. Worldliness leads to self-centeredness. (2.16)
Another reason why love for God and for the world is an impossible contradiction is because “everything in the world comes not from the Father.”
What is “everything in the world” of which the author is thinking? He defines it in three phrases: the cravings/desire of the sinful man, the lust/desire of his eyes, and the boasting of what he has and does.
This is the essence of the worldly persons; it is a way of feeling, looking, and expressing oneself. This approach to life is self-centered: the thoughts, decisions, and activities of everyday life are dominated by one’s desire, lust, and boastfulness instead of God’s word and will.
Genesis 3:2-6. 2The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” 4“You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5“For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom; she took some and ate it.
Worldliness is best observes by the way we think, the way we perceived things, and the way we give credit for our success. Worldliness moves us from God-centered living to self-centered living. Our love for God should make us surrender our thoughts, our desires, and our will for His glory. Reject worldliness.
3. Worldliness focuses on the temporary. (2.17)
John reminded his readers that the “world and its desires pass away.” The devil made the people think that they are forever. So do not allow him to deceive us. The pleasures of worldliness are all temporary so be careful not to base your existence on them. Worldliness is not a good foundation for living Godliness is.
When we reach the final chapter of our lives or our history, the only thing that last is a life committed to doing the will of God.
Colossians 3.1-2. Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
Matthew 6:19-21. 19“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
ILLUSTRATION Some folks take up religion as a kind of insurance against hell—and then are not willing to pay the premiums. —Christian Cynosure
We reject worldliness because of our concerns when we love the world:
1. Worldliness demands its own loyalty. (2.15)
2. Worldliness leads to self-centeredness. (2.16)
3. Worldliness focuses on the temporary. (2.17)
Reasons we reject worldliness because:
1. Our Current Status as Followers of Christ.
2. The Concerns when We Love the World.
