“A Dangerous Love” Pt 4
(Fatal Attraction)
1 John 2:15-17
The verses of Scripture we have been exploring are no all that complicated.
The message is simple.
Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever. 1 John 2:15-17
John issues this command in conjunction with several other instructions related to the development of a deeper relationship with God. The instruction is to stop loving the world and its stuff complete with four reasons why we should take that command to heart.
The term “world” describes any number of different realities.
The world of Chico, the educational world, the sports world etc.
The American world, European world, or the whole world or even the universe.
It can refer to the combination of environmental issues and functions, systems of government, nationalities, families, ideas, experiences, products, activities, philosophies, laws or people connected in some way. Scripture references three basic worlds.
Material World
Spirit world
World of people
God originally created these three worlds to be completely integratred. Each one intersected the other in some way. Sin dramatically affected these worlds at every level. Our world of matter became subjected the futility of decay and deterioration. The spirit world broke out in civil war between evil angels and elect angels. The world of people also divided between Satan’s followers and God’s followers. Satan designed and directs a world system that intentionally opposes God and His directives. He continually tries to distract or prevent people from pure and simple devotion to Christ. Satan uses anything at his disposal to keep people from making pursuit of God the number one priority in life. He doesn’t care if God gets included somewhere along the line as long as He is not #1.
It is this world that God warns us to stop preferring over His ways and purposes. Stop preferring the devil-directed way of life and the stuff designed to keep us from being fully devoted to God.
1 – Satan’s world is incompatible with God’s nature and desires, so you can’t love it and God at the same time.
You cannot devote yourself to something that directly opposes God and promotes life divorced from God and love God at the same time. You cannot be friends with a world hostile to God and be devoted to God at the same time. Devotion to Satan’s world and its stuff and devotion to God’s world cannot coexist. If love for Satan’s world is “in you”, love for God is not.
We cannot embrace, be entertained by, invest in, spend time with, be connected to, and practice a way of life that vigorously promotes the idea that meaning in life should be pursued apart from God and expect to develop intimacy with God. James called it like he saw it.
You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. James 4:1-4
The first reason to stop loving the world is that if we are, we do not really love God. Devotion to God and the God-hating world cannot exist.
2 – The world and everything in it is not from God but from Satan
Satan designed, directs and energizes a world, environment, culture that encourages pursuit of these desires without limits and most importantly WITHOUT GOD! This passage reveals three base things driving the world that are not from God. Satan uses this world to promote pleasure, possession and personal prominence as the highest pursuit. The driving force in Satan’s world is selfish ambition and bitter jealousy when we don’t get it. John identified the base “things” or issues that drive Satan’s world that are not from God.
God designed us with a capacity and desire for pleasure, possessions, prominence.
These desires find their fulfillment as a result of our devotion and pursuit of Him not as a replacement for our lack of relationship with Him.
Our ultimate pleasure comes in the course of pleasing God rather than self.
Our ultimate enjoyment of the things in this world is to share with others.
Our ultimate prominence comes from serving others rather than being served.
The longings instilled by God and stirred by His spirit are ultimately realized when He becomes our ultimate pursuit and not the desires. Yes we have desires for pleasure, possession and prominence. These desires must remain desires for which we pray rather than goals which we pursue.
We desire pleasure but are not to pursue it.
We desire possessions but are not to pursue them.
We desire prominence and recognition but we are no to pursue it.
The ultimate goal to pursue passionately is knowing God and enjoying Him forever.
Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all the other things will be added.
Only when we get this priority straight will we experience the fulfillment of our God-instilled desires. John identified longings that are not of God or from God but arise out of a residual selfishly bent still lurking in the soul and body that continually run contrary to our new heart longings. Satan capitalized on these fleshly desires by keeping them stirred up. We have the God-given and spirit stirred longings and the Adam-inherited and Satan driven longings in continual conflict. The Spirit wars against the flesh. (See chart)
Desire of the flesh (Desire for Pleasure)
Satan stirs up selfish desires.
Self serving pleasure
Self focused possessions.
Self ambitious prominence
When I pursue pleasure rather than God and His ways and His purpose, I come up empty and my capacity to experience pleasure actually decreases. Satan’s world places a high value on self serving pleasure. He preaches pleasure without self-control or boundaries or limits, or consequences. When pleasure becomes our pursuit rather than God, we ultimately will become obsesses in the pursuit because they can never actually satisfy.
I must continually give time and energy to something that cannot satisfy.
"Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And delight yourself in abundance. Isaiah 55:2
"Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money come, buy and eat.
Come, buy wine and milk Without money and without cost. Isaiah 55:1
"Incline your ear and come to Me. Listen, that you may live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, According to the faithful mercies shown to David. Isaiah 55:3
Seek the LORD while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near. Isaiah 55:6
Satan’s world promotes pleasure derived from food, sex, pleasure stimulating chemicals, physical stimulation, emotional stimulation sensations or all kinds.
He promises pleasure as a futile replacement for the true pleasure that comes through intimate relationship with God.
OR
He offers these pleasures as an anesthetic for the painful emptiness caused by an absence of authentic connection to the only source of life.
Nothing that Satan offers can produce permanent pleasure.
Nothing that Satan offers can prevent piercing pain.
God is not opposed to pleasure – he created the capacity for it. God promised that in His right hand are pleasures and true satisfaction. When I pursue devotion to God first, I discover pleasures beyond my imagination as well as an increase in my capacity to experience pleasure.
Desire of the eyes (Desire for possessions or things or experiences)
Satan’s world promotes possessions as a means to life. John called the desire of the eyes to experience or acquire.
He promises possessions as a futile replacement for the true possessions that come through intimate relationship with God.
OR
He offers possessions as an anesthetic for the painful emptiness caused by an absence of authentic connection to the only source of life.
He preaches possessions without sacrifice or generosity. He promotes idolatrous greed.
God is not opposed to owning things as long as they don’t own us or become a replacement for or diversion from my relationship with God. Jesus talked about the pursuit of things.
Then He said to them, "Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions." Luke 12:15
Life is not found in possessions.
True life is found through solid connection with the source of true life.
Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. 1 Timothy 6:17
When God is NOT in it, the pursuit and acquisition of stuff only intensifies my emptiness and becomes the source of anger and irritation and bitterness. When God IS in it and my priorities are in order, what I do have becomes a tool in the kingdom and I can know contentment with what I have and gratitude when God grants more.
Pride of Life (Desire for prominence)
Satan’s world promotes prominence, power or prestige as a means to life. Everything in the devil’s world system tries to convince people that real satisfaction in life comes from success, power, achievement, self-centered pursuit, adoration, affirmation of others in place of God’s approval and direction.
He promises prominence as a futile replacement for the realization of true worth that come through intimate relationship with God.
OR
He offers prominence as an anesthetic for the painful emptiness caused by an absence of authentic connection to the only source of life.
God is not opposed to prominence and recognition. God creates us in His own image. We are the masterpiece and centerpiece of His creation. He calls us “beloved”, “sons”, “His workmanship (poem)”, “beautiful bride of Christ”, “heirs of kingdom.” When we come to realize our worth through our connection to God, we are not dependent on anything in the world to make us more worthy or subject to anything that can make us less worthy.
Satan stirs the flesh to pursue…
Pleasure without self-control or boundaries
Possessions without sacrifice or contentment
Prominence without service or humility
Jesus said the very pursuit of these things will rule our life. He wants us to pursue Him first and we will experience pleasure, possessions and prominence as He designed us to experience.
3 – The world of Satan and its stuff is temporary
Any fulfillment of these desires apart from intimate connection with God is not only temporary but can never really fulfill our deepest longing. Life pursued without God becomes obsessive because there is no true satisfaction.
4 -- The one following God’s will, discovers lasting life experiences.
In contrast to the one loving the world, the one doing (not just loving) the will of God (thus God Himself) will find a lasting, satisfying experience.
How do we evaluate our love for the world and its stuff?
1. Are my inner longings of God or the flesh?
2. Am I pursing the fulfillment of my longings through my own efforts apart from God?
How is that working for me?
3. Am I dependant on God to fill those longings through my pursuit of Him?
4. Is God IN it or AGIN’ it?
We are not of this world system through Christ’s calling.
Jesus clearly taught that even though believers must live in this world system, we are not of it.
"But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. "I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. John 17:13-14
He didn’t say we shouldn’t be of it. He said we are not of it by nature. Our essential nature is now different. He made us to function differently. We are new creatures whose life is sustained by different things. He created us to breathe different air. The things of God sustain the eternal life we received. Just as the body needs certain things to sustain life, so the spirit requires certain things to sustain the eternal life we were granted at the moment of belief. Our quality of life depends on following the principles of life. Air, diet, exercise etc. The things of this world spawn death. They are poisonous to the quality of our spiritual life.
He snatched us out of this Satan’s world.
"If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. John 15:19
We have escaped the lust driven corruption in the world through Christ’s work in us
For by these(Christ’s glory and excellence) He(God) has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. 2 Peter 1:4
We overcome the world through trust in Christ.
For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? 1 John 5:4-5
We have died to the power of Satan’s world.
Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Galatians 5:24
But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Galatians 6:14
Jesus rendered powerless Him who had the power of death. Heb 214 Satan’s ways spawn death
God’s ways sustain life. We need to realize we cannot draw from both worlds. Sometimes I think that we need a detoxification period. We have become so duped by the enemy’s lies that we have failed to realize how much we expect this world to satisfy us. We consider most anything of this world more satisfying than prayer, study, spiritual pursuits, meditation, spiritual reading, and spiritual disciplines.
What doe we consider more satisfying...?
Reading a good novel vs. Leviticus
Devouring a delectable dessert vs. fasting and prayer
Enjoying a comfortable environment vs. serving in an uncomfortable ministry
Spend time playing vs. time praying
Giving service to others vs. being served
Watching a stimulating movie or TV show vs. spending time with other saints
Working in my yard vs. working in God’s yard
Pursuing pleasure vs. suffering for Christ
Overtime in a ball game vs. overtime in a sermon
A careful look at your CALENDAR and your CHECKBOOK may reveal just how tight the world’s grip on our life. The American brand of Christianity today is weak, diluted, self-centered. It’s all about pursuing personal satisfaction and happiness. We evaluate something on how it pleases me or satisfies my longings. We appear no different than the Laodocian church whose pursuit had become personal satisfaction rather than the Perfect Savior. In their pursuit, they became (by Jesus’ estimation) wretched, poor, blind and naked.
Jesus urged them to find their satisfaction in relationship with Him.
He is the believer’s wealth. (Gold)
He is the believer’s wisdom and insight. (Eye salve)
He is the believer’s covering. (clothes)
Like Demas, whose love for the world caused him to desert Paul and the ministry, our allegiance sometimes shifts from God back to the world. The glitter of Satan’s cheap imitation catches our eye and soon captures our soul.
For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things. Philippians 3:18-19
Scripture records numerous other instructions in relations to the world besides this one.
Don’t be conformed to this world.
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:2
Don’t be friends with this world.
You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. James 4:4
Don’t live by this world’s philosophies
If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, "Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!" (which all refer to things destined to perish with use)—in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence. Colossians 2:20-23
Don’t set your mind on the world or its stuff but Christ.
Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. Colossians 3:1-4
Refuse the world’s desires
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us that having denied ungodliness and worldly desires we should live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. Titus 2:11-14
Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. 1 Peter 2:11
But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts. Romans 13:14
I urge you to take the time to read the passages and evaluate your relationship to the world.
The break can be as painful as breaking any addiction.
We must realize that nothing in this world can do what they promise – long-term.
Future hope for the world of matter and men
We have been this subject for some time. These are truths that need to be revisited again and again because our battle with this world system it continual.
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.
Jesus made restoration of the world of men and matter possible.
He came to reconcile the world of men.
Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5:18-19
He came to save the world of men
" God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. Jo 3:17
We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. 1 John 4:14
He will purify and renew the world of matter.
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. 2 Peter 3:10
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away." Revelation 21:1-4
Just as we long for our complete renewal, the world of matter groans for its renewal.
The earth’s renewal, however, is vitally connected to the complete restoration of believers.
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it. Romans 8:18-25
Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation…You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. 2 Peter 3:11-18
